A Case Study in Reducing Work Pressure

In this abstract the concept of work pressure is used to indicate a situation where employees are confronted with high demands and low control. The concept is used within Karasek’s DC-S framework. Work pressure is an important problem in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Current research indicates that work pressure has been increasing in the Netherlands for years and that of all the countries in Europe, the Netherlands is most affected in this respect. In 1997, as many as 43% of Dutch employees indicated that they regularly, or usually, had to work at a high pace. A third of the employees who have been diagnosed ‘disabled for work’, and receive social security benefits, suffer from mental health problems such as burnout. Health care has been found to be one of the branches with the highest work pressure and high burnout scores. Effective measures against work pressure are therefore desperately needed to prevent large-scale staff losses (and the resulting strain on the system). Research literature on the effectiveness of measures against work pressure and/or stress at work is scarce. This may not be surprising since it is a very complex matter indicates that research based on randomized clinical trials is practically impossible in the dynamic environment of organizations, which seriously limits the possibility of establishing cause and effect relations in this field. Recently evaluated 11 case studies in stress prevention and improving productivity in as many European countries. They have not been able to identify (the most) effective measures to prevent stress, but they have found criteria for the process that will help companies to prevent stress at work.