Designing Work to Reduce Time and Performance Pressures. Challenges and Approaches in the Context of Psychosocial Risk Management

Abstract

High work intensity (WI) is experienced by employees as time and performance pressure (TPP). It is considered a key psychosocial risk factor, which must be countered by appropriate occupational health and safety measures. In several projects, the Federal Institute of Occupational Health and Safety investigates the operational implementation and work design task to determine (1) why TPP is not avoided sufficiently (barriers) and (2) which design approaches are nevertheless developed in practice. Content-analytical thematic analyses of 79 guideline-supported interviews from two studies (Study 1: actor perspective, Study 2: employee perspective) show that two factors hinder actors from implementing suitable measures: the complexity of the formation conditions and perceived limited scope for work design. Both factors are further differentiated regarding high imbalance/TPP. Furthermore, considering the two perspectives simultaneously, we address and discuss various approaches to counter high imbalance/TPP at different company levels.