This article discusses the mental health of workers, with an emphasis on work-life balance. Traditional measures for workers’ mental health, especially primary prevention, have focused on work ...environment and individual work styles, and have conducted supervisor training, work environment improvement, and self-care support. However, workers’ mental health is affected not only by the work environment and individual work styles but also by factors outside of work, such as work-life balance and leisure time activities. In 2008, the authors launched the TWIN (Tokyo Work-life Interface) study, a large cohort study of dual-earning couples with preschool children. This study aimed to examine the effects of work-life balance on the health of self and partner in TWIN study Ⅰ, and on the health of self, partner, and children in TWIN study Ⅱ. In addition, in TWIN study Ⅲ, we developed a new support program and conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate its effectiveness.We expect this paper to foster collaboration among psychosomatic medicine, social medicine, and psychology to maintain and improve workers’ physical and mental health.
Abstract: Objectives: On December 1, 2015, the Japanese government launched the Stress Check Program, a new occupational health policy to screen employees for high psychosocial stress in the ...workplace. As only weak evidence exists for the effectiveness of the program, we sought to estimate the risk of stress-associated long-term sickness absence as defined in the program manual. Methods: Participants were 7356 male and 7362 female employees in a financial service company who completed the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ). We followed them for 1 year and used company records to identify employees with sickness absence of 1 month or longer. We defined high-risk employees using the BJSQ and criteria recommended by the program manual. We used the Cox proportional regression model to evaluate the prospective association between stress and long-term sickness absence. Results: During the follow-up period, we identified 34 male and 35 female employees who took long-term sickness absence. After adjustment for age, length of service, job type, position, and post-examination interview, hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident long-term sickness absence in high-stress employees were 6.59 (3.04-14.25) for men and 2.77 (1.32-5.83) for women. The corresponding population attributable risks for high stress were 23.8% (10.3-42.6) for men and 21.0% (4.6-42.1) for women. Conclusions: During the 1-year follow-up, employees identified as high stress (as defined by the Stress Check Program manual) had significantly elevated risks for long-term sickness absence.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Background:
Work engagement (WE) is defined as a positive, fulfilling, and work-related state of mind. Enhancing WE leads to positive outcomes in both individuals and organizations. Although cultural ...factors may influence the antecedents and outcomes of WE, no reviews summarized these factors among nurses, mainly in Asia. This review aimed to identify the antecedents and outcomes of WE among nurses in Japan. This may offer novel insights into the influencing factors on WE.
Methods:
A literature search was conducted using six data sources: PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycINFO, Business Source Premier, Ichushi-Web, and CiNii. A total of 38 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies that included registered nurses and/or midwives at hospitals or facilities were included in this review. The antecedents and outcomes were classified into four themes based on the job demands–resources model (JD-R model).
Findings:
Many variables in three components of the JD-R model (i.e., job resources, personal resources, and favorable outcomes) exhibited positive relationships with WE as theorized. Many other variables in job demands demonstrated negative relationships with WE as hypothesized. Many factors that were identified in this review were consistent with the JD-R model. The model in turn was found to be applicable among nurses. The antecedents and outcomes in this review were similar to those in previous studies in Western countries, while this review also revealed teamwork nursing as a possible antecedent of WE, which has not previously been reported.
Conclusion/Application to Practice:
Improving job resources (e.g., teamwork nursing) and personal resources may effectively enhance WE among Japanese nurses.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose
This study investigated the distinctiveness of two types of heavy work investment (i.e., workaholism and work engagement) by examining their 2-year longitudinal relationships with employee ...well-being and job performance. Based on a previous cross-sectional study by Shimazu and Schaufeli (Ind Health 47:495–502,
2009
) and a shorter term longitudinal study by Shimazu et al. (Ind Health 50:316–21,
2012
; measurement interval = 7 months), we predicted that workaholism predicts long-term future unwell-being (i.e., high ill-health and low life satisfaction) and poor job performance, whereas work engagement predicts future well-being (i.e., low ill-health and high life satisfaction) and superior job performance.
Method
A two-wave survey was conducted among employees from one Japanese company, and valid data from 1,196 employees was analyzed using structural equation modeling. T1–T2 changes in ill-health, life satisfaction, and job performance were measured as residual scores, which were included in the structural equation model.
Results
Workaholism and work engagement were weakly and positively related to each other. In addition, and as expected, workaholism was related to an increase in ill-health and to a decrease in life satisfaction. In contrast, and also as expected, work engagement was related to increases in both life satisfaction and job performance and to a decrease in ill-health.
Conclusion
Although workaholism and work engagement are weakly positively related, they constitute two different concepts. More specifically, workaholism has negative consequences across an extended period of 2 years, whereas work engagement has positive consequences in terms of well-being and performance. Hence, workaholism should be prevented and work engagement should be stimulated.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FSPLJ, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, VSZLJ, ZAGLJ
Most studies report a positive relationship of work engagement with health and job performance, but, occasionally, a "dark side of engagement" has also been uncovered. The current study examined two ...hypotheses: whether work engagement has (1) a U-shaped curvilinear relation with psychological distress and (2) an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relation with job performance (i.e., in-role performance and creative behavior). A two-wave longitudinal Internet survey with a time lag of seven months was conducted among 1,967 Japanese employees. To test our hypotheses, we used a two-wave panel design and examined the lagged and concurrent relations between work engagement and both outcomes. The results confirmed that work engagement had a curvilinear relation with psychological distress concurrently; a favorable effect was found initially, but this disappeared at intermediate levels of work engagement, and, at higher levels, an adverse effect became prominent. In addition, work engagement had a curvilinear relation with in-role performance both concurrently and longitudinally; the higher the levels of work engagement, the stronger the favorable effects on in-role performance. However, contrary to our expectations, work engagement had a linear relation with psychological distress longitudinally and with creative behavior both concurrently and longitudinally. Hence, our results suggest that work engagement plays a different role in health enhancement compared to performance enhancement. Leveling-off and adverse effects of high work engagement were observed for psychological distress in the short and not in a long run. In contrast, no leveling-off effect of high work engagement was observed for job performance. Thus, except for the short-term effect on psychological distress, no dark side of work engagement was observed for psychological distress and job performance.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study reports a randomized controlled trial of the effect of a job crafting intervention program on work performance and job crafting (as secondary outcomes) among Japanese employees.
...Participants who satisfied the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 138) or a control group (n = 143). Outcomes were measured at baseline and at 3-month and 6-month follow-up in both groups.
For the whole sample, the job crafting intervention program showed a nonsignificant effect on work performance and job crafting. However, the program showed a significant effect on these outcomes among younger participants (under 36years old).
The job crafting intervention program may not be sufficiently effective to improve work performance and job crafting for the whole sample of participants. However, it may be efficacious for younger workers.
Objectives: Although well-being at work is important for occupational health, multi-dimensional workplace well-being measures do not exist for Japanese workers. The purpose of this study was to ...investigate the validity of the Japanese version of the Workplace PERMA-Profiler. Methods: Japanese workers completed online surveys at baseline (N = 310) and 1 month later (N = 100). The Workplace PERMA-Profiler was translated according to international guidelines. Job and life satisfaction, work engagement, psychological distress, work-related psychosocial factors, and work performance were measured as comparisons for convergent validity. Cronbach's alphas, Intra-class Correlation Coefficients (ICCs), and measurement errors were calculated for the reliability, and the validity of the measure was tested by correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analysis. Results: A total of 310 (baseline) and 86 (follow-up) workers responded and were included in the analyses. Cronbach's alphas and ICCs of the Japanese Workplace PERMA-Profiler ranged from 0.75 to 0.96. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 5-factor model demonstrated a marginally acceptable fit (χ2 (80) = 351.30, CFI = 0.892, TLI = 0.858, RMSEA = 0.105, SRMR = 0.051). Overall well-being and the five PERMA domains had moderate-to-strong correlations with job satisfaction, psychological distress (inversely), and work-related factors. Conclusions: The Japanese version of the Workplace PERMA-Profiler demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. This measure could be useful to assess well-being at work, promote well-being research among Japanese workers, and address the problem of definition for well-being in further studies.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the empirical distinctiveness of workaholism and work engagement by examining their relationships with well-being in a sample of 776 Japanese employees. ...We expected that workaholism is associated with unwell-being (i.e., high psychological distress and physical complaints, low job and family satisfaction, and low job performance), whereas work engagement is associated with well-being. Well-validated questionnaires were used to measure workaholism (DUWAS), work engagement (UWES), and well-being (BJSQ, HPQ). Structural Equation Modeling showed that, as expected, workaholism was positively associated with ill-health (i.e., psychological distress and physical complaints) and negatively associated with life satisfaction (i.e., job and family satisfaction) and job performance. In contrast, work engagement was negatively associated with ill-health and positively associated with life satisfaction and job performance. These findings suggest that workaholism and work engagement are two different kinds of concepts, which are negatively and positively related to various indicators of well-being, respectively.
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