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Work overcommitment: Is it a trait or a state?

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International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Effort–reward imbalance (ERI) is a well-tested work-related stress model with three components, the two extrinsic components “efforts” and “rewards” and the one intrinsic component “overcommitment”. While an imbalance between “efforts” and “rewards” leads to strain reactions, “work-related overcommitment” (OC) has been described as a personal characteristic with a set of attitudes, behaviours, and emotions reflecting excessive striving combined with a strong desire for approval. However, the question whether OC is a personality trait or a response pattern sensitive to changes in the work context (state) is still open.

Methods

2940 Swedish industrial employees were included in this longitudinal analysis of the WOLF-Norrland data over 5 years. A change of OC index or its subscales were regressed against a change of freedom of choice at work, extra work, and ERI adjusted for age, sex, and education.

Results

While OC was insensitive to changes in freedom of choice at work and extra work, it was clearly associated with changes of work-related stress over time. Three of four OC subscales exhibited statistically significant associations with ERI.

Conclusions

For the first time, we studied fundamental characteristics of OC as an independent personality variable (trait) or an outcome variable subject to changes in the work environment (state). The association between external ERI and OC over time supports our hypothesis of OC being a state. Further investigations are needed to establish OC as a trait or a state.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Swedish Working Life and Social Sciences Foundation (FORTE) under Grant Number 2012-2022; and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under Grant Numbers FKZ 01ER0827, 01ER0825, 01ER0806, and 01ER0826.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

    Jean-Baptist du Prel & Richard Peter

  2. Department of Occupational Health Science, University of Wuppertal, Gaußstr. 20, 42119, Wuppertal, Germany

    Jean-Baptist du Prel

  3. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden

    Roma Runeson-Broberg & Peter Westerholm

  4. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lars Alfredsson

  5. Centre for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lars Alfredsson

  6. The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, Härnösand, Sweden

    Göran Fahlén

  7. Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden

    Anders Knutsson

  8. Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umea, Sweden

    Maria Nordin

  9. Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Maria Nordin

Authors
  1. Jean-Baptist du Prel
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  2. Roma Runeson-Broberg
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  3. Peter Westerholm
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  4. Lars Alfredsson
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  5. Göran Fahlén
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  6. Anders Knutsson
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  7. Maria Nordin
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  8. Richard Peter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean-Baptist du Prel.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

The study was funded by the Swedish Working Life and Social Sciences Foundation (FORTE) under Grant Number 2012-2022; and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under Grant Numbers FKZ 01ER0827, 01ER0825, 01ER0806, and 01ER0826.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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du Prel, JB., Runeson-Broberg, R., Westerholm, P. et al. Work overcommitment: Is it a trait or a state?. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 91, 1–11 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1253-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1253-8

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