Work ability of employees in changing social services and health care organizations in Finland

Objectives: In this study, we examined the connection between organizational changes and employees own evaluations of their work ability. Materials and Methods: In early 2010, we asked employees (n = 2429) working in the Finnish social services and health care industry to identify all the organizational changes that had occurred at their workplaces over the previous two years, and to evaluate their own work ability and whether different statements related to the elements of work ability were true or false at the time of the survey. For our method of analysis, we used logistical regression analysis. Results: In models adjusted for gender, age, marital status, professional education and managerial position, the respondents who had encountered organizational changes were at a higher risk of feeling that their work ability had decreased (OR = 1.49) than the respondents whose workplaces had not been affected by changes. Those respondents who had encountered organizational changes were also at a higher risk of feeling that several elements related to work ability had deteriorated. The risk of having decreased self-evaluated work ability was in turn higher among the respondents who stated they could not understand the changes than among those respondents who understood the changes (OR = 1.99). This was also the case among respondents who felt that their opportunities to be involved in the changes had been poor in comparison to those who felt that they had had good opportunities to be involved in the process (OR = 2.16). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the organizational changes in social and health care may entail, especially when poorly executed, costs to which little attention has been paid until now. When implementing organizational changes, it is vital to ensure that the employees understand why the changes are being made, and that they are given the opportunity to take part in the implementation of these changes.