Special Issue "Sustainable Healthy Working Life for All Ages—Work Environment, Age Management and Employability"

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Nilsson
E-Mail Website1 Website2 Website3
Guest Editor
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden & Division of Public Health, Kristianstad University, SE-291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden
Interests: sustainable working life for all ages, public health, health promotion and prevention, work environment, work organisations, age management, age discrimination, employability
Dr. Tove Midtsundstad
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research, 0608 Oslo, Norway
Interests: pension systems and pension policy; retirement behaviour; age and work; age management; health promotion and prevention; lifelong learning
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Peter Lundqvist
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of People and Society, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Box 88, S, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden
Interests: health and safety; social sustainability in agriculture
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Joanne Crawford
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Health, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand
Interests: occupational health and safety; age and work; ergonomics and work design
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Nygård Clas-Håkan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Interests: occupational health; aging and work; occupational gerontology; strain at work; work ability and promotion of health and work ability; ergonomics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The proportion of elderly citizens is continuously increasing in most of the industrial world [1–3]. The current demographic trend is characterised by increased longevity and lower fertility rates and is leading to an increasingly ageing population. The retirement age in many countries is being postponed in order to adapt the economic and budgetary implications of increased longevity to the new demographic distribution. Older people are encouraged to keep working and to participate in the labour force for as long as possible [1–3]. The demographic situation stresses the importance of factors that motivate older employees and self-employed individuals to keep working and to maintain their employability until an older age, as well as the organisations and enterprises to care for their employees’ employability until an age older than the one considered, so far, the retirement age [4–7].

Against this backdrop, the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is announcing a Special Issue titled “Sustainable Healthy Working Life for All Ages—Work Environment, Age Management and Employability”. This Special Issue will provide an outlet for research contributing to the development of our theoretical and practical knowledge in these domains influencing people’s working life.

We are interested in scientific analyses, case studies, or interventions that generate original and innovative insights into the proposed topic and focus on the nine determinants of a healthy and sustainable working life for all ages, identified in the swAge-model [4,5], which are:

1) self-rated health, diagnoses, functional diversity

2) physical work environment

3) mental work environment

4) work schedule, work pace, time for recuperation

5) personal finances, work ability, employability

6) personal social environment and work–life balance

7) work social environment, discrimination, leadership and age management

8) motivation, stimulation and satisfaction with work tasks

9) knowledge, skills, competence

The “Sustainable Healthy Working Life for All Ages—Work Environment, Age Management and Employability ” Special Issue is jointly organized between “Sustainability” and “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health” journals. Authors in the Special Issue can submit their papers to “Sustainability” or “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Kind regards

Prof. Dr.  Kerstin Nilsson
Dr. Tove Midtsundstad
Prof. Dr. Peter Lundqvist
Prof. Dr. Joanne Crawford
Prof. Dr. Clas-Håkan Nygård

References:

  1. OECD. Pensions at a glance 2019. OECD and G20 indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2019. doi:10.1787/b6d3dcfc-en.
  2. WHO. World report on ageing and health. Geneva: World health organization; 2017. http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/world-report-2015/en/
  3. OECD. Health at a glance 2019: OECD indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2019. doi:10.1787/4dd50c09-en.
  4. Nilsson K. Conceptualization of ageing in relation to factors of importance for extending working life – a review. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 2016; 44: 490–505.
  5. Nilsson K. A sustainable working life for all ages – The swAge-model. Applied Ergonomics 2020; 103082: 1-27. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687018305313?dgcid=author
  6. Fleuren BP. de Grip A. Jansen NWH. Kant I. Zijlstra FRH. Unshrounding the Sphere from Clouds: Towards a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Employability. Sustainability. 2020;12:6366. doi:10.33909/su12166366.
  7. Van der Klink JJL. Bültmann U. Burdorf A. Schaufeli WB. Zijlstra FRH. Abma FI. BRouwer S. van der Wilt GJ. Sustainable employability – definition, conceptualization, and implications: A perspective based on the capability approach. Scand J Work Environment Health. 2016;42(1):71-79.

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2300 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Article
Meetings are an Important Prerequisite for Flourishing Workplace Relationships
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(15), 8092; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18158092 - 30 Jul 2021
Viewed by 400
Abstract
Relationships among colleagues, managers, and care recipients are mutually important, and need to be highlighted in workplace health promotion. The aim was to explore prerequisites for flourishing workplace relationships in a municipal healthcare setting for old people. As part of this process, we [...] Read more.
Relationships among colleagues, managers, and care recipients are mutually important, and need to be highlighted in workplace health promotion. The aim was to explore prerequisites for flourishing workplace relationships in a municipal healthcare setting for old people. As part of this process, we explored the staff’s suggestions on how work relationships could be improved. The study had a salutogenic and participatory approach, examining staff perceptions of what was required for flourishing relationships to be created, and their suggestions for the relationships to be more promotive. Four multi-stage focus groups, which met three times each, were conducted with staff (n = 26) in old age healthcare settings. A deductive analysis was performed, based on components of the flourishing concept: challenge, connectivity, autonomy, and competence. Informal and formal meetings at work were shown to build positively perceived relationships. The study describes meetings and relationships connected to the four components of flourishing. Suggestions for improving work relationships are also presented. This study contributes to workplace health promotion, and has a salutogenic and participatory focus on how to explore workplace relationships as a resource. The flourishing concept shows how workplace relationships can be explored as prerequisites for workplace health promotion. Full article
Article
Sustainable Working Life in a Swedish Twin Cohort—A Definition Paper with Sample Overview
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(11), 5817; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115817 - 28 May 2021
Viewed by 935
Abstract
Background: A unified or consensus definition of “sustainable working life” remains lacking, although studies investigating risk factors for labour market exit are numerous. In this study, we aimed (1) to update the information and to explore a definition of “sustainable working life” [...] Read more.
Background: A unified or consensus definition of “sustainable working life” remains lacking, although studies investigating risk factors for labour market exit are numerous. In this study, we aimed (1) to update the information and to explore a definition of “sustainable working life” via a systematic literature review and (2) to describe the working life trajectories via the prevalence of sickness absence (SA), disability pension (DP), and unemployment in a Swedish twin cohort to provide a sample overview in our Sustainable Working Life-project. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to explore the studies with the search phrase “sustainable working life” in PubMed, PsycInfo, and the Web of Science Database of Social Sciences in January 2021, resulting in a total of 51 references. A qualitative synthesis was performed for the definitions and the measures of “sustainable working life.” Based on the Swedish Twin project Of Disability pension and Sickness absence (STODS), the current dataset to address sustainable working life includes 108 280 twin individuals born between 1925 and 1990. Comprehensive register data until 2016 for unemployment, SA and DP were linked to all individuals. Using STODS, we analysed the annual prevalence of SA, DP, and unemployment as working life trajectories over time across education and age groups. Results: The reviewed 16 full articles described several distinct definitions for sustainable working life between 2007 and 2020 from various perspectives, i.e., considering workplaces or employees, the individual, organizational or enterprise level, and the society level. The definition of “sustainable working life” appearing most often was the swAge-model including a broad range of factors, e.g., health, physical/mental/psychosocial work environment, work motivation/satisfaction, and the family situation and leisure activities. Our dataset comprised of 81%–94% of individuals who did not meet SA, DP, or unemployment during the follow-up in 1994–2016, being indicative for “sustainable working life.” The annual prevalence across years had a decreasing trend of unemployment over time, whereas the prevalence of SA had more variation, with DP being rather stable. Both unemployment and DP had the highest prevalence among those with a lower level of education, whereas in SA, the differences in prevalence between education levels were minor. Unemployment was highest across the years in the youngest age group (18–27 years), the age group differences for SA were minor, and for DP, the oldest age group (58–65 years) had the highest prevalence. Conclusions: No consensus exists for a “sustainable working life,” hence meriting further studies, and we intend to contribute by utilising the STODS database for the Sustainable Working Life project. In the upcoming studies, the existing knowledge of available definitions and frameworks will be utilised. The dataset containing both register data and self-reports enables detailed follow-up for labour market participation for sustainable working life. Full article
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Article
Organisational Measures and Strategies for a Healthy and Sustainable Extended Working Life and Employability—A Deductive Content Analysis with Data Including Employees, First Line Managers, Trade Union Representatives and HR-Practitioners
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(11), 5626; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115626 - 25 May 2021
Viewed by 631
Abstract
Due to the global demographic change many more people will need to work until an older age, and organisations and enterprises need to implement measures to facilitate an extended working life. The aim of this study was to investigate organisational measures and suggestions [...] Read more.
Due to the global demographic change many more people will need to work until an older age, and organisations and enterprises need to implement measures to facilitate an extended working life. The aim of this study was to investigate organisational measures and suggestions to promote and make improvements for a healthy and sustainable working life for all ages in an extended working life. This is a qualitative study, and the data were collected through both focus group interviews and individual interviews that included 145 participants. The study identified several suggestions for measures and actions to increase employability in the themes: to promote a good physical and mental work environment; to promote personal financial and social security; to promote relations, social inclusion and social support in the work situation; and to promote creativity, knowledge development and intrinsic work motivation, i.e., based on the spheres of determination in the theoretical swAge-model (sustainable working life for all ages). Based on the study results a tool for dialogue and discussion on employee work situation and career development was developed, and presented in this article. Regular conversations, communication and close dialogue are needed and are a prerequisite for good working conditions and a sustainable working environment, as well as to be able to manage employees and develop the organisation further. The identified measures need to be revisited regularly throughout the employees’ entire working life to enable a healthy and sustainable working life for all ages. Full article
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Article
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Associations between Occupational Factors, Signs of Exhaustion, and the Intention to Change Workplace among Swedish Principals
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(10), 5376; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105376 - 18 May 2021
Viewed by 466
Abstract
A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negatively affect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent various work environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions to change [...] Read more.
A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negatively affect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent various work environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions to change workplace among principals working in compulsory schools. A web-based questionnaire was administered twice, in 2018 and in 2019. Part I of the study involved cross-sectional analyses of the associations 2018 (n = 984) and 2019 (n = 884) between occupational factors, signs of exhaustion, and the intention to change workplace, using Generalized Estimating Equations models. Part II involved 631 principals who participated in both surveys. The patterns of intended and actual changes of workplace across two years were described, together with associated changes of occupational factors and signs of exhaustion. Supportive management was associated with an intention to stay, while demanding role conflicts and the feeling of being squeezed between management and co-workers (buffer-function) were associated with the intention to change workplace. The principals who intended to change their workplace reported more signs of exhaustion. To increase retention among principals, systematic efforts are probably needed at the national, municipal, and local level, in order to improve their working conditions. Full article
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