Learning opportunities at work as predictor for recovery and health

Abstract

One of the principles of good job design is to make jobs that are conducive to personal development and to health. One of the ways in which jobs can facilitate personal development is to provide learning opportunities. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that learning opportunities at work are positively related to health. The jobs of 185 men and women were evaluated and assessed for the learning opportunities provided by these jobs. Health was measured (a) as allostasis, operationalized as the body's ability to recover after load, and (b) as self-reports about mental health and life satisfaction. Objective indicators of allostasis were reduction of nocturnal heart rate and reduction of blood pressure after load. Subjective indicators were the ability to recover and absence of sleep disturbances. Linear and logistic regression analyses showed that learning opportunities were significantly related to a healthy cardiovascular behaviour with a strong reduction of nocturnal heart rate and blood pressure after a working day (allostasis). However, learning opportunities were only related to the objectively measured health variables, but not to self-reported data of health. The study findings suggest that designing jobs which provide learning opportunities is very important for workers' health. Thus job design can improve both personal development and health.

Notes

¹Since body weight (in relation to body size) has a strong effect on cardiovascular parameters (e.g., Kannel, Brand, Skinner, Dawber, & McNamara, 1967; Sowers, 1998), body mass index (bmi) was used as an additional control variable in statistical analyses of cardiovascular variables. Bmi was calculated as: weight/height² (with weight in kilograms; height in metres).