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“Background Stress-related mental disorders and musculoskeletal disorders are the

two most important factors behind long-term sick leave in Sweden and account for a considerable amount of the total economic burden on society, companies and organizations (Statistics Sweden 2010). Regarding human MEK162 research buy service organizations in Sweden, structural changes during the 1990s led to a decrease in the total number Selleck VS-4718 of employees from 1.6 million in 1992 to 1.3 million in 2001 (Statistics Sweden 2008). This influenced not only the governing of human service organizations, but also daily tasks and performances within the organizations (Hertting et al. 2004). Along with the decrease in the number of employees, long-term sick

leave due to mental disorders started to increase, and psychosocial stress at work was identified as a predominant factor behind this increase (Stefansson 2006). This rise in sick leave continued until 2003. Since then, the total amount of sick leave has gone down considerably,

but still both mental disorders and musculoskeletal disorders constitutes a major reason for long-term sick leave and productivity loss within the Swedish workforce (Statistics Sweden 2011). Results from previously conducted studies have also indicated that these disorders are especially common among women working in human service organizations (Leijon et al. 2004; Fronteira and Ferrinho 2011). Several studies have shown that reduced working capacity is a predictor of long-lasting sickness, absence and that persons at risk often scored high on instruments measuring different ID-8 aspects of work-related stress (Ahola et al. 2008; Borritz et al. 2010). Moreover, it is well known that loss in productivity caused by a decreased working capacity due to medical conditions increases the so-called “hidden costs” among companies and organizations both in the long- and short-time perspectives (Stewart et al. 2003b). Thus, it is therefore of vital importance to investigate antecedents of decreased work performance and work ability in order to implement preventive strategies. The term work performance could be defined as a combination of both quantitative and qualitative aspects of performing a work task by a worker or a work group. To objectively measure these dimensions of work are difficult, hence, most studies in this field use self-reports (de Vries et al. 2012; Waghorn and Chant 2011).