Contribution of work ability and core self-evaluations to worker health

Coomer, Karen; Houdmont, Jonathan

Abstract

Background
Work ability (WA) concerns the capacity to manage job demands in relation to physical and psychological resources. Core self-evaluations (CSE) refer to a composite personality construct comprising self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy and emotional stability traits. Studies have shown the independent contribution of WA and CSE to work outcomes, yet none has explored their additive contribution, when applied together, to identify workers at risk of impaired health and performance-related outcomes.

Aims
The aim was to explore the contribution of WA and CSE to explaining variance in psychological distress and work engagement in a sample of UK manufacturing sector workers.

Method
A self-report questionnaire containing validated measures of WA, CSE, psychological distress and work engagement was administered to employees in four UK manufacturing organizations. Bivariate correlations were calculated to identify patterns of relationships between the variables and hierarchical linear regression analyses performed to examine the incremental contribution of WA and CSE to the target variables.

Results
Analyses were conducted on data contributed by 311 workers (21% response rate). WA accounted for around one-quarter of the variance in psychological distress and around one-fifth of the variance in work engagement. The addition of CSE explained a further 10% (psychological distress) and 7% (work engagement) of the variance.

Conclusions
These exploratory findings suggest that WA and CSE might be useful in the identification of workers at risk of poor psychological well-being and work effectiveness in UK manufacturing. Longitudinal sector-representative studies are required to establish the constructs’ predictive power.

Citation

Coomer, K., & Houdmont, J. (2019). Contribution of work ability and core self-evaluations to worker health. Occupational Medicine, 69(5), 366-371. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz081

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 9, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 18, 2020
• Journal: Occupational Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0962-7480
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-8405
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 69
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 366-371
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz081
• Keywords: Work ability; core self-evaluations; psychological distress; work engagement; manufacturing
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2043095
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/occmed/advance-article/doi/10.1093/occmed/kqz081/5519535
• Additional Information: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Occupational Medicine following peer review. The version of record K Coomer, J Houdmont, Contribution of work ability and core self-evaluations to worker health, Occupational Medicine, kqz081, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz081 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqz081