Do Attitudes towards Work or Work Motivation Affect Productivity Loss among Academic Employees?

Malin Lohela-Karlsson, Irene Jensen and Christina Björklund
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Malin Lohela-Karlsson: Centre for Clinical Research, Region Västmanland–Uppsala University, Hospital of Västmanland, 721 89 Västerås, Sweden
Irene Jensen: Unit of Intervention and Implementation Research on Worker Health (IIR), Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
Christina Björklund: Unit of Intervention and Implementation Research on Worker Health (IIR), Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Work motivation and job attitudes are important for productivity levels among academic employees. In situations where employees perceive problems, for example, health-related and work environment-related problems, the ability to perform at work could be affected, which may result in fewer publications, reduced quality and less research funding. Few studies, however, have paid attention to productivity loss among academic employees in order to understand how, or if, the perceived loss is affected by the reported problems, either alone or in combination with work motivation and job attitudes. To evaluate whether attitudes towards work—measured as job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work motivation—are associated with productivity loss in the workplace, a cross-sectional study was conducted. This type of design is required as performance is highly variable and is affected by changes in health and work status. This study includes employees who reported either health-related problems, work environment problems or a combination of both ( n = 1475). Linear regression analyses were used to answer the hypotheses. Higher levels of motivation, job satisfaction and organisational commitment were associated with lower levels of productivity loss among employees who experienced either health-related or work environment problems. High work motivation and high commitment were significantly associated with lower levels of productivity loss among employees who experienced a combination of problems. In summary, productivity loss among academic employees is not only affected by health-related problems or problems in the work environment but also by work motivation, job satisfaction and organisational commitment; i.e., these factors seem to buffer, or moderate, the reduction in performance levels for this group of employees.

Keywords: commitment; job satisfaction; performance; productivity loss; work motivation; workplace (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 (3)

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