Analysing Swedish population register data, the aim of the present study is to investigate differences in acute cardiovascular disease (CVD) in terms of stroke and myocardial infarction incidence between selfemployed individuals and paid employees and to study whether the associations vary by gender or across industrial sectors. A cohort of nearly 4.8 million employed individuals (6.7% self-employed in 2003) is followed-up for hospitalization due to stroke and myocardial infarction (2004–2008). Self-employed individuals are defined as sole proprietors and limited liability company owners according to legal type of their enterprise. Negative binomial regression models are applied to compare hospitalization rates between the self-employed and paid employees, adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic confounders. Two- and three-way interaction are tested between occupational group, industrial sector, and gender. Limited liability company owners have significantly lower hospitalization for myocardial infarction than paid employees. Regarding two-way interaction,sole proprietors have higher myocardial infarction hospitalization in trade, transport and communication, and lower in agriculture, forestry, and fishing than paid employees. Limited liability company owners have lower hospitalization rate for myocardial infarction than employees in several industries. The results highlight the importance of enterprise legal type and industrial sector for CVD among self-employed individuals.

Purpose – Small-scale enterprises are important for sustainable development in Europe and account for a significant proportion of private enterprises and their large contribution to employment. The overall research aim of the study is to explore workplace health management from the perspective of managers in small-scale enterprises (SSEs) in Norway and Sweden. Methodology – In-depth interviews with 18 managers in SSEs were conducted and a stepwise qualitative analysis was used. Findings – The findings are presented as two main patterns 1) Interorganisational dynamics and 2) Participative leadership. Managers iscussed opportunities for workplace health management to foster solidarity and flexibility in the workplace, the potential of employees for self-governance, and a cultural environment at the workplace characterized by safety, trust, care, loyalty and humour. The managers employed a process-oriented communicator style, were all-rounders, and demonstrated dedicated and distinct management. Managers in small-scale enterprises were lonely problem-solvers and experienced high and conflicting work demands and work-family conflicts. Research limitations – The findings should be interpreted with caution concerning representation of small-scale enterprises generally. The enterprises were recruited from an development project focusing on workplace health management and might therefore have a positive attitude. Originality – This study adds important knowledge regarding the preconditions for creating health-promoting workplaces in SSEs, an area for which limited research exists. The findings provide insights and knowledge about managers’ possibilities and obstacles in workplace health management. The findings could be transferrable to management in similar contexts if managers develop more awareness and knowledge. Practical implications – The managers obtain recommended information about what to do and how to address workplace health management in SSEs.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gaps between experienced working conditions (WCs) and the perceived importance of these conditions in relation to subjective health in Swedish public sector workplaces.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 379 employees answered questions concerning WCs and health. Nine WC areas were created to measure the gap between the experienced WCs and the perceived importance of each condition. These WC areas were: physical work environment, social relationships, communication, leadership, job control, recognition, self-development, workplace culture and work/life satisfaction. Subjective health was measured using mental ill health, well-being and general health.

Findings

The results indicated relatively large gaps in all nine WC areas. Leadership, physical work environment and work/life satisfaction in particular seemed to be problematic areas with relatively large gaps, meaning that employees have negative experiences of these areas while perceiving these areas as very important. Additionally, all WC areas were significantly related to subjective health, especially regarding mental ill health and well-being; the larger the gaps, the worse the subjective health. The WC areas of work/life satisfaction, self-development, social relationships, communication and recognition had the highest relationships and model fits. This indicates that it is most problematic from an employee’s point of view if there are large gaps within these WC areas.

Originality/value

This study improves the understanding of workplace health by exploring the gap between experienced WCs and the perceived importance of these conditions.

Self-employed is an interesting category when it comes to the phenomenon of sickness presence. To our knowledge, there are few studies of sickness presence among self-employed. In addition, earlier studies have indicated that self-employed have a high working pace and work many and irregular ours (Gunnarsson, Vingård, & Josephson, 2007; Nordenmark, Vinberg & Strandh, 2012; Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001), indicating that it can be problematic and frustrating to stay at home because of illness. Also, self-employed can be seen as a group with low replace ability, which can contribute to high sickness presence (Aronsson & Gustafsson, 2005).  Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study the occurrence of sickness presence among self-employed in relation to employees, and to analyse if possible differences between the groups can be explained by different psychosocial working conditions related to work demands and time pressure.

European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job-creation (Eurofound, 2017). The proportion of self-employed individuals in the employed labour force in Europe is around 15 percent. Most of the self-employed choose to become self-employed and have good working conditions and job quality. However, around one of five of the self-employed report that they have no alternative for work and they have lower levels of job quality and worse well-being compared to the former group of self-employed (ibid.). Several studies show that the self-employed have very high decision authority and control how work is organised (Hundley, 2001; Stephan & Roesler, 2010). Conversely, most research on the characteristics of the self-employed finds that they report higher job demands and a higher workload than employees do (Nordenmark et al., 2012; Stephan & Roesler, 2010). In general, research show that self-employment is associated with a higher degree of job satisfaction than regular employment (Benz & Frey, 2004; Blanchflower, 2004: Lange, 2012). Research show that high adjustment latitude can contribute to fewer days of health complaints associated with lower rates of sick leave and sickness presence (Gerich, 2014). However, according to a recent review research concerning other health outcomes among self-employed show contradictory results (Stephan, 2017). Although, research about sickness presence has increased during the last decade relatively few organizational scholars are familiar with the concept (Aronsson & Gustafsson, 2005; Johns, 2010). Sickness presence can cause productivity loss and higher organizational costs than sickness absence (Cooper & Dewe, 2008) and increase the risk for illness among individuals (Bergström et al., 2009). It can be assumed that sickness presence and health among self-employed are particularly crucial in this enterprise group due to that the smallness make them vulnerable.

This present study is based on the fifth European survey on working conditions (EWCS) 2015, which has become an established source of information on working conditions and employment in EU Member States. The independent variable – employment type consists of the categories self-employed (with and without employees) and employees. The main independent variable is sickness presence and is measured by the following question: Over the past 12 months did you work when you were sick (1=Yes, 0=No). Several indicators of work demands, time pressure and background variables are used in the analysis.

Preliminary study results show that self-employed report a higher level of sickness presence than employed; 52.4 verses 43.6 percent. The mean number of working hours is 43.5 among self-employed and 35.4 among employed. Self-employed have worked in the evenings on average nearly 7 days a month, which is more than twice as many times as for employees. It is also twice as usual that self-employed have worked on a Sunday compared to employees.  Self-employed have on average worked in the free time once or twice a month and employees have on average worked on their free time less often. All the differences between self-employed and employed are clearly significant and indicate a higher level of sickness presence and time pressure among self-employed. In a bivariate analysis, self-employed have a significant higher risk for reporting sickness presence. When controlling for the indicators of time pressure this relationship becomes insignificant. This means when holding the indicators of time pressure on a constant level there is no significant difference between self-employed and employed regarding the risk for reporting sickness presence. The indicator that explains the most of the difference in sickness presence between self-employed and employed is work in free time. All indicators of time pressure are significant related to the risk for sickness presence; the more hours worked and the more often worked in evenings, on Sundays and in the free time, the higher the risk for reporting sickness presence. All these variables are also significant associated to the risk for sickness presence when controlling for background characteristics. Age is significantly associated to sickness presence in the way that a higher age reduces the risk for reporting sickness presence. Women more often report sickness presence than men do. Civil status is not significantly associated to sickness presence. Having children increases the risk for sickness presence and having household economic difficulties increases the risk for reporting sickness presence. The indicators of time pressure contribute most to the level of explained variance in all performed regression models.

The results show that self-employed have a significant higher risk for reporting sickness presence than employed have. This difference is explained by the variables measuring time pressure, which indicates that the self-employed have a higher risk of reporting sickness presence because they experience more time pressure. In the extended paper, we will include other psychosocial working conditions as e.g. job control and consider different clusters of self-employed. The contribution to the small group meeting will be knowledge about sickness presence among different groups of self-employed and implications for researchers and practitioners.

Since 2011, the SOPHIE project has accumulated evidence regarding the influence of social and economic policies on the level of health across the population and on health inequalities according to socioeconomic position, gender, and immigrant status. Through comparative analyses and evaluation case studies across Europe, SOPHIE has shown how these health inequalities vary according to contexts in macroeconomics, social protection, labor market, built environment, housing, gender equity, and immigrant integration and may be reduced by equity-oriented policies in these fields. These studies can help public health and social justice advocates build a strong case for fairer social and economic policies that will lead to the reduction of health inequalities that most governments have included among their policy goals. In this article, we summarize the main findings and policy implications of the SOPHIE project and the lessons learned on civil society participation in research and results communication.

Literature shows that self-employed individuals seem to experience more conflict between work and family demands than employees but variation is great, especially among self-employed men and women. For instance, studies suggest that women chooses self-employment as a strategy to balance work and family while men uses self-employment as a way to find employment and earnings. Many self-employed individuals describe a feeling of being always on. Self-employment is closely related to masculine values giving emphasis to long work hours and high job demands. Self-employment is an identity and impede men and women to draw a line between work and private life. It is often argued that this is not a problem in the Nordic countries because of high gender equality. However, quantitative data shows rather the opposite.Sparse literature suggest that both men and women use self-employment as a way to ease conflict between work and family. In recent years the concept of work-life enrichment has grown as an explanation how one role can improve quality in other roles easing conflicts. Research suggest that high job control for self-employed men and women eases conflict demand and perhaps create enrichment.In this study, we analyzed interview data from managers in 18 small scale enterprises (SSE), of which 8 were women and 10 men, in the central regions of Norway and Sweden aiming to gain a deeper understanding of how they men and women construct and relate to work and private life in their role as managers of SSEs.Preliminary results show that self-employed men and women narrate a strong identification in their leader identity resulting in a duality in relation to work and family. We identify that interviewees describe that conflict seams to part of the deal of being a leader. They describe how the strong leader identity legitimate a high level of conflict among both men and women. This is in line with the notion that self-employment builds on masculine values and women, though being the main responsible of the home, seem to construct these male values. Meanwhile, the strong leader identity is used as a way to construct balance. In their role as managers and leaders they are allowed to be flexible, more flexible than their employees. However, this flexibility is often used as a way to fit work around family. Lastly, interviewees describe how managerial identity contribute to a work-life enrichment. High job identification gave the leader self-esteem, skills and perspectives which produced a positive affect in relation to work.

Small-scale enterprises (SSEs) are important for ensuring growth, innovation, job creation, in addition to social integration in working life. Research shows that SSEs pay little attention to and have insufficient competence in workplace health management. From the perspective of managers, this study explores how external factors influence the development of this management. The article refers to a case study between eight Norwegian and ten Swedish managers of SSEs in the middle part of Norway and Sweden. We used a stepwise qualitative approach to analyse data, using an interpretive indexing of main categories. Two main categories were found to have an influence on the development of workplace health- management: (1) Restricted leeway and (2) Commitments. Concerning the first main category, areas that managers highlight as important comprise the legal framework and regulations; workforce and market situation, production, finances; and occupational safety and health issues. Areas related to the second main category were advice from the board, guidance from mentors, work-related networks, and family and friends as buffers. One conclusion is that despite limited scope for developing workplace health anagement, managers find supportive guidance and inspiration from environments that are committed to helping them and their enterprise.