Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Suggests a strategy for redesigning jobs to reduce unnecessary stress and improve productivity and job satisfaction.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 Health, Productivity, and Work Life (p. 1)
• 2 The Psychosocial Work Environment (p. 31)
• 3 The Environment, the Worker, and Illness: Psychological and Physiological Linkages (p. 83)
• 4 Psychosocial Job Characteristics and Heart Disease (p. 117)
• 5 Psychosocial Job Characteristics and Productivity (p. 161)
• 6 Integrating Worker Health Analysis and Job Redesign (p. 200)
• 7 The Organizational Context of Job Redesign for Health and Productivity (p. 228)
• 8 The Technological Context of Job Redesign (p. 251)
• 9 Job Design Strategies for Different Occupational Groups (p. 276)
• 10 Jobs of the Future and the Global Economy (p. 302)
• Appendix: Statistical Validity of Psychosocial Work Dimensions in the U.S. Quality of Employment Surveys (p. 335)
• References (p. 347)
• Index (p. 373)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Karasek and Theorell, American and Swedish academicians respectively, analyze in their important work how heart disease, diabetes, and other stress-related ailments are generated by the way in which people are forced to work in their jobs. In this unfortunately difficult-to-read book, marked by turgid prose and awkward phrasing, the authors analyze various stress/work studies done over the years in America and Europe. In the second half of the book, they discuss various ways being developed to deal with the lack of worker participation in decision-making on the job. The authors mince no words in their conclusions that the well-being of employees can and must be enhanced through meaningful involvement in formulating the manner and mode of their tasks. For labor collections.-- Norman Lederer, UAW, Woodbridge, N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Taylor (UCLA) uses research, interview, and clinical data to support the theory that creative self-deceptions are adaptive in helping people cope with life crises. The book discusses the relationship of these illusions to positive self-esteem, good mood, and a sense of the ability to control the environment. Such positive illusions allow people to feel that there is hope in their particular situations and that despite individual vulnerability, things could have been worse. In developing the theory, Taylor used a cognitive psychological approach that offered an opportunity to explain why and how each individual structured events and history from a personal perspective. It is another variation on the "think positive" theme and an effort to understand why thinking positively works. A. Antonovsky's work, Health, Stress and Coping (CH, Jan'80) describes how some people are better integrated and more stress resistant than others. Taylor furthers this knowledge and attempts to theorize how the cognitive process develops and enables people to cope with stressful situations. The book is well researched and interestingly written, with a bibliography; there are no illustrations. Easily understood by upper-level undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. -S. B. Wallace, Wake Forest University

Booklist Review

Today, conventional wisdom has it that work can be stressful and that stress affects one's health. Statistics demonstrate that the productivity of the American workforce has declined. Karasek, who teaches industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California, and Theorell, a professor at Sweden's National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health, have marshalled a wide range of existing research to document the causes and effects of work-related stress and to show the relationship between stress and lowered productivity. In addition, they introduce their own research and provide a guide to creating a more healthful work environment. Even though the message of Healthy Work is important, its research orientation may limit its popular appeal. Numerous helpful, detailed charts and tables are included along with extensive notes but no index. --David Rouse