한국인 작업자의 작업능력에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 실증적 연구

Abstract

While the proportion of the elderly (age 65 years and above) population of the Republic of Korea is exceeded 11% of the entire population in 2011, ‘Aging Society’ is getting on to ‘Aged Society’ at the moment. The Aging Society has the problem of increasing the population of the elderly, and the average age of industrial settings is also rising at the same time. The Republic of Korea is one of the highest economical devotion rates for the elderly among the OECD countries. To overcome the phenomena of going to ‘Aged Society’ it in required that the elderly could be in the workforce to balance out the population. To redeem the problem mentioned above, the work ability of workers must be evaluated, in addition, influential factors of their capabilities and degrees of importance should be identified in advance to maintain the work ability. This study was aimed to measure the work ability of Korean workers and to identity the relating factors, which would set up a purpose of Korean workers’ work ability evaluation. In this study, an evaluation system called ‘Work Ability Index (WAI)’ was used and 5,708 Korean workers was involved. After the evaluation, the age factor was crucial requisite. When the age goes up, workers work ability was also positively influenced and the length of workers’ service was increased as well. And administrative position staffs had higher capabilities than site workers, and directly managed workers are better than cooperative firm professions, and mental workers were better than physical workers. The job stress was a main factor for work ability differences, as a references, workers get stress from lack of reward, interpersonal conflict, and organizational system. The musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) were analyzed as an significant element which affect the work ability, and the disorder symptom from waist, leg/foot, hand/wrist/finger area could give serious effects. Results of the study showed that the most important factor to determine the work ability of Korean workers was the stress level of mental state of individuals. So, it was suggested that physical and mental abilities of the WAI category need to be adjusted.