Research goals and why the work was worth doing: The goal of this study was to contribute to current knowledge of employment and working conditions in academia. As work in academia is increasingly described as stressful, academic faculty may be at risk for adverse health-related outcomes, which in turn may jeopardize the quality of education and research conducted at higher education institutions. Considering the crucial role that teachers and researchers in higher education play in society, it is important to strive to identify ways in which to improve their working conditions. In this study, we examine if and how faculty perceptions of the psychosocial work environment are associated with different health-related outcomes, and explore how these relationships play out for permanent and fixed-term faculty.

Theoretical background: Employment conditions and psychosocial factors have been associated with various health-related outcomes in different occupational groups, but few studies focus on the conditions in academia, particularly Swedish academia. Previous research suggests that the psychosocial work environment may contribute to impaired health and interference between work and family among faculty. Furthermore, temporary employment contracts are commonplace in academia, and may influence employee perceptions of the psychosocial work environment. Moreover, research from other sectors regarding the role of contract type may not generalize to academia. Thus, this study aimed to: 1) investigate the effects of effort, reward, and their interaction to explain burnout, self-rated health, and work-family conflict among faculty in Sweden, and 2) empirically contribute to the research on psychosocial working conditions, contract type, and associated health-related outcomes, including work-family conflict, in academia.

Design/Methodology/Approach/Intervention: Questionnaire data, collected online in 2016, came from 2335 faculty with a doctoral degree, working at higher education institutions in Sweden. The average respondent was 48 years of age, 57 percent were women and 78 percent held permanent contracts. Measures of the psychosocial work environment included effort and reward. Burnout, self-rated health, and work-family conflict constituted the health-related outcomes. Using structural equation modeling, multi-group analysis combined with latent moderation analyses was conducted.

Results obtained: Main effects of effort were found for all health-related outcomes revealing that effort was associated with higher burnout, poorer self-rated health, and greater work-family conflict. Main effects of reward were found for burnout and self-rated health in both contract groups revealing that reward reduced burnout and improved self-rated health. Reward was not significantly associated with work-family conflict. The interaction between effort and reward was significantly associated with all outcomes among permanent contract employees, but was non-significant among those with fixed-term contracts.

Limitations: Future research would benefit from longitudinal studies where both permanent and fixed-term faculty perceptions of the work environment in relation to outcomes of health and well-being could be compared over time.

Conclusions – research and or practical implications/Originality/Value: The results suggest that effort and reward may explain health-related outcomes among academic faculty, with the exception of work-family conflict. Reward does not seem to have beneficial effects for work-family conflict. Furthermore, the results indicate that reward may moderate the relationship between effort and outcomes among permanent faculty, while this may not be the case among fixed-term faculty. Perhaps this is because fixed-term faculty expect an imbalance between effort and reward for some duration of time, in anticipation of eventually securing a permanent contract. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of psychosocial work environment factors to understand health-related consequences for permanent and fixed-term faculty in Swedish academia.

Relevance to the Congress Theme: The conditions in academia continue to change as the characteristics of the job and faculty responsibilities evolve. Moreover, the research and knowledge-production which characterizes academia is constantly reevaluated and updated, reflecting a context which is constantly changing. New research findings must be integrated with prior knowledge, and passed along to the next generation of students.