Organizational Justice and Health: A Survey in Hospital Workers

Nicola Magnavita (), Carlo Chiorri, Daniela Acquadro Maran, Sergio Garbarino, Reparata Rosa Di Prinzio, Martina Gasbarri, Carmela Matera, Anna Cerrina, Maddalena Gabriele and Marcella Labella
Additional contact information
Nicola Magnavita: Section of Occupational Medicine and Labor Law, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Roma, Italy
Carlo Chiorri: Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genova, 16126 Genova, Italy
Daniela Acquadro Maran: WOW—Work and Organisational Well-Being Research Group, Department of Psychology, Università di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy
Sergio Garbarino: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics and Maternal/Child Sciences (DINOGMI), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Reparata Rosa Di Prinzio: Section of Occupational Medicine and Labor Law, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Roma, Italy
Martina Gasbarri: Local Sanitary Unit Roma4, 00053 Civitavecchia, Italy
Carmela Matera: Local Sanitary Unit Roma4, 00053 Civitavecchia, Italy
Anna Cerrina: Local Sanitary Unit Roma4, 00053 Civitavecchia, Italy
Maddalena Gabriele: Local Sanitary Unit Roma4, 00053 Civitavecchia, Italy
Marcella Labella: Local Sanitary Unit Roma4, 00053 Civitavecchia, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: In complex systems such as hospitals, work organization can influence the level of occupational stress and, consequently, the physical and mental health of workers. Hospital healthcare workers were asked to complete a questionnaire during their regular occupational health examination, in order to assess the perceived level of organizational justice, and to verify whether it was associated with occupational stress, mental health, and absenteeism. The questionnaire included the Colquitt Organizational Justice (OJ) Scale, the Karasek/Theorell demand-control-support (DCS) questionnaire for occupational stress, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) for mental health. Workers were also required to indicate whether they had been absent because of back pain in the past year. Organizational justice was a significant predictor of occupational stress. Stress was a mediator in the relationship between justice and mental health. Occupational stress was more closely related to perceptions of lack of distributive justice than to perceptions of procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice. Physicians perceived significantly less distributive justice than other workers. In adjusted univariate logistic regression models, the perceptions of organizational justice were associated with a significant reduction in the risk of sick leave for back pain (OR 0.96; CI95% 0.94–0.99; p < 0.001), whereas occupational stress was associated with an increased risk of sick leave (OR 6.73; CI95% 2.02–22.40; p < 0.002). Work organization is a strong predictor of occupational stress and of mental and physical health among hospital employees.

Keywords: mental health; occupational stress; job strain; back pain; healthcare; sickness absence; mediator analysis; work organization; occupational safety; occupational health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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