The impact of technology characteristics and job control on worker mental health

✍ Scribed by Sean Mullarkey; Paul R. Jackson; Toby D. Wall; John R. Wilson; Susan M. Grey-Taylor

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 366 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3796
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199709)18:5<471::aid-job810>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Recent research suggests that the occurrence of operational problems in advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) places stressful demands on operators. Applying Karasek's demand±control model, we predict that two properties of operational problems, namely technological uncertainty and abstractness, interact with timing and method control to predict operator strain. The results failed to con®rm ordinal eects for timing or method control, but showed a dis-ordinal (crossover) interaction for timing control. While these ®ndings provide little support for the demand±control model, they suggest that two new processes, namely traction±distraction' and passivity±challenge', are critical to understanding the nature of the relationship between operational problems and operator strain in AMT systems. We describe these processes and examine the implications for future research.