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Work Stress and Health in a Globalized Economy pp 315–332Cite as

Reward, Flow and Control at Work

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Part of the book series: Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being ((AHSW))

Abstract

During recent years, flow or “effortless attention” has been studied scientifically, particularly in stage performance situations. On stage the flow condition arises unexpectedly and suddenly and lasts for a short period of time, for instance during a music performance. This short intensive experience is characterised by a high level of arousal, a feeling of mastery of a difficult task and an elated feeling. Persons who frequently experience flow have a high “propensity to flow”. Propensity to flow could be limited to specific topics (for instance propensity to flow experiences related to music) but could also be generalised. Propensity to “work related flow” is a concept which has been applied to descriptions of psychosocial working conditions. This concept is related to “reward” at work. A necessary condition for the experience of work-related flow is the possibility to exert control. Accordingly the three concepts reward, flow and control at work are interrelated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stress Research Institute, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

    Tores Theorell

  2. Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden

    Tores Theorell

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  1. Tores Theorell
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Correspondence to Tores Theorell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Life Science Centre, University of Düsseldorf Life Science Centre, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Johannes Siegrist

  2. Institute for Medical Sociology, University of Düsseldorf Institute for Medical Sociology, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Morten Wahrendorf

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Theorell, T. (2016). Reward, Flow and Control at Work. In: Siegrist, J., Wahrendorf, M. (eds) Work Stress and Health in a Globalized Economy. Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32937-6_14

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