This study explored the links between production pressure, cognitive failures and injuries within an insecure job climate (JIC) environment.
Data came from 1-month lagged survey data from 176 US workers.
Extracts:
· “Production pressure refers to an organizational emphasis on production to increase corporate profits and efficiency”
· While intending to “eliminate wasteful contingencies of material, people, time, and machinery, production pressure is often accompanied by fast-paced, high-intensity work environments”
· These types of adverse work environments put “chronic job demands on workers, which depletes their mental and physical resources and resulting in exhaustion and health problems”
· “high production pressure is associated with adverse safety outcomes such as less compliance with safety, poorer safety performance, greater accident underreporting, and a higher number of experienced accidents”
· “both production pressure and qualitative job insecurity climate were significantly and positively associated with cognitive failures, which in turn were related to injuries”
· “workers experienced more cognitive failures in response to production pressure when they perceived higher levels of qualitative job insecurity climate compared to workplaces that reported lower levels of qualitative job insecurity climate”
· “the effect of production pressure on attentional failures and cognitive errors is exacerbated when working in a climate of qualitative job insecurity”
· “cognitive failures transmitted the adverse effect of production pressure on injuries, as this pressure to prioritize efficiency for profits resulted in a drain on workers’ cognitive resources needed to sustain memory, attention, and action toward safety behaviors”
· JIC exacerbated the detrimental effects of production pressure on work injuries
· Interestingly, “When shared perceptions regarding threats to valued job features were higher, this added stressor further depleted cognitive resources that resulted in a subsequent increase in injuries”
· Hence, “when job insecurity concerns are shared amongst a workgroup, this can intensify the already deleterious effects of production pressure on safety outcomes via increased cognitive failures”
· This shared JIC environment may be driven by the “organizational rumor mills where fears and worries about impending job and organizational changes can quickly spread”
· “Unfortunately, organizations often focus on performance outcomes while neglecting the adverse effects of accompanying stressful environments”
Ref: Lee, H. J., Tomas, J., Probst, T. M., & Lindgren, R. J. (2024). Production pressure, cognitive failures, and injuries under an insecure job climate. International Journal of Stress Management, 31(2), 174.
Study link: https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10519611
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