Reincentivizing – a new theory of work and work absence
Open accessAbstract
Background: Work capacity correlates weakly to disease concepts, which in turn are insufficient to explain sick leave behavior. With data mainly from Sweden, a welfare state with high sickness absence rates, our aim was to develop an explanatory theory of how to understand and deal with work absence and sick leave. Methods: We used classic grounded theory for analyzing data from >130 interviews with people working or on sick leave, physicians, social security officers, and literature. Several hundreds of typed and handwritten memos were the basis for writing up the theory. Results: In this paper we present a theory of work incentives and how to deal with work absence. We suggest that work disability can be seen as hurt work drivers or people caught in mode traps. Work drivers are specified as work capacities + work incentives, monetary and non-monetary. Also, people can get trapped in certain modes of behavior through changed capacities or incentives, or by inertia. Different modes have different drivers and these can trap the individual from reincentivizing, ie from going back to work or go on working. Hurt drivers and mode traps are recognized by driver assessments done on several different levels. Mode driver calculations are done by the worker. Then follows employer, physician, and social insurance officer assessments. Also, driver assessments are done on the macro level by legislators and other stakeholders. Reincentivizing is done by different repair strategies for hurt work drivers such as body repair, self repair, work-place repair, rehumanizing, controlling sick leave insurance, and strengthening monetary work incentives. Combinations of these driver repair strategies also do release people from mode traps. Conclusion: Reincentivizing is about recognizing hurt work drivers and mode traps followed by repairing and releasing the same drivers and traps. Reincentivizing aims at explaining what is going on when work absence is dealt with and the theory may add to social psychological research on work and work absence, and possibly inform sick leave policies.
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Sick leave has been linked to motivation, stress and coping, the balance between work demands and capacity, adaptation, or a combination of these.
“Sick leave has been linked to motivation [26,27,29,42,50,51], to stress and coping [25,52], to the balance between work demands and capacity [28,31], to adaptation [30], or to a combination of these [32].”
From Staying at work with chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain: a qualitative study of workers' experiences (2011) · cites this paper as [51]
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References 33 · Cited by 22
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Englund L Sick-listing – Attitudes and doctor's practice. With special emphasis on sick-listing practice in primary health care PhD-thesis 2000 Uppsala University, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences
- Potts B Interviews with 12 RTA-employees 2002–2003 2005 Personal communication, GT workshop Mill Valley
- Glaser BG The Grounded Theory Perspective II: Description's Remodeling of Grounded Theory 2003 Mill Valley: Sociology Press
- Glaser BG The Grounded Theory Perspective III: Theoretical Coding 2005 Mill Valley: Sociology Press
- Ekström H Esseveld J Hovelius B Keeping My Ways of Being: Middle-aged women dealing with the passage through menopause The Grounded Theory Review 2005 5 21 53
- Authors
- Thulesius, H. O., & Grahn, B. E.
- Affiliations
- Lund University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Grahn, Birgitta E
- ORCID
- Thulesius, Hans O
- Venue
- BMC Health Services Research
- Published
- 2007-07-03
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 100-100
- ISSN
- 1472-6963 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC1950498
- OpenAlex
- W2104224544
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 5.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Health Services Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Försäkringskassan
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Medical Practices and Rehabilitation
- Social Sciences › Demography › Retirement, Disability, and Employment
- Keywords
- sick leave, absenteeism, work incentives, work disability, driving assessment, return to work, work capacity, repair strategies, sick leave policy, social security
- MeSH terms
- Absenteeism, Adult, Employee Incentive Plans, Employment, Humans, Middle Aged, Motivation, Organizational Innovation, Personnel Management, Psychological Theory, Social Welfare, Sweden, Work, Workplace, Sick Leave, Behavioral Research
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