Effort-Reward Imbalance and Occupational Health

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of one of the leading theoretical models of health-adverse psychosocial work environments, effort-reward imbalance. It discusses the economic and socio-demographic context of the model’s applications, its theoretical foundation, and its distribution across working populations. In the main sections, empirical support of its explanations of stress-related mental and physical disorders is illustrated, and complementary knowledge on potential psychobiological pathways is presented, based on experimental and quasi-experimental findings. Subsequently, the model’s usefulness in designing worksite interventions and in justifying the implementation of distinct social and labor policies is discussed. The chapter ends with a demonstration of extensions of the model’s core principle of failed reciprocity in costly transactions beyond paid work. These extensions concern socially productive activities, such as house and family work, volunteering, informal help, as well as close social relationships and exchange in educational contexts. Concluding remarks briefly point to the model’s strengths and open issues that need further inquiry.

Small parts of this chapter were written with close reference to the chapter “A theoretical model in the context of economic globalization” by Johannes Siegrist, published in “Work stress and health in a globalized economy: The model of effort-reward imbalance,” edited by J. Siegrist and M. Wahrendorf, Springer International Publishing Switzerland, Cham 2016 (pp. 3–19).