Job strain, gender and well-being at work: a case study of public sector line managers

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of public sector line managers’ work-related wellbeing and health in relation to job strain, gender and workplace social support. Design/methodology/approach - An on-line survey was sent to all senior and middle line managers (N=357) in three administrative departments of Iceland’s largest municipality. The response rate was 64.7%. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse the data. Findings - A minority of respondents experience high job strain. However, for these managers, the risk of experiencing emotional exhaustion is about five-fold, compared to those not experiencing high job strain. Social support is an important buffering against job strain and enhances wellbeing. Female managers are more likely than their male counterparts to report myositis, back or shoulder pain and sleeping difficulty. Implications - The study emphasises that workplace social support attenuates the negative impact of job strain on line managers’ work-related wellbeing. Furthermore, it demonstrates that in a society at the forefront in gender equality, gender differences in health symptoms exist among line managers in the public sector – a finding that highlights the importance of studying all aspects of workplace wellbeing by gender. This calls for future research using a more comprehensive survey data and interviews to shed light on the pathways through which female line managers’ health is negatively affected. Originality/value - Knowledge relating to wellbeing and health of line managers in the public sector is scarce. This study contributes to filling that gap. As work-related wellbeing is often gender-blind, the value of the study is also the investigation of the gender patterns in our data.