Course leader presentation: Jan Olav Christensen

Psychosocial Work Characteristics Now and in the Future
8th – 9th of November 2023
Scandic Solli, Oslo, Norway

What is your background?

I am a research professor at the Department of Psychology and Physiology at the National Institute of Occupational Health in Norway, STAMI.

My background is from occupational health psychology, and I have worked with research pertaining to the impact of various aspects of psychosocial work characteristics on psychological and somatic health.

Why do you think psychosocial work characteristics is an important issue to discuss in 2023?

As long as work continues to be a main way of ensuring a good life for human beings, psychosocial working conditions will be important. Society and technology are always transforming, but now it seems more so than ever, with the disruptions of the 2020 pandemic combined with technological breakthroughs such as the artificial intelligence revolution.

Ever since the first industrial revolution, automation of work has been seen as a threat to workers that depend on their jobs for a living, and currently many tasks that until very recently may have been seen as impossible to automate are in fact being automated by artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT. This means that the tasks that humans do at work change, jobs change, and some jobs cease to exist.

All of this affects the psychological and social content and characteristics of work, in positive and negative ways, and we need to understand these implications to ensure a healthy and productive world of work in the future.

What would you like to say to the participants of the course?

We have excellent lecturers with a variety of different areas of expertise pertaining to different aspects of the overarching topic. Also, as the topic is quite wide, it is my hope that the participants bring with them their own experiences and thoughts on the subject matter and actively contribute to in-depth discussions.

By combining the lecturers’ factual knowledge and insights with more explorative discussions I hope all of us will end up with some novel insights about what the most urgent challenges are for anyone seeking to understand the psychosocial characteristics of contemporary work.

More information: Course web page
Registration: Course registration
Last registration date: 5th of October 2023