Work content

Abstract: Managers’ psychosocial working conditions are important for managerial sustainability in the public sector. The job demands-resources (JD-R) model is a widely applied and well-recognized framework for measuring psychosocial working conditions. However, there is still a need for methodological contributions including more objective as well as qualitative ways to assess these conditions. In this study, job demands and job resources as well as the balance between them was qualitatively and externally assessed for first-line human service managers using a work content analysis method. Conditions and actions were focused upon with an external perspective. Special attention was paid to concrete examples and consequences of work characteristics with predefined criteria and cut-off points to guide the assessments. The results reveal an imbalance for human service managers between high levels of job demands and the lack of job resources available to meet these demands. Work overload, conflicting and unclear goals and tasks, emotional demands, restricted control, and lack of supervisory and organizational support generally characterized the managerial assignment. The analysis provided concrete explanations of the current work strain in this group of employees, thereby giving both short-term and long-term possibilities for improvement of managerial work and sustainability.

Abstract: Background: Work-related psychosocial stress can cause mental and physical illnesses resulting in high costs for the individual, the economy and society. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ the majority of the world's workforce and often have fewer financial and human resources compared to larger businesses. The aim of this review is to summarize current knowledge on work-related stress in SMEs according to well-established guidelines categorizing psychosocial factors at work. Methods: A systematic database search was carried out in PubMed, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX and Business Source Premiere from March to June 2019, updated in January 2020. Data of included studies were analyzed and mapped into five themes: "work content and task", "organization of work", "social relations", "working environment" and "new forms of work". Results: After full-text screening, 45 out of 116 studies were included for data extraction. Studies were very heterogeneous and of varying quality, mostly applying a cross-sectional study design. Psychosocial factors in SMEs have been researched with a focus on the work patterns "work organization" and "work content and task". Conclusions: This review underlines the need for more and better quality research of psychosocial factors in SMEs, particularly in relation to ongoing and new challenges in the workplace, including stressors related to the process of digitalization or the development of safe working conditions during the emerge of new infectious diseases.

Abstract: The aim of this article 1 is to analyze work content and its components in translation agencies. In the conceptual part of the article, we refer to concepts taken from the sociology of work and translation studies. In the analytical part, we use data produced by Stelmach in her study carried out in a small translation agency in Poland using the technique of self-observation (Stelmach 2000). The aim of Stelmach’s study was to record and analyze all the activities that form part of the production process of a translation service. Because the observation was continual in time, it provided a complete list of all the activities carried out by the permanent staff occupying two internal jobs. Stelmach’s approach was quantitative and not focused on specifi c, translation-related work organization. In this article, we reinterpret these activities as the content of the work in translation-related internal positions, and compare it with Gouadec’s model of translation service provision process (Gouadec 2002, 2005a, 2005b, 2007). The data analyzed show the importance of outsourcing in the everyday activity of translation agencies and (partly as a consequence of this outsourcing) the magnitude and importance of the management activities carried out by the staff.