Injustice at work and incidence of psychiatric morbidity: the Whitehall II study

Jane Ferrie ^1*, Jenny Head ¹, Martin J Shipley ¹, Jussi Vahtera ², Michael G Marmot ¹ and Mika Kivimaki ²

¹ University College London, United Kingdom
² Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.ferrie{at}public-health.ucl.ac.uk.

Accepted 24 March 2006

Abstract

Aim: Previous studies of organisational justice and mental health have mostly examined women and have not examined the effect of change in justice. Using a cohort with a large proportion of men we examined effects of change in the treatment of employees by supervisors (the relational component of organisational justice) on minor psychiatric morbidity.

Methods: Data are from the Whitehall II study, a prospective cohort of 10,308 white-collar British civil servants; 3143 women and 6895 men, aged 35-55 at baseline (Phase 1, 1985-88). Employment grade, relational justice, job demands, job control, social support at work, effort-reward imbalance, physical illness and psychiatric morbidity were measured at baseline. Relational justice was assessed again at Phase 2 (1989-90). The outcome was cases of psychiatric morbidity by Phases 2 and 3 (1991-93) among participants case-free at baseline.

Results: In analyses adjusted for age, grade and baseline physical illness, women and men exposed to low relational justice at Phase 1 were at higher risk of psychiatric morbidity by Phases 2 and 3. Adjustment for other psychosocial work characteristics, particularly social support and effort-reward imbalance, partially attenuated these associations. A favourable change in justice between Phase 1 and Phase 2 reduced the immediate risk (Phase 2) of psychiatric morbidity, whilst an adverse change increased the immediate and longer-term risk (Phase 3).

Conclusion: This study shows that unfair treatment by supervisors increases risk of poor mental health. It appears that the employers' duty to ensure employees are treated fairly at work also has benefits for health.

Keywords: GHQ, minor psychiatric morbidity, organisational justice, psychosocial work characteristics, white collar

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Injustice at work and health: causation or correlation?

I Kawachi
Occup. Environ. Med. 2006 63: 578-579. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kaikkonen, R., Rahkonen, O., Lallukka, T., Lahelma, E. (2009). Physical and psychosocial working conditions as explanations for occupational class inequalities in self-rated health. Eur J Public Health 19: 458-463 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Elovainio, M., Ferrie, J. E., Gimeno, D., De Vogli, R., Shipley, M., Brunner, E. J., Kumari, M., Vahtera, J., Marmot, M. G., Kivimaki, M. (2009). Organizational Justice and Sleeping Problems: The Whitehall II Study. Psychosom. Med. 71: 334-340 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Nyberg, A, Alfredsson, L, Theorell, T, Westerlund, H, Vahtera, J, Kivimaki, M (2009). Managerial leadership and ischaemic heart disease among employees: the Swedish WOLF study. Occup. Environ. Med. 66: 51-55 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Netterstrom, B., Conrad, N., Bech, P., Fink, P., Olsen, O., Rugulies, R., Stansfeld, S. (2008). The Relation between Work-related Psychosocial Factors and the Development of Depression. Epidemiol Rev 30: 118-132 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kouvonen, A., Oksanen, T., Vahtera, J., Stafford, M., Wilkinson, R., Schneider, J., Vaananen, A., Virtanen, M., Cox, S. J., Pentti, J., Elovainio, M., Kivimaki, M. (2008). Low Workplace Social Capital as a Predictor of Depression: The Finnish Public Sector Study. Am J Epidemiol 167: 1143-1151 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Smith, P, Beaton, D (2008). Measuring change in psychosocial working conditions: methodological issues to consider when data are collected at baseline and one follow-up time point. Occup. Environ. Med. 65: 288-296 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kouvonen, A., Kivimaki, M., Elovainio, M., Vaananen, A., De Vogli, R., Heponiemi, T., Linna, A., Pentti, J., Vahtera, J. (2008). Low organisational justice and heavy drinking: a prospective cohort study. Occup. Environ. Med. 65: 44-50 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kivimaki, M., Ferrie, J. E., Shipley, M., Gimeno, D., Elovainio, M., de Vogli, R., Vahtera, J., Marmot, M. G., Head, J. (2008). Effects on Blood Pressure Do Not Explain the Association Between Organizational Justice and Coronary Heart Disease in the Whitehall II Study. Psychosom. Med. 70: 1-6 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Smith, P., Frank, J., Bondy, S., Mustard, C. (2008). Do Changes in Job Control Predict Differences in Health Status? Results From a Longitudinal National Survey of Canadians. Psychosom. Med. 70: 85-91 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kivimaki, M., Vahtera, J., Elovainio, M., Virtanen, M., Siegrist, J. (2007). Effort-reward imbalance, procedural injustice and relational injustice as psychosocial predictors of health: complementary or redundant models?. Occup. Environ. Med. 64: 659-665 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ferrie, J. E, Head, J. A, Shipley, M. J, Vahtera, J., Marmot, M. G, Kivimaki, M. (2007). Injustice at work and health: causation, correlation or cause for action?. Occup. Environ. Med. 64: 428-428 [Full Text]  
• Kouvonen, A., Vahtera, J., Elovainio, M., Cox, S. J, Cox, T., Linna, A., Virtanen, M., Kivimaki, M. (2007). Organisational justice and smoking: the Finnish public sector study. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 61: 427-433 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Kawachi, I (2006). Injustice at work and health: causation or correlation?. Occup. Environ. Med. 63: 578-579 [Full Text]  
• Palmer, K. (2006). Work in brief. Occup. Environ. Med. 63: 437-437 [Full Text]