Marit Christensen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Marit Christensen
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sep 30, 2023
Frontiers Media SA eBooks, 2020
Springer eBooks, 2017
In order for employees to feel good, have good health and be productive, a constructive psychosoc... more In order for employees to feel good, have good health and be productive, a constructive psychosocial working environment is important. (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014; Christensen, 2008; Christensen, Aronsson, Clausen, Hakanen, & Vivoll Straume, 2012). Good leadership, a well-designed job, and working conditions that promotes work engagement and good performance, is important in achieving this. Organizations usually initiate top-down governed interventions to increase motivation, to decrease sickness absenteeism, and to increase performance. However, they do not always get the expected results (Aust, Rugulies, Finken, & Jensen, 2010). Many organizations also find that the bottom-up-processes of engagement and performance, driven by the employees themselves, combined with equivalent processes driven by the management, to be more useful. One kind of bottom-up processes is job crafting, where the employees themselves form the job in such a way that it is perceived as more engaging. Leadership can stimulate job crafting by promoting the right work conditions for their employees. Job crafting can be understood as a type of proactive behavior where the employees themselves takes the initiative to change the level of demands and resources to make their job more meaningful, engaging, and satisfying. In this chapter, we will first explain what work engagement is, as well as the theoretical background. Second, we will examine the concept of job crafting. Finally, we will give some tips on how one can work with job crafting in practice.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jan 12, 2023
Frontiers in Psychology
IntroductionIn response to the requirement of keeping social distance during the COVID-19 outbrea... more IntroductionIn response to the requirement of keeping social distance during the COVID-19 outbreak a lot of employees needed to change from a regular office to a home-office at short notice. The aim of the present study is to explore these employees' experiences and evaluate changes in their work situation during the pandemic.MethodA mixed-method design was used with panel data collected twice in an insurance company in Norway. The first dataset was collected in December 2020 (Time 1; N = 558), with a follow up in March 2021 (Time 2; N = 601).ResultsOur study indicated that employees' main reasons for working from home were to keep social distance, avoid contagion and protect their loved ones. Flexibility, timesaving and more time with family and friends were also motivators. Most employees reported that they had the necessary technical equipment to work from home and wanted more opportunity to use their home office in the future. General Linear Models (GLM) indicated that w...
European Journal of Public Health, 2015
The Positive Side of Occupational Health Psychology, 2017
The individual is the primary constituent of and the driving force behind an organization. Sickne... more The individual is the primary constituent of and the driving force behind an organization. Sickness, health-related issues, presenteeism, and sickness absenteeism could become a threat for the organization in terms of increased costs and production loss (Boles, Pelletier, & Lynch, 2004; Burton et al., 2005). On this basis, occupational health has focused on the negative aspects of working life (Christensen et al., 2012; Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004). Over time, this negative focus has been more important than the focus on health promotion and the positive factors in the working life. This is not necessarily always appropriate since workers who do well both mentally and physically also appear to be more healthy and productive (Fisher, 2003). Based on this, we will take a closer look at which factors are preventive and which are promotional for the workers experience of the psychosocial working environment, as well as at the connection between positive factors in the working life and productivity.
Advances in Psychology, Mental Health, and Behavioral Studies
Interventions addressing healthcare workers' mental health should build upon an exhaustive un... more Interventions addressing healthcare workers' mental health should build upon an exhaustive understanding of the major causes of both work-related stress conditions (i.e., job demands) and positive mental health (i.e., job resources) in the workplace at all the levels they might unfold, namely the individual, the group, the leader, and the organization. The chapter draws upon a multilevel workplace mental health needs assessment exercise performed within three different departments of a large healthcare institution and involving both managers and employees. It aims to illustrate the job demands and resources at multiple levels in the targeted organization, differentiate among healthcare workers' mental models of their working conditions, and discuss the research and practical implications of such findings. Also, it offers practical recommendations on how to effectively conduct such activities by, on the one hand, considering both healthcare workers' mental health risk and...
Challenges, 2022
The purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-19-related job demands and resources have been ... more The purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-19-related job demands and resources have been associated with employee well-being in Nordic countries across specific occupational groups. The study investigated four occupational groups: (1) professional, scientific, and technical occupations in Norway (n = 301); (2) teachers in Finland (n = 315); (3) health and social service occupations in Norway (n = 267); and (4) geriatric nurses in Finland (n = 105). Hypotheses were tested using two-step hierarchical regression analysis. Work–home imbalance in Groups 1, 2, and 3, workload increase in Groups 1 and 3, and fear of infection in Groups 2 and 3 were positively related with exhaustion. A positive attitude towards digital solutions was positively related to work engagement in Groups 2 and 3. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between COVID-19-related organizational support and work engagement in Groups 2, 3, and 4, and a negative relationship with exhaustion in...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were suddenly required to work more f... more After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were suddenly required to work more from home. Previous literature on working from home may not be applicable to this mandatory and overall change. In this study, we drew on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model to explore the relationships between job demands (workload and work–home conflict) as well as resources (support from leaders, coworkers, and the family) and wellbeing (burnout and work engagement) in employees who still went to the workplace (no-change group) and employees who transitioned into working from home (change group) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed with multivariate structural equation modeling. The results indicate that work–home conflict was detrimental for employee wellbeing in both groups. Interestingly, the workload seems to contribute to work engagement for employees who worked from home. Regarding the resources, the three different sources of social support, leaders, coworkers, an...
Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2022
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2015
Aims: The aim of the present paper is to present and validate a Knowledge-Intensive Work Environm... more Aims: The aim of the present paper is to present and validate a Knowledge-Intensive Work Environment Survey Target (KIWEST), a questionnaire developed for assessing the psychosocial factors among people in knowledge-intensive work environments. Methods : The construct validity and reliability of the measurement model where tested on a representative sample of 3066 academic and administrative staff working at one of the largest universities in Norway. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis provided initial support for the convergent validity and internal consistency of the 30 construct KIWEST measurement model. However, discriminant validity tests indicated that some of the constructs might overlap to some degree. Conclusion: Overall, the KIWEST measure showed promising psychometric properties as a psychosocial work environment measure.
Objectives: Present project is a development of a health promoting work environment investigation... more Objectives: Present project is a development of a health promoting work environment investigation and direct implementation of the research findings. More health promoting indicators to reveal what are the resources and positive factors in the environment are included than in previous investigations. The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate how a focus on both positive and negative occupational factors will provide new opportunities in providing occupational health, and be useful to health promotion practice in workplaces. Methods: To pilot studies were carried through. The main data collection was carried through by the use of the specially developed questionnaire KIWEST which comprised a number of well validated and standardized scales and indexes from previous research. Results from the survey will be a tool in the workplaces. All employees will be invited to discuss and reflect upon the results from the survey. Results: Overall results from the survey show that the majorit...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jan 12, 2023
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-whs-10.1177_21650799211038499 for "We All Held Our Own"... more Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-whs-10.1177_21650799211038499 for "We All Held Our Own": Job Demands and Resources at Individual, Leader, Group, and Organizational Levels During COVID-19 Outbreak in Health Care. A Multi-Source Qualitative Study by Davide Giusino, Marco De Angelis, Greta Mazzetti, Marit Christensen, Siw Tone Innstrand, Ilaria Rita Faiulo and Rita Chiesa in Workplace Health & Safety
Studies in Higher Education, 2018
This paper analyzes the impact of job resources on academic productivity measured by publication ... more This paper analyzes the impact of job resources on academic productivity measured by publication and credit points in 53 departments in one large Norwegian university. The theoretical framework is the so-called conservation of resources theory. The resources data came from the socalled ARK Intervention Program. The results showed that engagement and administrative and technical support for research and teaching stimulated research publications but had adverse effects on credit points from teaching, thus also contributing to the research-teaching nexus debate. To avoid adverse trade-offs between research and teaching, and to gain further positive effects on research productivity, targeted means and reward structures seem important.
There is a consensus in most organizations that in order to develop a healthy and productive work... more There is a consensus in most organizations that in order to develop a healthy and productive work environment, you have to arrange for a good job design that promotes engagement and positive health and have a competent, good leader. This creates a good basis for a sound and sustainable environment. But a good working environment is not something you get, but something you actively take part in creating through your own efforts and in relation to your managers and colleagues. The collective effort from both the organization and the coworkers is essential for a healthy and productive organization. The coworkers’ individual role in organizational development is often somewhat overlooked; however, in this chapter, we argue that coworkers individually play an active and important part in creating a sustainable work place.
The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 2019
The aim of the paper is to discuss the role of the line manager in implementing to plan, implemen... more The aim of the paper is to discuss the role of the line manager in implementing to plan, implement and evaluate successful organizational interventions using our experiences from the ARK-program. Earlier literature has shown that line managers have a major influence on an intervention’s outcomes (Nielsen, 2017; Saksvik, Nytrø, Dahl-Jørgensen, & Mikkelsen, 2002), however, there is a lack of knowledge about the managements’ role throughout the entire intervention process and how line managers are influenced by the context at different levels. We therefore discuss the line managers’ role within the five phase cycle of an organizational intervention, including preparation, screening, action planning, implementation and evaluation. We also introduce a more in-depth understanding of the context by using of the IGLO-model (Individual, Group, Leadership and Organizational level). Based on our knowledge and experience from the ARK-program we make some recommendations for (a) what the line ma...
In understanding and explaining what the phenomenon of occupational health revolves around, we ha... more In understanding and explaining what the phenomenon of occupational health revolves around, we have to take a closer look at the concept of health, as well as asking the question: what is health? Answering this question is almost impossible because health is a highly complicated, complex, and context-dependent concept. Most of us agree that this concept is much more than simply the absence of illness, yet health is also dependent on culture and experience since health is something that changes throughout the entire life course. If it is so difficult to define health, then we could be asking what is the point of writing this chapter? The aim is to help the readers to be attentive to the complexity of the concept of health so that it can be used to reflect on various issues in terms of the challenges facing occupational health.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sep 30, 2023
Frontiers Media SA eBooks, 2020
Springer eBooks, 2017
In order for employees to feel good, have good health and be productive, a constructive psychosoc... more In order for employees to feel good, have good health and be productive, a constructive psychosocial working environment is important. (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014; Christensen, 2008; Christensen, Aronsson, Clausen, Hakanen, & Vivoll Straume, 2012). Good leadership, a well-designed job, and working conditions that promotes work engagement and good performance, is important in achieving this. Organizations usually initiate top-down governed interventions to increase motivation, to decrease sickness absenteeism, and to increase performance. However, they do not always get the expected results (Aust, Rugulies, Finken, & Jensen, 2010). Many organizations also find that the bottom-up-processes of engagement and performance, driven by the employees themselves, combined with equivalent processes driven by the management, to be more useful. One kind of bottom-up processes is job crafting, where the employees themselves form the job in such a way that it is perceived as more engaging. Leadership can stimulate job crafting by promoting the right work conditions for their employees. Job crafting can be understood as a type of proactive behavior where the employees themselves takes the initiative to change the level of demands and resources to make their job more meaningful, engaging, and satisfying. In this chapter, we will first explain what work engagement is, as well as the theoretical background. Second, we will examine the concept of job crafting. Finally, we will give some tips on how one can work with job crafting in practice.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jan 12, 2023
Frontiers in Psychology
IntroductionIn response to the requirement of keeping social distance during the COVID-19 outbrea... more IntroductionIn response to the requirement of keeping social distance during the COVID-19 outbreak a lot of employees needed to change from a regular office to a home-office at short notice. The aim of the present study is to explore these employees' experiences and evaluate changes in their work situation during the pandemic.MethodA mixed-method design was used with panel data collected twice in an insurance company in Norway. The first dataset was collected in December 2020 (Time 1; N = 558), with a follow up in March 2021 (Time 2; N = 601).ResultsOur study indicated that employees' main reasons for working from home were to keep social distance, avoid contagion and protect their loved ones. Flexibility, timesaving and more time with family and friends were also motivators. Most employees reported that they had the necessary technical equipment to work from home and wanted more opportunity to use their home office in the future. General Linear Models (GLM) indicated that w...
European Journal of Public Health, 2015
The Positive Side of Occupational Health Psychology, 2017
The individual is the primary constituent of and the driving force behind an organization. Sickne... more The individual is the primary constituent of and the driving force behind an organization. Sickness, health-related issues, presenteeism, and sickness absenteeism could become a threat for the organization in terms of increased costs and production loss (Boles, Pelletier, & Lynch, 2004; Burton et al., 2005). On this basis, occupational health has focused on the negative aspects of working life (Christensen et al., 2012; Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004). Over time, this negative focus has been more important than the focus on health promotion and the positive factors in the working life. This is not necessarily always appropriate since workers who do well both mentally and physically also appear to be more healthy and productive (Fisher, 2003). Based on this, we will take a closer look at which factors are preventive and which are promotional for the workers experience of the psychosocial working environment, as well as at the connection between positive factors in the working life and productivity.
Advances in Psychology, Mental Health, and Behavioral Studies
Interventions addressing healthcare workers' mental health should build upon an exhaustive un... more Interventions addressing healthcare workers' mental health should build upon an exhaustive understanding of the major causes of both work-related stress conditions (i.e., job demands) and positive mental health (i.e., job resources) in the workplace at all the levels they might unfold, namely the individual, the group, the leader, and the organization. The chapter draws upon a multilevel workplace mental health needs assessment exercise performed within three different departments of a large healthcare institution and involving both managers and employees. It aims to illustrate the job demands and resources at multiple levels in the targeted organization, differentiate among healthcare workers' mental models of their working conditions, and discuss the research and practical implications of such findings. Also, it offers practical recommendations on how to effectively conduct such activities by, on the one hand, considering both healthcare workers' mental health risk and...
Challenges, 2022
The purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-19-related job demands and resources have been ... more The purpose of this study is to examine how COVID-19-related job demands and resources have been associated with employee well-being in Nordic countries across specific occupational groups. The study investigated four occupational groups: (1) professional, scientific, and technical occupations in Norway (n = 301); (2) teachers in Finland (n = 315); (3) health and social service occupations in Norway (n = 267); and (4) geriatric nurses in Finland (n = 105). Hypotheses were tested using two-step hierarchical regression analysis. Work–home imbalance in Groups 1, 2, and 3, workload increase in Groups 1 and 3, and fear of infection in Groups 2 and 3 were positively related with exhaustion. A positive attitude towards digital solutions was positively related to work engagement in Groups 2 and 3. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between COVID-19-related organizational support and work engagement in Groups 2, 3, and 4, and a negative relationship with exhaustion in...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were suddenly required to work more f... more After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were suddenly required to work more from home. Previous literature on working from home may not be applicable to this mandatory and overall change. In this study, we drew on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model to explore the relationships between job demands (workload and work–home conflict) as well as resources (support from leaders, coworkers, and the family) and wellbeing (burnout and work engagement) in employees who still went to the workplace (no-change group) and employees who transitioned into working from home (change group) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed with multivariate structural equation modeling. The results indicate that work–home conflict was detrimental for employee wellbeing in both groups. Interestingly, the workload seems to contribute to work engagement for employees who worked from home. Regarding the resources, the three different sources of social support, leaders, coworkers, an...
Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2022
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2015
Aims: The aim of the present paper is to present and validate a Knowledge-Intensive Work Environm... more Aims: The aim of the present paper is to present and validate a Knowledge-Intensive Work Environment Survey Target (KIWEST), a questionnaire developed for assessing the psychosocial factors among people in knowledge-intensive work environments. Methods : The construct validity and reliability of the measurement model where tested on a representative sample of 3066 academic and administrative staff working at one of the largest universities in Norway. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis provided initial support for the convergent validity and internal consistency of the 30 construct KIWEST measurement model. However, discriminant validity tests indicated that some of the constructs might overlap to some degree. Conclusion: Overall, the KIWEST measure showed promising psychometric properties as a psychosocial work environment measure.
Objectives: Present project is a development of a health promoting work environment investigation... more Objectives: Present project is a development of a health promoting work environment investigation and direct implementation of the research findings. More health promoting indicators to reveal what are the resources and positive factors in the environment are included than in previous investigations. The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate how a focus on both positive and negative occupational factors will provide new opportunities in providing occupational health, and be useful to health promotion practice in workplaces. Methods: To pilot studies were carried through. The main data collection was carried through by the use of the specially developed questionnaire KIWEST which comprised a number of well validated and standardized scales and indexes from previous research. Results from the survey will be a tool in the workplaces. All employees will be invited to discuss and reflect upon the results from the survey. Results: Overall results from the survey show that the majorit...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jan 12, 2023
Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-whs-10.1177_21650799211038499 for "We All Held Our Own"... more Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-whs-10.1177_21650799211038499 for "We All Held Our Own": Job Demands and Resources at Individual, Leader, Group, and Organizational Levels During COVID-19 Outbreak in Health Care. A Multi-Source Qualitative Study by Davide Giusino, Marco De Angelis, Greta Mazzetti, Marit Christensen, Siw Tone Innstrand, Ilaria Rita Faiulo and Rita Chiesa in Workplace Health & Safety
Studies in Higher Education, 2018
This paper analyzes the impact of job resources on academic productivity measured by publication ... more This paper analyzes the impact of job resources on academic productivity measured by publication and credit points in 53 departments in one large Norwegian university. The theoretical framework is the so-called conservation of resources theory. The resources data came from the socalled ARK Intervention Program. The results showed that engagement and administrative and technical support for research and teaching stimulated research publications but had adverse effects on credit points from teaching, thus also contributing to the research-teaching nexus debate. To avoid adverse trade-offs between research and teaching, and to gain further positive effects on research productivity, targeted means and reward structures seem important.
There is a consensus in most organizations that in order to develop a healthy and productive work... more There is a consensus in most organizations that in order to develop a healthy and productive work environment, you have to arrange for a good job design that promotes engagement and positive health and have a competent, good leader. This creates a good basis for a sound and sustainable environment. But a good working environment is not something you get, but something you actively take part in creating through your own efforts and in relation to your managers and colleagues. The collective effort from both the organization and the coworkers is essential for a healthy and productive organization. The coworkers’ individual role in organizational development is often somewhat overlooked; however, in this chapter, we argue that coworkers individually play an active and important part in creating a sustainable work place.
The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 2019
The aim of the paper is to discuss the role of the line manager in implementing to plan, implemen... more The aim of the paper is to discuss the role of the line manager in implementing to plan, implement and evaluate successful organizational interventions using our experiences from the ARK-program. Earlier literature has shown that line managers have a major influence on an intervention’s outcomes (Nielsen, 2017; Saksvik, Nytrø, Dahl-Jørgensen, & Mikkelsen, 2002), however, there is a lack of knowledge about the managements’ role throughout the entire intervention process and how line managers are influenced by the context at different levels. We therefore discuss the line managers’ role within the five phase cycle of an organizational intervention, including preparation, screening, action planning, implementation and evaluation. We also introduce a more in-depth understanding of the context by using of the IGLO-model (Individual, Group, Leadership and Organizational level). Based on our knowledge and experience from the ARK-program we make some recommendations for (a) what the line ma...
In understanding and explaining what the phenomenon of occupational health revolves around, we ha... more In understanding and explaining what the phenomenon of occupational health revolves around, we have to take a closer look at the concept of health, as well as asking the question: what is health? Answering this question is almost impossible because health is a highly complicated, complex, and context-dependent concept. Most of us agree that this concept is much more than simply the absence of illness, yet health is also dependent on culture and experience since health is something that changes throughout the entire life course. If it is so difficult to define health, then we could be asking what is the point of writing this chapter? The aim is to help the readers to be attentive to the complexity of the concept of health so that it can be used to reflect on various issues in terms of the challenges facing occupational health.