Customer demands found to be major driver of work pace and stress

Willadssen, Bjørn

Overview

Article

Customer demands found to be major driver of work pace and stress

Published: 4 January 2009

Bjørn Willadssen

Psychosocial risks

Health and well-being

In the studies referred to in this analysis, data have been collected on five drivers of work pace and stress at work [1]: customers and clients, managers, colleagues, deadlines and routines, and machinery. The following figure presents an example of this relationship.[1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/industrial-relations-dictionary/stress-at-work

In the European Working Conditions Survey in 2005, Norwegian employees reported the highest score for pace of work determined by customer and client demands. This orientation towards customers has developed over several years, and relates to other significant trends such as fewer colleagues, more tasks, increased responsibility, lack of support and less visible management. Customer and client demands represent one of several ‘pace driving relational factors’.

About the study

In the studies referred to in this analysis, data have been collected on five drivers of work pace and stress at work: customers and clients, managers, colleagues, deadlines and routines, and machinery. The following figure presents an example of this relationship.

Drivers of work pace and stress at work

Drivers of work pace and stress at work

Although the number of variables is limited to five, these five drivers could be assumed to be among the most important relations involving employees in everyday working life.

Sources of information

This article is based on data collected from the following surveys:

survey of living conditions in 1989, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006 carried out by Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå, SSB);
survey on conditions of occupational health and safety conducted in 2001 by the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (Stiftelsen for industriell og teknisk forskning, SINTEF);
Fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2005 carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound);
survey on conditions of occupational health and safety conducted in 2007 by the FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science (Fafo Institutt for arbeidslivs- og velferdsforskning).

Study findings

Pace drivers in living conditions survey

From 1989 to 1996, the SSB living conditions survey reported data on all five of the drivers used in the model for this analysis. Respondents were asked to what degree they ‘most of the time’ keep their pace of work based on specific demands associated with these five drivers (multiple answers were possible). Table 1 summarises respondents’ answers.

**Table 1: Workers who most of the time keep pace of work based on specific demands, 1989, 1993 and 1996 (%)**
Work demands	1989	1993	1996
Deadlines and routines	58	67	74
Colleagues	24	27	25
Machinery, equipment, assembly line	13	15	14
Customers and clients	49	56	58
First line managers	21	25	28

Source: SSB, Living conditions surveys, 1989, 1993 and 1996

First, these figures indicate that deadlines and routines as well as customers and clients are by far the two most important factors directly affecting work pace. Secondly, the figures show that these two factors became more significant in the period from 1989 to 1996.

For the 2000 and 2003 editions of the SSB living conditions survey, the questions on these factors were changed. One of the factors was dropped, and one of the remaining factors was split into two separate questions. Another important change in the questioning was that the respondents were asked about where the direct demands in their work came from in general, not particularly what augmented the pace of work. Table 2 presents a summary of the results from this version of the survey.

**Table 2: Main origins of work reported by workers, 2000 and 2003 (%)**
Origins of work	2000	2003
Standard routines	32	34
Exact demands of results or deadlines	43	32
Colleagues	13	16
Machinery, equipment, assembly line	15	13
Customers and clients	49	53

Source: SSB, Living conditions surveys, 2000 and 2003

In this version of the survey, the relative importance of customer and client demands is also clear. Splitting the questions on deadlines and routines from the previous surveys into two factors for the 2000 and 2003 editions of the survey explains the seemingly reduced significance of deadlines and routines. However, when the question of significance is about the work in general and not specifically related to the pace of work, these two factors combined are clearly the most important. The fact that the question was formulated in a more open manner than in the previous years, explains the lower percentages, but as mentioned the relative importance did not change.

Pace drivers in EWCS

In the 2005 EWCS, employees were asked a question on four of the factors used in the basic model in this analysis. The question focused on the direct demands on pace of work. Table 3 presents the respondents’ answers in Norway.

**Table 3: Factors affecting work pace reported by workers, 2005 (%)**
Factors affecting work pace	2005
Result demands	39.9
Machinery, equipment, assembly line	11.9
Customers and clients	78
First line manager	21

Source: EWCS, 2005

The pattern in this case is the same as for the two sets of Norwegian studies. However, the impact of customers and clients on work pace has increased substantially since it was last addressed in the SSB living conditions survey in 2003.

FAFO and SINTEF surveys on occupational health and safety

The two independent research institutes FAFO and SINTEF have also examined the importance of customers for workers in everyday working life. The questions asked in these two surveys were not identical but were relatively comparable and both were of a merely descriptive kind – for example, asking whether the work involves contact with customers or clients. In 2001, 71% of respondents answered ‘yes’ to this question, while the figure had increased to 82% in 2007.

In the 2007 survey, this question was followed up in more detail and, as a result of the questions asked, the authors of the 2007 report conclude that ‘a comparison of how workers experience customer and client involvement in their work points in the direction that work to a continuously increasing degree is governed by demands coming from customers and clients’ (FAFO, 2008),

Conclusions

The data reported here show a gradual change in workplace relations, where the importance of customers and clients is increasing and is currently a dominating social factor regarding pace of work. The reasons behind these changes might include:

the changes in the structures of modern working life, with an increased proportion of employees working with customers and clients;
the strategies that management have advocated, arguing that organisations should be customer oriented, staff should be reduced and authority decentralised in organisations. Through participative and empowerment strategies, workers have been offered more autonomy and more responsibility at work;
a demand for greater responsibility, freedom at work and personal development, strongly supported both at policy and legislative level – for example, with the introduction of the Norwegian Act on Worker Protection and Working Environment (938Kb PDF) (Arbeidsmiljøloven, AML) (NO0506102F).

These changes may be regarded as problematic. They may expose employees to situations where they are trying to fulfil customers’ and clients’ endless demands under circumstances where few managerial or organisational support mechanisms are at their disposal. Today’s demanding market and organisational development may lead people to ask whether stress is the price to pay for job freedom or, perhaps more wisely, what conditions are necessary for managing both customer demands and individual needs for coping.

References

Bråten, M., Andersen, R.K. and Svalund, J., HMS-tilstnaden i Norge 2007, Report No. 20, Oslo, FAFO, 2008.

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), Fourth European Working Conditions Survey, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2007, available online at: /ef/search/node/?oldIndexpublications/htmlfiles/ef0698.htm.

National Surveillance System for Work Environment and Occupational Health (Nasjonal overvåking av arbeidsmiljø og -helse, NOA), Working environment in Norway and the EU – A comparison. Based on data from the European Working Conditions Survey [Arbeidsmiljøet i Norge og EU – en sammenlikning. Basert på data fra European Working Conditions Survey (2.26Mb PDF)], Oslo, National Institute of Occupational Health (Statens arbeidsmiljøinstitutt, STAMI), 2007.

Statistics Norway (SSB), Survey of living conditions, 1989, 1993, 1996, 2003, 2006, available online at: http://www.ssb.no.

Torvatn, H. and Molden, T.H., HMS-tilstanden i Norge år 2001, Oslo/Trondheim, SINTEF, 2001.

Bjørn Willadssen, Linkx

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2009), Customer demands found to be major driver of work pace and stress, article.