Psychosocial Resources in Health Care Systems

Jobs and organizations are changing more and more rapidly. These changes go along with increasing demands, job insecurity, and feelings of stress and overload. Although all economic sectors are confronted with such drastic changes and negative consequences, this book shows that there are of a special nature in the human service industry. However, at the same time, many changes also pose challenges and produce resources that may cause learning, growth, and development.

In addition to the more traditional view that focuses on the negative effects of organizational change, this book also emphasizes the potential positive aspects. Since 1985 the European Network of Organizational Psychologists (ENOP) has initiated a series of conferences in the field of health care. The IX conference took place in October 2005 in Dresden.

Traditionally, job stress factors and mental health have been the main topics in earlier conferences but since the turn of the century a positive approach emerged that focused on resources instead of demands and on well-being instead of stress. Therefore, the Dresden conference focused on "Psychological Resources in Human Service Work". This volume includes 15 contributions from authors of 9 countries from Europe and Canada.

The contributions are structured in three sections. The first section includes chapters about work conditions and organizational changes in human service work, especially in nurses and teachers. The second section deals with organizational and emotional stress factors, and well-being. The final section includes chapters about knowledge work in health care and competence training.