Health and well-being of older workers: comparing their associations with effort-reward imbalance and Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure

Work organisation has well-established associations with health. This study compares the associations of Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure (PDR) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) with health and well-being among older workers. Participants were 714 Australian workers aged 45-65 (56.3% female), with a mean age of 54.6 years (SD = 5.0) and a mean of 34.7 working hours per week (SD = 13.9). Hierarchical regression analyses tested the strengths of the associations of both ERI and PDR with work-life conflict and mental health. Independent variables were entered in blocks: demographic characteristics (age and gender), working hours and then ERI or PDR (measured using the four subscales: financial pressure, reward pressure, disorganisation and regulatory failure). Compared to ERI, the PDR subscales collectively accounted for slightly less variance in work-life conflict and slightly more variance in mental health. The PDR subscales also accounted for extra variance in both dependent variables when ERI was included in the model. These findings indicate that PDR is a promising construct that includes elements of work organisation not addressed by ERI.