Kick-off Meeting of the Advisory Group for the OECD Guidelines for Measuring the Quality of Working Environment, OECD HQ, Paris, 8-9 December 2015

1. From Demand/Control Model
to
Associationalist D/C Model:
Psychosocial Work Organization
Measuring (JCQ2)
Robert Karasek
Professor Emeritus, U Mass Lowell, US & Copenhagen U, DK
OECD, Paris
Adv. Group: Measuring the Quality of the
Working Environment
December 8, 2015

2. Psychological Demands
Low
Low High
High
Lo Strain
Passive Hi Strain
Hypo. #2
Active
Learning
Hypo. #1
Illness
Risk
Demand/Control Model
STRESS-
DISEQUILIBRIUM
THEORY
Active
“Conducive
Economy”

3. UTOPIA?! –or– “URGENT” PROTOCOLS
Major GLOBAL Dilemmas – Unresolved
A. Current Economic Paradigm at crossroads
1.COP21-Paris: World MUST cap energy use
12-2015
2. NYT OpEd: No Western world w/o Growth
1-12-2015
B. Two Large Dilemmas – unresolved
1. OECD: Healthcare costs unsustainable EU..
24/9/2015
2. OECD: Vast need for youth jobs-globally
24/9/2015 (NOTE: “Smart Jobs..)

4. Conducive Production
Theory

5. What does TZATZIKI have to do with INNOVATIVE WORK
ORGANIZATION ?
How to Demonstrate Advantages of
Good Work Organization?
Join an Interactive Training Event
...Effectiveness... ...Creativity.... ...Satisfaction...

6. Tzatziki Video

7. Active Work:
Productivity & Innovation (...also)
 Green Team: Active Job
– (25 plates (ISO 14000) + 5 "specials” -works of art)
..and “our global economy's "ideal production model:"
 Orange Team: High Strain Job
– (about 15 plates of "poor quality junk", few and
amateuristic "special"plates)
 Blue Team: Passive Job
– (typically: about 4-6 plates: irregular);
 Pink Team: Low Strain Job
– (typically: about 4-6 plates: irregular).

8. The books that define the current Political
Economy: Locke 1690 and Smith 1776

11. Conducive Communication

13. A Conference:
“From the Demand/Control Model to
A Feasible Economy
of Innovative & Healthy Work”
at University of Bordeaux,
April 28-29, 2016

14. Four Expert Subgroup Discussion Areas
,...Then: Stakeholders:
1. Overview: Day 1: Experts (n=25-40)
 Group 1: “Youth, Work and Smart Employment
Dynamics”
 Group 2: “Aging Workforce, Work Stress Social
Costs, and Healthy Work Re-design”
 Group 3: A Micro-focus: Managing Companies in
an Economy of Innovation and Health
 Group 4: A Macro-focus: Political Economy of
Innovation and Health, New Institutions, and
Value Transitions
2. Overview Day: 2: Stakeholders (n=200)

15. CO-EXISTENCE?
..For Conducive
Production

16. Step 1: Bridging the Conducive Economy and the Commodity Economy
CURRENT VIEW: Market Economy (ONLY)
@ R. Karasek - 1982
Commodity Value
Economy
Production
Consumption
Commodity
Economy
Commodity
Production
Goods/Service
s
Labor
Consumption
Wage
Revenue
Consum. Purchases

17. Step 4: Bridging the Conducive Economy and the Commodity Economy
CONFLICTING POLICIES!! : Conducive Econ./ Commodity Econ.
@ R. Karasek - 1982
Conducive
Production
Commodity
Value Economy
Production
Consumption
Commodity
Economy
Commodit
y
Production
Goods/Servic
es
Labo
r
Consumptio
n
Wage
Revenue
Consum.
Purchases
Conducive
Value Economy
Stimulation, Social
Integration
Innovations,
Education
Capital
Subsidy
Basic
Necessities
Psychosocial
Wellbeing,
Social Trust,
Social
Integration
Consumptio
n Conducive
ProductionCapabilities,
Motivation
Active
Work
Policies
High
Strain
Work
Policies

18. Job Content
Questionnaire (JCQ) 2:
Measurement

19. Needed evolution of the JCQ 1.0:
 Effects of job task become smaller and effects of organization
and global market become larger
 Labor market change and job Insecurity
 Service jobs, information jobs
 Dynamic changes in production structures and organization
Birth of JCQ 2.0:
- A 7-year INT’L PROCESS
- Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ)
for Job Stress Hazard Assessment
JCQ 1.0
- 1,200 studies
- 70+ countries

20. JCQ 1.0 Core
1. Decision Latitude
2. Psych. Demands
3. Social Support
(4. Job Insecurity)
(5. Physical demands)
JCQ 2.0 Adds:
(6. Emot. & Harass. Demands)

21. JCQ 2: Stage 2 JCQ 2: Stage 3
9 years: JCQ 2.0 PROCESS
JCQ 2.0
‘04 Design
Rationale
JCQ 2.0
Future
Int’l Use
JCQ 2.0
Expert Evaluation
JCQ 2.0
International
Pilot Studies
JCQ 2.0 - Joint
Publishable Papers
JCQ 1.0
Evaluation/
Critique
2002
JCQ
Workshop
Dusseldrf.
2003
JCQ
Workshop
Toronto
2005
JCQ 2.0
Workshop
LosAngel.
2008
JCQ 2.0
Workshop
Quebec
2012
JCQ 2.0
Workshop
Berlin
2010
JCQ 2.0
Workshop
Amsterdm.
2005
JCQ
Workshop
Amsterdm.
2000
JCQ Sci.
ICBM
Brisbane
2013
JCQ 2 Fnl
Workshop
Japan/LA.
Germany - 2011
Urban region, n=3,500
Korea - 2005
urban, n=8,500
S.Austral2009/10
nation. n=3,500/3,200
China - 2006
urban, n=2,400

22. JCQ 1.0 Core and JCQ 2.0 Extensions
JCQ 1.0 - Job Level
JCQ 2.0 Final - Job, Org & Macro Level
w/ Development
JCQ 2.0 Pilot - Job & Org Level

23. Extending D/C Model for Three-level
Modeling:
FIGURE 1: The Full D/C Model - Extended (including Envir/Person effects)
JOB STRAIN / ACTIVE - PLUS Organization Level - PLUS Labor Market Level
ACTIVE
HEALTH
RISK
ACTIVE
BEHAVIOR
STRAIN
(+)
(+)
(-)
(+)
Job DEMANDS
Job Phys
Demands
Job Soc Supp’t
Job CONTROL
STRESSORS
MODERATORS
Job
Insecurity
Demands;
Work/Fam
Organiz.
Level
Control
Control
in Labor
Market
Organiz.
Level
Demands
Labor
Market &
External
Level
Organiz.
Level
--∑T **--∑T *
Demographics
*Strain inhibits
Learning - & -
*Leaning
inhibits Strain
Personality

24. A-D/C: Assoc.
Demand/Control/Support
Model
 “In the context of a complex
organization, we will attempt to
utilize Demand and Control
concepts to describe how to
maintain Platforms of Stability –
first to maintain health (anti-
stress/disease), and secondly to
support “growing” of these
platforms.”

25. Extended Model: System, Environment & Controller
Adapting the Standard “Open-Systems” Model
1: Standard S/E Model Neg-Entropy Flows (Low Level)
The Platform of Stability’s Creation & Use of Hi-level Order Capacity
requires new Neg-Entropy Flows: Flow 3 & Flow 4
2: Extended Model Theory with Controller & Hi-Level Flows
Environment
System
Flow 2
Flow
1
Flow 3
Controller
Flow 4
Environment
System Flow 2
Flow 1
BUT: "A Central Controller” is needed for Stress & Organization Theory:
R. Karasek, 10-
2015
The
Needed
Step

26. JCQ 2.0 Decision Latitude….
 AN ADDITIONAL CONCEPT (from SDT):
”the job" - a long -term platform for life and
family development. Addresses the
“EQUILIBRIUM OF FLOWS” from 2nd-Law
and reflects workers maintenance of an
easy equilibrium.
 THIS BROADER FORM OF "CONTROL" IS:
“the freedom to act using your repertoire of
skills, within the social structures where
you have made your social investments, and
where your get your major life-sustaining
rewards”

27. JCQ 2.0 Demands….
 “Demands are the requirements for activity,
anchored in the need to gain input resources
from the external environment (or social
structure),
 ....which allow the individual to apply his/her own
unique input-to-output transformations to those
inputs,
 ....performed in such a manner to insures
feedback from the environment, and insures
further cycles of resource input from the
environment.”

28. JCQ 2.0 Social Stability/Support
 Platforms of Stability are based on the result of
maintaining the above-noted “Equilibrium of
Flows.” Platforms of Stability can refer to
organizational contexts that provide a stable
basis of action for working persons (or to
organizational sub-systems interactions would
also be covered).
 “In the context of a complex organization/ism,
we will attempt to use Demand and Control
concepts to describe how to maintain Platforms
of Stability – first to maintain health (anti-
stress/disease), and secondly to support
“growing” of these platforms.”

29. Task Level Scales
1. Skill Discretion
2. Conducive Development
3. Decision Authority
4. Quantitative Psychological Demands
5. Emotional Demands
6. Physical Demands
7. Supervisor Support
8. Coworker Support
9. Collective Control
10. Negative Social Support

30. Organizational Level Scales
1. Conducive Communication
2. Organizational Decision Latitude
3. Procedural Justice
4. Organizational Fairness
5. Psychosocial Safety Climate
6. [Organizational Stasis]
7. Organizational Restructuring
8. Organizational Chaos

31. External-to-Work Level Scales
1. Job Security Personal
2. Job Security Career
3. Job Security Social Relat. Demands
4. Macro External-to-Work Demands
5. Macro External-to-Work Control
6. Work/Family Balance

32. Overview of Results of all
4 countries

33. Direct Effects of Work Organization Complexity from the
Global Economy on Organizational De-Regulation
-AND: Transition from A-D/C Model to Classic D/C Model
Challenge
Response
Controller
System
Environment
Too Many EXTERNAL Ordering Demands
vs.
Too little INTERNAL Ordering Capacity
= NEW OVERLOADS
Endless
Restructuring
Of Work
Low Control,
w/ Hi-Demands
= Classic D/C
“Job Strain”
Global
Competetiveness...
R. Karasek, 10-