Understanding salutogenic approaches to managing intensive work: Experiences from three Swedish companies.
BACKGROUND
Recent research has highlighted the risks involved in work intensification; i.e. the risk of human resources being consumed, incurring higher risks of emotional ill health such as burnout among employees. At the same time, there are some indications that individual employees are being left to themselves to manage work tasks in intensive work environments.


OBJECTIVE
This article explores how strongly engaged people master intensive work through coping and job crafting in a salutogenic way.


METHODS
The article is based on 34 in depth interviews of persons in various professions within research and development departments in three Swedish companies.


RESULTS
The interviews indicated that employees generally experienced work as almost constantly intense. We identified two strategies for mastering intensive work; i.e. an active strategy and a cognitive strategy, involving elements of both coping and job crafting. The specific elements of these strategies determine whether salutogenic processes are present.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that it is the specific elements of the coping and job-crafting strategies that determine whether or not salutogenic processes occur, and that organisational support is an important supplement to the individual processes for mastering intensive work.
['Palm|Kristina|K|', 'Eriksson|Andrea|A|']
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007588:Job Satisfaction D008297:Male D036301:Qualitative Research D012106:Research D060685:Sense of Coherence D013548:Sweden D016526:Workload
intensive work engagement Coping job crafting strategy support individual processes qualitative sustainable work