Promoting blue-collar employees' work ability: A qualitative study on occupational health practitioners' perspective on feasible interventions.

BACKGROUND

Work in the industrial sector underlies deep structural changes triggered by demographic and societal transformations. These developments require tailored measures for maintaining employees' work ability by reacting to new demands and overcoming barriers in organizational implementation. Previous research lacks in considering practitioners' perspective in terms of tailoring effective interventions to the workplace conditions of blue-collar employees.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to enrich the understanding of work ability by using the job-demands-resources (JDR)-theory and the work ability house concept as basis and considering aspects of organizational measures' feasibility.

METHODS

Data results from observations of the collaboration between occupational health professionals and supervisors on the shop-floor and n = 18 semi-structured interviews with different occupational health stakeholders. A participatory and qualitative approach characterizes this study.

RESULTS

The study participants report on how increasing organizational demands of efficiency and uncertainty affect workability promotion of blue-collar employees. Furthermore, the findings imply aspects regarding feasible interventions. For designing effective interventions, specifically psychosocial aspects such as work intensification, job uncertainty, work-life-conflicts, and inter-personal trust need to be addressed. Measures need to be aligned better to the industrial setting with specific focus on decision-makers' interests and intra-organizational collaboration.

CONCLUSION

Further research should investigate interrelationships between relevant psycho-social job demands and resources. Moreover, additional aspects, which are related to measures implementation in the organizational sphere, need to be identified. Practical implications connect organizational sciences with the workability theory and the job-demands-resources (JDR)-theory by focusing more on psychological work design and intra-organizational collaboration.