Differences in psychosocial work risk factors according to the size of the company

Abstract

Bckground: Both in Spanish studies and in other European studies, it is shown how the exposure of workers to psychosocial risk factors, even though they appear to be the same, could be affecting them differently depending on the size of the company from which they work. Objective: To verify if there are significant differences in the perception of psychosocial risks related to the use of personal skills, depending on the size of the company. Method: We evaluated the differences of psychosocial risk factors related to the use of personal skills, depending on the size of the company: (1) basic motor and cognitive skills for the job; (2) social management skills for work; (3) fatigue at work; (4) adaptability to new situations arising from the work environment; and (5) mental burden at work. The sample consisted of 2165 workers (67% men, M age = 38.9 years) of 390 companies in Valencian Community in Spain. These companies were classified into three groups according to their size: Micro enterprise, between 1 and 9 workers; Small company, between 10 and 49 workers; and Medium enterprise, between 50 and 249 workers. The adapted version of the Survey of the Method of Evaluation of the Psychosocial Factors of the INHST was used for the evaluation of psychosocial occupational risk factors. We analyzed the existence of differences between the psychosocial risk factors according to the size of the company using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney test to establish the direction and magnitude of the differences found. Results: There were significant differences in all the psychosocial risk factors analyzed according to the size of the company. It was also confirmed that the basic motor and cognitive skills for work (U = 176836, p = .003, r = .08), fatigue (U = 136144, p = .000, r = .26) (U = 293214, p = .000, r = .09) are perceived with greater risk in larger firms; while social management skills (U = 162188, p = .000, r = .15), as well as the ability to adapt to new situations derived from the work environment (U = 164945, p = .000, r = .13 ), are perceived with greater risk in smaller companies. Conclusions: There is a well-founded need to approach the evaluation of psychosocial risk factors in a differential way between the smaller companies with respect to the larger companies, being necessary the adequacy of the tools that are used to assess them.