Work Conditions, Depressive Disorder and Work Performance among Engineers of Electronics Industry
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chen, Sung-Wei
Abstract
[Introduction] Under global competition, certain work conditions are undergoing intensive changes as organizations search for increasing effectiveness and flexibility. This presents a new psychosocial environment with benefits of opportunity against risks of mental health. The electronics industry in Taiwan has established a prominent position of contracture manufacturing in the global division-of-labor chains. In electronics industry, market control is based on the ability of key firms (e.g. Intel or Microsoft) to define new products by breakthrough technologies, while manufacturing is no longer core competency. The manufacturing organizations have to compete globally as efficiently as possible and adopt strategies to motivate employees to increase working hours or demands, probably resulting in stressful work conditions. On the other hands, the development of electronics industry is based on excellent human capital, which can be accumulated by education, experience and health. The health of electronic engineers should be viewed as valuable capital. Despite the economic success, an increasing number of studies have indicated that employees'' physical and mental health were of concern in Taiwanese electronics industry, with inadequate resources and safety regulations by the government and organizations. The contexts of electronics industry may generate extraordinarily stressful conditions which would impair psychological health and even cause depressive disorders in employees. However, the organizational facilities of occupational mental health (e.g. employee assistance programs or counseling) have been developed for only three years with limited services. There has been Western literature regarding impact of work conditions on depressive disorders, by mechanisms of Demand-Control-Support (DCS) and Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) models. Furthermore, the literature also documents those with depressive disorders have more unemployment, absence and decrements in work performance, compared to non-depressed. To date, there have been few studies targeted at this population of electronic engineers in Taiwan. The objectives of this study are: (1) to confirm if depressive disorders may impair work performance in engineers of electronics industry; (2) to identify the psychosocial work conditions as risk factors of depressive disorders among engineers; (3) to understand the frequency of help-seeking behaviors in workplace and whether current facilities of organizations could prevent depressive disorders.Methods] The case-control study was conducted among 615 engineers of electronics industry, 205 cases with depressive disorders from psychiatric outpatient and 410 controls who visited health surveys in the same general hospital near Hsinchu Science Park. The cases were defined by the score of 17 or more on the Beck Depression Inventory, as well as diagnosis (major depressive disorder or dysthymic disorder) by the psychiatrist. The self-administered questionnaires included demography, work conditions (DCS/ ERI/ working time/ shift work/ work stressful events), health behaviors (alcohol/ smoking/ exercise/ perceived health), life events, social support (family/ friends), and work performance (absence/ work role limitation/ social functioning).Results] The sample recruited in this study has 120 females (19.5%) and 495 males (80.5%) with a mean age of 31.5 years (SD= 5.6). Odds ratios (OR) estimated by logistic regression were used to indicate strength of association. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that risk factors for depressive disorders included: high demand (OR=1.17, p= 0.000), low work social support (OR= 0.91, p= 0.003) and high effort-reward imbalance (OR= 1.58, p= 0.039). In addition, depressive disorders are proved to impair work performance in absence (β= 0.19, p= 0.001), work role limitation (β= 0.11, p= 0.013) and social functioning (β= 0.10, p= 0.023) by three multiple linear regression analyses. The results were described as follows: (1) High psychological demand and low work social support are risk factors for depressive disorders. (2) Effort-reward imbalance is a risk factor for depressive disorders. (3) Help seeking in workplace have no moderating effects on relationships between work conditions and depressive disorders. It is not confirmed that current facilities of organizations can prevent depressive disorders. (4) Depressive disorders may impair work performance in engineers of electronics industry. Discussion] The study demonstrated the work conditions as risk factors for depressive disorders which may impair work performance in engineers of electronics industry, causing potential socio-economic loss. Therefore, we suggest that the government and organizations should emphasize workplace preventive strategies for depressive disorders. In contrast to weakened power of government by globalization, organizations themselves should actively protect employees’ health as human capital, not merely exploitable resource, in order to prevent negative impacts of depression on workplace. Finally, we would propose practical workplace preventive strategies for depressive disorders in the frameworks of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, based on empirical studies in epidemiology, occupational medicine and human resource management.
Subjects
electronics industry
depressive disorders
job strain
effort-reward imbalance
work performance
SDGs
Type
thesis
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