We are organizing a JCQ
2.O International Workshop
September 4 and 5th at 3rd ICOH
MEASURING COMPLEX SOCIAL JOB DEMANDS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
SERVICE/INFORMATION SOCIETY
Workshop Discussion Contributions Accepted
At the 3rd ICOH 2008 in Quebec, we can look forward to the results of the
multiple Chinese-site JCQ 2.0 Proto-pilot #2 and comparisons with Korean Pilot
#1 results in a scientific symposium, a new JCQ 2 theory base from a revised
Demand/Control model.
And: we are organizing a JCQ 2.O International Workshop, September 4 and 5th:
Measuring multi-level complex social job demands in the global economy and
service/information society.
We have discussed JCQ 2.0 Macro-Decision Latitude areas (with macro-support and
job insecurity), developed new scales in this area, and now report the results
in the Chinese Pilot a study. However, for Demand scales we have held less
comprehensive discussions (although a new emotional demand scale is part of the
Chinese pilot).
Thus, a JCQ International Workshop discussion on Job Demands is the last
remaining intellectual step before a final version of JCQ 2.0. With a
final JCQ 2.0 comes the possibility of 35 countries using a completely
consistent and theoretically updated job stress questionnaire, formatted for
easy international comparisons. Thus, this is a critical next step we
must really take. Pilot testing new Demands question, a final board review of
all Pilot results, and a concluding JCQ 2.0 International Workshop, all
sometime next year, would then conclude the international discussion process
begun in 2002.
The enclosed Discussion Set-Up memo outlines some of the basis for this
discussion, and attempts to make the best argument that a new discussion really
is needed here. The memo is a bit provocative: claiming that our
previous approaches here are NOT sufficient to capture the complex work demand
requirements of the global economy and service/information societies.
You will all be able to see that this discussion opens "new
territory" and thus it remains an open question whether we will succeed in
develop JCQ-like questions for this challenge. But it is a necessary step.
Please read the "Discussion Set-Up Memo" and see if you are
"provoked" to attend. We hope so. The outcome for this short JCQ
workshop should, hopefully, be a new set of recommendations in the job demands
areas.
The spread and extension of a global economy with few protective social
structures increases coping challenges for many workers all over the globe. The
extension of social services in the developed economies, and the
"information society" provide complex new social job demands. A
variety of theoretical expansions and understandings of complex social behavior
also imply the need for a new look at demands scales, as do statistical, and
comparative analysis of demand scale properties. New conceptions of work
demands, as structured by the revised, "Associationist"
Demand/Control model (Stress-Disequilibrium-based: "Low Social
Control...," paper attached) can - potentially - theoretically accommodate
such new dynamic changes, and multiple levels of stressors and control.
However, how these conceptions would be translated into practical assessment
tools requires a broad new discussion.
Please review the enclosed attachments for more information on the JCQ
International Workshop. We hope to see you there!
RSVP: If you plan to attend the workshop, please send notification to Sandra
Gibson below before August 18th, since Workshop attendance is usually limited.
If you would like further information please contact:
Sandra Gibson
JCQ Center
Phone: 978-934-3348
Email: jcqcenter@uml.edu
Workshop Contributions
Because this topic covers new materials, we are accepting contributions from
researchers and doctoral students to assist in providing Background materials
for the discussion. This would consist of a 5 to 10 minute presentation
covering the following topics:
a) Provide a case study from your own actual work
environment research experience, which illuminates the real work settings which
contribute to "complex, multilevel demand work demands" - in our new
economic situations. This could also be provided in a written format, no
longer than two or three paragraphs, for use in the Workshop discussions.
b) Provide a brief scholarly review of the main
points from a research field related to complex social work demands,
interpreted in a manner which emphasizes their relevance for the multi-level
work demands topic. The fields that could be relevant, but which are not
normally mastered by JCQ researchers, could include, for example, additional
review of materials relating to complex animal social behavior (a la the
enclosed New York Times article), or areas of current psychological interest
which imply complex social demands such as "emotional
intelligence." In all cases this review would be used to build a
background of relevant, short inputs for our discussion focused on complex
social work demands.
c) Provide empirical findings from new studies or
pilot studies to show new scale structures and risk/disease associations in
this area.
If you are interested in making a contribution please contact:
Bong Kyoo Choi
JCQ Center
E-mail: bongkyoo@hotmail.com
Proposed Agenda
JCQ International Workshop
September 4, 2008 ~4:30 to 6:00 pm
A. Initial background presentations (a lot for this short time period):
a) Workshop Challenge: Complex social job demands
in the global economy and service/information society.
b) Short summary: the state of our Korean/Chinese
pilot information in other scale areas.
c) Some statistical findings relating to the
current 5-item demand scale, and the new scale supplements in pilot studies,
d) Some orientation talks on theoretical
background literature suitable to frame our thoughts in the "complex
social demands" directions.
September 5th: 8:30 to 12:30 pm
B. Main Discussion: Complex, Multi-level Social
Job Demands - Breakout Groups. We organize groups with the following
related sub-goals, bridging our current research themes with these new social
challenges and potentially broader theoretical constructions. These answers the
Workshop's main question: what is it we should try to measure in these new
demand areas? We set up goals for a set of four working sub-groups (an
alternative list may be developed). For example:
a) Multiple-level "quantitative
demands" (a la Marx's labor intensification) - related to new global
economic production structures or service/economy information structures.
b) Multi-level demands of emotional labor, social
support, hostility - related to new global economic production structures or
service/economy information structures.
c) Multi-level demands of human relations personal
politics - related to new global economic production structures or
service/economy information structures.
d) Multi-level demands of job insecurity, boundarylessness, and unpredictability - related to new
global economic production structures or service/economy information
structures.
- Coffee Break: 10:15 - 10:45 -
C. Main Discussion: Complex, Multi-level Social
Job Demands: The Best Approach - Plenary. This plenary
discussion to developing an integrated idea from these four group contributions.
What shall we try to measure?
D. Working Lunch: (12:30 to 1:00 pm): Practical
Steps toward the Final JCQ 2.0
a) Assignment of Working Group to develop new
demand questions for a JCQ 2.0 Proto-Pilot #3.
b) What site will volunteer for Pilot #3?
E. Post-Lunch (1:15 to 2:45 pm): Conclusion
of Macro Decision Latitude Pilot Studies. Discussion of Macro Decision Latitude
and Social Support Findings from Pilot # 1 and #2 in Korea and China
a) 1:15 to 1:45 Extended presentations of
findings from Korea and Chinese Proto-Pilots #1 and #2
b) 1:45 to 2:45 General Discussion: Toward
the final JCQ 2.0 Macro-Decision Latitude and Macro-Social Support / Job
Security scales
F. Workshop Concludes 2:45 pm
Discussion Set-Up Memo: Rationale for a New Approach to Job Demands
Workshop Goal: Measuring complex, multi-level social job demands in the
global economy and service/information society
The existing
JCQ 1.x Psychological Demand scales may not optimally measure complex social
demands in the global economy, nor demands of the service/information society.
So how then shall we improve the JCQ demands scales theoretically and
methodologically to address these challenges, as we move to complete the JCQ
2.0?
Finding this answer is the goal of the Workshop.
I. The traditional work demand models vs. the "New Work" JCQ 1.x
Psychological Demand Scale questions such as "work hard, work fast, not
enough time" are traditional quantitative demand measures - assessing the
amount of arousal or engagement per unit of time - they are a type of
"labor intensification" measure. However, consider, for example, the
new types of demands in this "New Work" situation in the current
global economy. The issue is not really task-related intensification:
You're "always ready" to find a new job if "something big"
in is your economic picture changes - and this can happen with every price
change, new product introduction, new trading rule, every expansion of market,
each regulatory change etc., etc. Your job's requirement is to
"continually improve:" there is never a real limit for a fair day's
work. You never have a guarantee of a sphere of time for relaxation nor a guarantee of time for family (with family problems
becoming a new source of stress).
This new situation certainly implies a very different "work demand
model" than that applying to agrarian peasants - with its physical demands
and insecurity relating to natural forces - relevant for the last many thousand of years of human social history. It is also
very different than the last two hundred years of industrialization - and its
labor demands - and Marx's "brute intensification" model applied to
this economy. Indeed both Marx and the 19th century capitalist economists
argued that all work is reduced to unskilled repetitive operations and that
workers were always on the edge of physical subsistence; pushed to the maximum.
Thus the only issue of concern was the quantity of such homogenous human
activity (and it was to be the maximum physiologically sustainable).
In these historically important models, there was no meaningful differentiation
in labor quality (quality is "zero"), or of skills level, or
certainly of any social relational complexity burden on the worker.
Indeed, of course, these models are still very much relevant in the
contemporary world in many less developed countries - and in fact the agrarian
labor model would have fit the vast majority of the world's population barely
more a century ago. Both describe demands in economic structures
that offered major steps in human progress away from the uncertainties of the
"statue of nature" in past times. But these forms of understanding
seem no longer to be enough. Our new situation throws us back again to
the state of nature, but in a very different way (albeit with an over-abundance
of calories guaranteed in the diet).
Think about this aspect of the state of nature: every day the wolf must look
for its breakfast - perhaps catching a rabbit or a squirrel. There is no
breakfast for the sleepy wolf that lays back and says: "Well, I think I'll
just take my usual stroll around the tree and see of something comes my
way." The need is for constant vigilance and skills constantly
reading for the maximum, supremely coordinated effort - to sustain the nutrient
"flows" the wolf must have to survive (this is also true for the
rabbit and the squirrel). However, - in nature - natural rhythms limit these
vigilant conditions to specific times of the day, or certain seasons of the
year. Our global economy seems have no such nature-based limitations.
II. Even our so-called New Demand Scale concepts are probably insufficient -
including those included the current JCQ 2.0 Proto- Pilots - and do not pick up
these important new demands. For example:
1. Extensification: Tage
Kristensen and colleagues have claimed that
intensification of labor must be supplemented by "extensification
of labor" - more working hours, and related issues. But this has not
been enough in our epidemiological surveys (which often do add working hours, or a shift work component). While these are
important additions, they do not capture the major social complexity of the New
Work.
2. Hostility and social support. There are certainly current suggestions
for assessing social demands. Of course a significant aspect of stress related
moderation of an individual's stress response may occur via "social
support buffering" mechanisms and these are indeed assessed with the JCQ
already. Also, new additions within the JCQ 2.0 Pilots have added
collective social support - again bolstering the individual's defense against
larger organization structure exploitation. Also hostility can and has been
measured. However, hostility may not be a personal antipathy so much as a
reflection of an underlying conflict in social roles and optimal behaviors. So
then how should these underlying structural "demands" be understood
and assessed? And while also important, may also not be an exhaustive metric
for the demands of complex new social relationships at work.
3. Emotional demands. Emotional demand scales are indeed also included as a
component of the JCQ 2 Pilot studies. But assessment of the challenges of
hiding or managing feelings toward clients may again not be a sufficiently
general formulation to capture a large portion of the burden of complex social
demands.
However, if neither Marx's "brute labor intensity," nor labor extensification, nor hostility, nor emotional demands are
sufficient, then how shall we define work demands conceptually? And how
shall we discuss such an intellectual gap in a short JCQ Workshop?
This is a much less structured question - in its present form - than the
questions addressed by past JCQ Workshops. However, it is also the only
remaining intellectual discussion hurdle to be overcome before JCQ 2.0 is
complete. Thus, we should take this chance to move quickly forward.
(Of course - in practical terms there are further steps to follow this
intellectual progress: new demand questions must be pilot tested, all
three pilot tests must be reviewed by the JCQ Board, and then a recommended
final JCQ 2.0 must be accepted by the JCQ User's in many countries).
Below, we offer two "straw-man" Rejected Scenarios, I and II, and
then real Proposal: III. The rejected scenarios are close-at-hand
approaches, easy to relate to existing literature - but not giving us really
broad new answers. Strategy III is the proposal advanced for this workshop.
REJECT FOR WORKSHOP:
Strategy I: A long list of different types of work demands;
Diverse vocabularies for work demands: mental workload, mental demands, mental
efforts, external efforts, internal efforts, psychological work demands,
quantitative overload, qualitative underload,
physical demands, cognitive demands, intellectual demands, sensorial demands,
emotional demands, emotional labor, social demands, work/family conflict,
work/social life conflict, etc. This does give us a long list, but not
much conceptual coherence, and what we can mainly conclude is that among
experts/researchers there are large variations in definitions of work demands.
While this is of importance in itself -it does not give us a new JCQ 2.0, nor a clear path toward Workshop Agenda
Strategy II: Categorization by general type of capability required
for the work task.
Here
demands could be assessed in these categories (for example see, Welford, 1976):
(a) physical demands,
(b) sensorial demand (requiring attention and alertness; vigilance);
(c) emotional demand (requiring emotional control/hiding);
(d) cognitive demands (requiring cognitive skills; judgment
/problem-solving/coordination).
Partly this has already been done in the current JCQ (ie,
physical demand scales). Also some of the sensorial and cognitive demands
scale measures tried have appeared not to work well in epidemiological studies,
possibly because the close correlations with beneficial decision altitude job
aspects appears to cancel "demand" effects. This approach does not
cover the new challenges above. There are new types of complex social demands
that are not well assessed.
PROPOSE FOR WORKSHOP:
Strategy III: Assess complex, multilevel social demands
Complex, multilevel social demands reflect needs for the individual to secure
advantages when many, potentially competitive social groups are involved. Such
demands occur ever more frequently in the global economy and
service/information economy. This is an economy where you are "always
ready to find a new job, and never have a special space for relaxation, never a
guaranteed for family time, never a true limit on job requirements,.."
The new global economy's "demand" is to keep many levels of social
skills in a constant state of readiness -so that the individual feels securely
prepared to maintain the necessary "constant state of flows of
resources" - whatever the situation (see attached Stress-Disequilibrium
theory paper). Also required is constant improvement in the ability to
coordinate these multiple skills into effective unified environmental response
- in a state of constant global competition. Consider these typical new
challenges, for example:
a. The Personal Politician: As BK Choi has noted: the advice to Koreans seeking a good job is
always to maintain your best human relationship at work and among contacts -
always be a "politician". The demand is for creation and
maintenance of favorable human network/relationships (requiring conscientious
efforts to build and maintain the network/relationship for getting a job done
effectively, or to maintain or increase status in an organization); (see NYT
article:" Political Animals...") Collective goals may also be served:
continuously management human networks or strengthening the group or
collectivity - The Social Politician.
b. The Communicator: the demand is for good
communication skills (transfer information effectively and efficiently to the
counterpart; exemplary occupations: news media anchors; social organizers).
c. The Negotiator: the demand here is to
gain advantage in directly competitive social contests. The requirement for the
Workshop is then to describe the multiple levels of mental function, social
judgment, and coordination of mental resources which must be summoned
simultaneously in a highly integrated manner in the social situation
above. The Stress- Disequilibrium theory, while admittedly quite abstract
(see attached paper; SJWEH Suppl 6, August 2008)
discusses two general ideas which could be a critical help for mapping a the
multi-level aspect for
these demands:
(a) How complex, multi-level social capabilities are created, and must
constantly be re-created.
(b) How "demands" are met as these resources are expended.
How to measure these New Demands?
A
major question is how we could capture these new demands by a short series of
questions. Could this be done - via simple key words - as now occurs for
the JCQ questions? One conclusion of this discussion maybe that,
however, important, thus new materials cannot fit into a JCQ-like format.
Please review the attached documents. We hope to see you at his upcoming
workshop!