| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the work load, the resources, well-being, and health of officers at different stages of their careers (the officers have attended the Military Academy, Captain Course, Staff and Command Course and War College) in the Finnish Defence Forces, to analyze the path connections between these variable groups, based on the models of the mental loading of work (e.g. Cooper and Marshall 1978, Saari 1981a) and the stress model of Jenkins (1979), and to study the interactions of the load factors and the resources on the different criteria of well-being and health according to the load-resource model of Karasek (1979). The officers (from lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel) on active duty and commissioned in 1959 - 1982 were selected as the basic group of the study. There was no sampling, but all officers of the group (N = 2149) - excluding those at research institutes and on special assignments - were sent a questionnaire, which they completed during working hours in May-June 1983. Eighty percent of the forms were filled in acceptably. Comparisons based on the Finnish studies indicate the level of well-being of the officers to be rather high regardless of the used criterion. Their professional satisfaction and general health are rather good and they show very few severe mental or psychosomatic stress symptoms. - The differences of psychosomatic symptoms and health, and satisfaction and psychic well-being between the officer groups indicate the corresponding changes in the age, the work role, the development of advancement opportunities and the independence and improvement in work. However, the differences in the level of well-being between the officer groups do not have clear relationship to the differences in the level of work load. The common pattern of path models in the officer groups supports the hierarchic structure of Jenkins' general model, which describes the interaction between stress and organism. In other words, systems logically close to each other have stronger mutual connections than separate systems. On the basis of this study, however, the models describing mental loading at work would require clarifications as far as the explanatory model for different partial factors of well-being is concerned. The explanatory model for work satisfaction and psychic well-being differ clearly from each other, and as does the explanatory model for mental exhaustion. Such as an opportunity to control one's own work and methods, the intellectual freedom and the associated experience of a challenging and meaningful work, and an observation of reaching one's personal objectives - explain, in all four officer groups, the assignment-specific satisfaction. Psychic well-being again is explained by the content factors of the work, through the respect received from the personnel. The normative climate of the organization appeared to be the primary stress factor for all the three above mentioned criteria of wellbeing. However, it had a direct correlation only with psychic well-being. On the other hand, the persona! background factors, the work environment and the structure of the organization do not have any relationships with the variables of the path models. Neither were there significant direct connections between work load and resources, i.e. resources do not increase with increased stress. Instead, the work load factors and resources have interactions in psychic wellbeing and mental exhaustion. The interactions were, however, less than expected and they did not occur systematically in all officer groups. In accordance with the load-resource model of Karasek (1979), the most significant interactions occurred between the independence of work and work load. However, these effects were slightly different in the different officer groups. Due to the large number of variables and the method of analysis used, the connections of the organizational climate, leadership, work environment and arrangements, and the social interaction, with the criteria of well-being, are more complex and/or indirect than in many previous studies. Several partial results should be ascertained by additional, preferably longitudinal studies. | en |
