Gender, quality and health – a study of Swedish secondary school teachers

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences regarding the experience of workplace health and quality management. In this context, we include some factors of work environment that have previously been shown to be related to health such as workplace learning, stress, flow and sense of coherence.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire based on previous research was constructed. It was delivered to a population of Swedish upper secondary school teachers. Three hundred eleven responses were returned. They were analysed for gender differences with t-tests and chi-square tests.FindingsThe results show that women's experience of their health is worse than men's despite having a generally better experience of the quality management values, workplace learning and flow. Moreover, women experience more stress, and they are more often subjected to sexual harassment while men more frequently had been exposed to physical violence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has implications for research in that it indicates that although women have better experiences of many of the factors that previous research has shown to be related to workplace health, their health is actually worse. A limitation is that the response rate was low.Practical implicationsThe findings should be useful for managers attempting to improve the workplace health of their staff. The finding that women report less health than men even though experiencing quality management values more, means that women's health need a particular focus in secondary schools.Originality/valueThe connection between health and quality management has not been previously studied from a gender perspective.