https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9907-5034
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Abstract
Work intensification is a psychosocial risk that has been increasing in recent decades and may have been accentuated after the COVID-19 pandemic. Its effects on health are negative, but they can be moderated by contextual and personal factors. The aim of this study was twofold: to analyze the effect of work intensification on workers’ stress, anxiety, and depression and to explore the role of workplace curiosity in these relationships. The study design was cross-sectional, and a total of 766 Spanish workers (58.9% female) with different occupations completed the survey. The results showed that work intensification was associated with the symptomatology of stress, anxiety, and depression, with a medium effect size. Women workers showed higher work intensification, but its association with mental health was equally strong for both genders. Workers with higher levels of the workplace curiosity dimension “stress tolerance” showed less impaired mental health in the presence of work intensification. However, workers with higher levels of the workplace curiosity dimension “deprivation sensitivity” showed more symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression when faced with high work intensification. The results were discussed in terms of their contributions to the field of study of work intensification, the future research they could inspire, and the prevention and intervention measures they could motivate.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank all professionals for participating in this study.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [Blanco-Donoso, L.M.], upon reasonable request.
Notes
1 The results obtained were similar when none of the control variables were included in the regression analysis.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Luis Manuel Blanco-Donoso
Luis Manuel Blanco Donoso PhD. in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. His lines of research revolves around the study of mental health and psychological well-being at work, occupational psychosocial risks, and the processes of personality, coping and emotional regulation of workers. He is Lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology of the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he teaches Personality Psychology and Occupational Health Psychology. Currently, he is also Associate Editor of the International Journal of Stress Management.
Sabina Hodzic
Sabina Hodzic PhD. in Psychology at the University of Valencia, Spain. Her thesis was titled “Enhancing emotional competences in the context of unemployment. A longitudinal analysis of the effects on well-being and employability”. She has researched the role of emotional competencies in the professional development of young people. Currently, she is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Graz. She examines the impact of workplace flexibility on employee well-being, motivation and learning.
Eva Garrosa
Eva Garrosa Ph.D in Psychology (Autonomous University of Madrid-UAM, Spain). Associate Professor in the Department of Biological and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, UAM. Her teaching focuses on Personality Psychology, Occupational Health and Gender. She is a professor of the Master’s Degree in General Health Psychology, the Master’s Degree in Gender Studies and the Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management, all of them at the UAM. She coordinates the official research group of the UAM, Personality, Stress and Health. A large part of her research focuses on the personality and the resources involved that promote well-being and reduce discomfort. She has researched the protective role of these variables in different psychosocial risks, trying to understand the mechanisms that promote healthy organizations. At an international level, she has collaborated with different universities: Karl-Franzens-Universitaet Graz (Austria), Fudan University, Shanghai (China), New York University (USA), Auckland University (New Zealand) and Universidade de Brasília (Brazil). She has published more than 150 scientific papers.
Isabel Carmona-Cobo
Isabel Carmona-Cobo PhD. in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Jaén, within the Area of Social Psychology. Her research interests focus on: (a) psychosocial processes of stress and occupational health, and (b) gender and work. She has done research stays at Universität Mannheim, New York University, Universidade de Brasília and Universidade de São Paulo.
Bettina Kubicek
Prof. Dr. Bettina Kubicek is Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Graz. After her studies in psychology and sociology at the University of Vienna and the Free University of Berlin, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna from 2011 until 2016. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Madison-Wisconsin and a visiting professor at the University of Maribor. From 2016 to 2018 she worked as a professor of organizational development at the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. In her research, Prof. Dr. Bettina Kubicek deals with the intensification and flexibility of work. Specifically, she examines the impact of work intensification and workplace flexibility on employee well-being, motivation and learning as well as the role of personal and organizational resources in dealing with these demands. She is currently leading research projects on cognitive demands of flexible work, work-home boundary management, and trust in human-robot interactions. Moreover, she currently sets up an interaction lab for studying human-robot collaborations.