• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.9-14
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• 2008

Work ability and job stress have become the important issues in Korea workplace recently. This study researched work ability and job stress and analyzed correlation with work ability and job stress using the Work Ability Index(WAI) and the Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire against 152 doctors. The results of this study show that the work ability in doctors was good in general. The work ability and the job stress according to major show statistical significance. The relation between job stress and disease showed statistical significance in musculoskeletal disorders, heart disease, and metabolic disease. The correlations between work ability and job stress showed statistical significance in job demand and job control. This study can be utilized to improve the job ability and prevent some disease from the job stress of doctors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.85-89
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• 2008

Work ability and job stress have become the important issues in Korean workplace recently. This study researched work ability and job stress and also analyzed correlation with work ability and job stress using the Work Ability Index and the Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire against 742 subway workers. As the results, Work ability in subway workers was good in general. The relation between job stress and job type showed statistical significance (p<0.05). The relation between job stress and diseases showed statistical significance in musculoskeletal disorders(p<0.05), heart disease, and gastrointestinal disease. The correlations between work ability and job stress showed statistical significance in job demand and social support(p<0.05). The result of this study could be useful to manage the work ability of aging worker and the job stress in industry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 2022

Background: The IMPPAC cohort (Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial aspects and work ability among Brazilian workers) seeks to understand the impact of the pandemic on Brazilian workers. This article describes the occupational profile, psychosocial aspects, and work ability determined during the baseline and follow-up measurements of the cohort. Methods: Workers were invited to participate through media advertisements, social networks, and emails. From June to September 2020, 1211 workers were included in the cohort. Follow-up measurements finished on October 2021 with 633 workers. Data were collected through standardized questionnaires using Google Forms. Psychosocial aspects were assessed using the COPSOQ II-Br. Work ability was assessed using the Work Ability Index (WAI). Results: At baseline and follow-up, high proportion of workers were in the risk zone with regard to work pace, emotional work demands, influence on work, work-family conflict, burnout, and stress. Approximately 75% of the workers reported good to excellent work ability at baseline and follow-up. Conclusion: The occupational profile, psychosocial aspects, and work ability of Brazilian workers from the IMPPAC cohort were described. Psychosocial aspects and WAI were similar at baseline and follow-up.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.197-201
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the work ability of employees using the work ability index(WAI) and to confirm factors affecting the work ability of employees in the Korean machinery industry. In this study, correlations between the WAI score and variables affecting the work ability of employees(age, the class of the employee's position the character of the work and the type of the work) were analysed by the correlation analysis. The study population was consisted of employees from Korean machinery industry(n=446) and the WAI questionnaire was more or less modified considering actual circumstances in Korean. The WAI score of entire employees was slightly high (WAI score=42, Level=Good) and the WAI score of employees under 29 years of age was slightly higher than that of employees over 30 years of no. As a result of one-way ANOVA and correlation analysis, the character of the work and the type of the work were variables affecting the WAI score and the WAI score of physical/mental workers was higher than that of physical workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2011

Recently, personal characteristics of organizational members arc regarded as an important factor that affects performance of organization. In addition, job stress is attributed to one of main factors that result in poor work ability and high turnover rate. In this study, job stress, work ability and DISC personality types were surveyed targeting 292 of foreman in shipbuilding company. The relationships between job stress and personal characteristics including personality types and correlation between job stress and work ability were analyzed based on the result of survey. As a result of statistical analysis, there were six statistically significant relationships between job stress and age, job tenure, work type, hobbies, exercise, personality types. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant relationship between work ability and exercise. Furthermore, negative correlation between job stress and work ability were found. In accordance with these analysis, this study presented how to improve work ability by managing job stress items and personal characteristics that affect the stress and the stress level.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.15-25
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• 2021

Purpose: The greatest asset to all organizations is the employees and they should be guarded against factors hindering their work ability. Nevertheless, most organizations are always more concerned about making profits to the extent of forgetting their employee's welfare. On this point, this study aims to examine employee's work-related stress and its relationship with work ability. Research design, data and methodology: This study focused on obtaining mostly peer-reviewed works to suggest research findings, assuming that qualitative literature approach allows researchers to explore in-depth information concerning complex issues in a standard life setting. Numerous prior researchers applied their research design in content analysis, especially where various concepts are present for analysis. Results: Based on numerous qualitative textual resources, this study found that human resource practitioners should plan stress management strategies for their employees to apply five kinds of solutions that the current study suggests because it is vital to ensure their wellbeing towards sustaining their performance. Conclusions: All in all, based on the findings, this study concludes that employee's work stress negatively impacts their work ability with affecting their mental health. As a result, there is little doubt that practitioners should regularly monitor the working environment for stress-related factors besides creating a healthy working environment for all employees.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.303-316
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• 2008

For the past 25 years, Korean semiconductor has experienced enormous growth to be the highest production country in the world. Semiconductor industry is very time sensitive and driven by technology and process, and requires 24-hour full operation. The environment includes many different types of equipment, utilities, different gases and toxic chemicals as well as high voltage electricity. We have performed a survey with 3-shift engineers and workers in one line. The content of the questionnaire was about the correlation between fatigue and performance shaping factor (work type and work ability), and as a result we were able to deduce the correlation, p-value and the pattern of scatter plot. The shape of the model was made of 4 blocks for fatigue, 5 blocks for work type and 5 blocks for work ability, i. e. 14 blocks in total. As a conclusion to this findings, there was a correlation between fatigue and work type and work ability specifically in semiconductor industry, and we need some effort to reduce this.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.129-135
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• 2014

In recent studies, construction industry workers with higher job stress and lower work ability were more likely to experience accidents at their workplace. Likewise, fatal accidents rate was higher among simple labor workers compared to technical workers. Therefore the evaluation of a worker's job stress and work ability seems to be important in preventing the occurrence of fatal accidents. To search for ways to reduce job stress and to improve work ability, the current study conducted a job stress analysis based on age, years of service, skill level, hobbies, sleep patterns, and monthly income. For this, the Korean occupational stress questionnaire short form and the Work Ability Index (WAI) developed by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) were used. In this study, SPSS 12.0K statistics program was used for statistical analysis and significance was verified by the Kruskal-Wallis test and non-parametric tests. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : (1) Simple labor workers had higher job stress and less work ability than technical workers. (2) The more experienced workers had lower job stress and higher work ability. (3) In the case of workers who slept a lot, work ability was higher and job stress was less. (4) Monthly income influenced on the job stress and work ability. (5) Job stress and work ability in accordance with the age difference was not significant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.101-107
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• 2012

The statistics of industrial accident reported by ministry of Employment and Labor denoted a significant increase of musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) after 1993, and showed the higher incident rate by 71.3% over the overall worker's disorders. Also, it was expected that Korean society will become the post-aged society in 2026 with 20.8% of elderly who is over 65 years old. The reports suggest possible problems caused by the older worker known to have reduced working ability than the young counterparts. On this basis, the goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between MSDs symptoms and work ability in the shipbuilding industry. To achieve this goal, this study distributed a questionnaire for total 1,244 shipbuilding employers, and used 910 employers' reports which revealed validity for this study. The questionnaire included the MSDs symptoms report developed by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Association(KOSHA) and the work ability index(WAI) developed by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health(FIOH). Results showed no relationship between MSDs symptoms and age, years of work and exercise. Also, the work ability was increased until 44 years old, but it was decreased after that time because of the reduced physical capacity. Meanwhile, the years of work and exercise have positive correlation with work ability. However, the results revealed significant relationships between WAI and age, years of work, task characteristics and exercise. All together, the MSDs symptoms have a close relationship with the work ability in that the work ability of workers with the MSDs symptoms was reduced. This study may suggest the needs of more efforts and attention on the MSDs prevention to increase the work ability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2022.11a
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• pp.91-92
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• 2022

The construction industry is highly dependent on human resources and changes the degree of completion of construction work depending on the level of performance of engineers. As women's social advancement has recently expanded, the construction industry is also experiencing a large influx. Therefore, it can be seen that not only male engineers' ability to carry out work but also female engineers' ability to carry out work is important. Therefore, this study investigated the actual work conditions and work performance capabilities of female engineers and presented them as basic data for the construction of work capability improvement measures.