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Organizational Determinants of Job Stressors

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Work and Mental Health in Social Context

Part of the book series: Social Disparities in Health and Health Care ((SDHHC))

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Abstract

As we have already seen, most job stress, far from being the result of idiosyncratic work structures or situations, is the routine outcome of certain job conditions, such as the absence of decision latitude or social support, or the presence of too many demands. These job conditions are not created randomly but are routinely produced and reproduced, and are distributed among workers in known ways, in much the same way that other job outcomes are distributed – earnings, for example. The probability of encountering stressful job conditions is not random. In the next four chapters, we consider why’s and how’s of the production, reproduction, and distribution of job stress. We start with the most proximate determinants of a worker’s job conditions: the organizational structures and practices of the firms in which she/he works.

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Tausig, M., Fenwick, R. (2011). Organizational Determinants of Job Stressors. In: Work and Mental Health in Social Context. Social Disparities in Health and Health Care. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0625-9_3

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