Health Promotion International Advance Access originally published online on September 18, 2008
Health Promotion International 2008 23(4):302-310; doi:10.1093/heapro/dan028
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Employees' job satisfaction after the introduction of a total smoke-ban in bars and restaurants in Norway
1Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway 2Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stavanger, Norway
* Corresponding author. E-mail: joern.hetland{at}psych.uib.no
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SUMMARY |
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 TOP SUMMARY INTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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The aim of the study was to investigate possible effects of a total smoke-ban in Norwegian bars and restaurants (introduced on June 1st 2004) on employees' job satisfaction. A national representative sample was randomly selected from the public registry of all companies in the hospitality business. A baseline survey was conducted in May 2004, follow-up measurements were performed in September/October 2004 and May 2005. Altogether, 1525 employees agreed to participate in the baseline survey. Among respondents at baseline, 894 (59.4%) remained in the sample at the first follow-up and 758 (49.7%) at the second follow-up. Analysis of variance for repeated measures revealed a significant three-way interaction between personal smoking behaviour, attitudes towards the ban before it was enacted and time from baseline to the second follow-up. A small decline in job satisfaction was found between baseline and the first follow-up among employees who were daily smokers and had a negative attitude towards the ban. There was, however, an increase in job satisfaction between the first and second follow-up among the others (non-smokers and smokers with a positive attitude towards the ban). While job satisfaction was higher among smokers with negative attitudes towards the ban than among other employees before the ban entered into force, the opposite was the case one year later. The work environments in bars and restaurants seem to have changed towards being more satisfactory for non-smokers and smokers with positive attitudes towards the ban before it was enacted. In contrast, a small but persisting worsening of job satisfaction was found among employees that were daily smokers and had a negative attitude towards the ban.
Key words: job satisfaction; smoke-ban; attitudes; smoking behavior
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INTRODUCTION |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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On 1 June 2004, the Norwegian legislation was changed to a total smoke-ban in all bars and restaurants. This was done by making a change in the already existing law of 1988, which ensured other Norwegian workers a smoke-free environment. Together with Ireland, Norway was a pioneer European country in this sense, but other countries, such as England, Wales, Scotland, Iceland, New Zealand and others, have later introduced similar bans.
The purpose of a total smoke ban was first and foremost to improve working conditions for employees in bars and restaurants and protect them from second-hand smoke. Research has linked the introduction of a total smoke-ban to improvement of respiratory symptoms among employees in bars and restaurants (Eisner et al., 1998
; Eagan et al., 2006; Skogstad et al., 2006), as well as the indoor air quality (Mulcahy et al., 2005; Ellingsen et al., 2006). Despite a growing amount of studies addressing possible positive health effects accompanying the introduction of a smoke ban among employees in the hospitality business, less attention has been given to possible psychosocial effects, such as employees' job satisfaction, of a total smoke ban.
Job satisfaction is an overall indicator of the well-being among workers and is regarded as a most central concept in organizational psychology (Judge et al., 2001). Locke (Locke, 1976) defined job satisfaction as ‘a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences’. Thus, as job satisfaction is related to perceptions of the work environment, factors such as exposure to cigarette smoke in one's working environment could be related to job satisfaction in the hospitality business.
To our knowledge, no studies have directly addressed job satisfaction in relation to introduction of smoke-free environments in bars and restaurants. The introduction of a ban on smoking could be linked to increased job satisfaction because of better air quality and less second-hand smoke. In line with this, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions was largely positive towards the ban because of the expected improved working conditions in bars and restaurants (Lund, 2006). Furthermore, the majority of research on economical consequences informed by tax authority statistics of a total smoke ban in bars and restaurants reveals that bars and restaurants do not lose revenue after becoming smoke-free (Eisner et al., 1998; Glauert, 2004). Despite these facts, job security and therefore also job satisfaction among employees could decrease when introducing such a ban. Research has revealed that workers in the hospitality business have been concerned about possible bankruptcies and loss of jobs due to introduction of smoking bans (Jones et al., 1999). These concerns were also supported by the Norwegian Hospitality Association prior to the introduction of the ban.
Individual factors, such as employees' own smoking habits and attitudes towards smoking restrictions, may also be related to their perceptions of their work environment before and after a total ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. Since many of the employees in the hospitality business are themselves smokers, it is of interest to distinguish between effects of such a ban on smokers versus non-smokers. A smoke-ban might interfere with the daily routines of smokers more than non-smokers, and therefore have negative consequences for their job satisfaction. In contrast, research on possible health effects has shown a decline in respiratory symptoms especially among non-smokers (Eagan et al., 2006), which may suggest that the improvement of job environment to a larger degree would be found among non-smokers.
Another potentially important factor is the employees' personal attitudes towards the introduction. Along these lines, attitudes towards smoking restrictions have been researched as a key factor for implementation (Jones et al., 1999). There is also a relationship between attitudes and own smoking behaviour, as only 25% of daily smokers in Norway were positive towards a smoke-ban before the law was introduced (Lund, 2006).
This article addresses how job satisfaction among employees in the hospitality business changed after introduction of the total ban on smoking, and explores how this change was related to smoking habits and attitudes towards the ban prior to its introduction.
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METHODS |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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Sample
From the public register of all companies in the hospitality business in Norway, a sample of companies within the target industries were randomly selected. The selected companies were contacted by telephone in May 2004, and a strictly standardized telephone interview was conducted with at least one of their employees who were willing to participate. To ensure random selection of employees within companies, a procedure with random selection by the first letter in the surname was used. The interview was scheduled to last approximately 10 min. The respondents were given the choice to respond by telephone or on an internet website. In order to enhance participation in the study, a price of EUR 1300 for a vacation would be offered to one randomly selected participant. All participants were informed that they would be contacted again for later follow-up interviews.
Two follow-up studies were conducted in September/October 2004 and May 2005. Altogether 1525 employees agreed to participate in the baseline survey where 1337 responded by phone and 188 responded on the website. Among the respondents at baseline, 894 (58.6%) and 758 (49.7%) respondents were found and these agreed to participate at the first and second follow-up, respectively. Overall, 580 (38%) of the respondents participated at all three measurement occasions.
A summary of the study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics for Western Norway, the governing oversight body for human subjects review, located at the University of Bergen, Faculty of Medicine.
Measurements
In order to ensure a similar and unbiased wording of each question, the telephone interviewers followed a strict setup for the sequence of the questions, and all the questions were read from a manuscript. One of the main purposes of the study was to detect possible changes in the employees' job satisfaction and the employees' own smoking behaviour before and after the total ban of smoking in bars and restaurants in Norway.
Job satisfaction was measured by five items from the original Brayfield and Rothe's index for job satisfaction suggested in Judge et al. (Judge et al., 2001). The items were translated into Norwegian, and a back translation test was conducted in order to detect and handle possible translation problems. The items are presented in Appendix A. Preliminary analyses of internal consistency (alpha test) revealed that the alpha would be improved substantially (0.69 to 0.77) by removing one item from scale (item 3, appendix A). For subsequent analyses, a sum score consisting of the four remaining items were computed, in which one item (item 5) was recoded in order to have the same direction as the others. Analysis of possible cluster effects due to sampling procedures revealed that only 0.14% of the variance in job satisfaction was explained by company affiliation. The standard deviations for the job satisfaction sum score at the three measurements were 0.59, 0.65 and 0.69, respectively.
Statistical analyses
Possible differences in baseline characteristics by response or non-response at the follow-up measurements were tested by 
2. Furthermore changes in mean level of job satisfaction between specific measurements were estimated and tested by t-tests for correlated measures. Mean scores for each data collection occasion were estimated and changes were tested for total sample, as well as by employees' smoking behaviour and their attitudes towards the ban before it was enacted. The questions on smoking allowed three categories for response; non-smoking, occasional and daily smoking, and occasional smokers were grouped with daily smokers when defining a four-category variable describing changes in smoking habits (persistent non-smokers, persistent smokers, quitters and starters) between specific measurements.
Possible changes in job satisfaction from baseline to the second follow-up (1 year after baseline) were additionally tested by ANOVA for repeated measures revealing possible differences in change by smoking behaviour before the ban, attitudes before the ban, as well as other predictors. To assure that there were a sufficient number of subjects across smoking groups in the analyses, the smoking variable at baseline was dichotomised into non-smokers or occasional smokers and daily smokers. In the analyses, only subjects participating at all measurements were included (n = 580).
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RESULTS |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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Table 1 presents the sample characteristics at baseline. Comparatively, there is a larger proportion of daily smokers in the study sample than in the population overall (52% versus approximately 26%).
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About 50% of the sample reported a positive attitude towards the ban before it was enacted. No differences in response rates at the two follow-up measurements were found across baseline characteristics and study variables (Table 2), except for a significant lower response rate in youngest age group (age 15–29) compared with the older age groups. This may indicate a higher degree of turnover among the younger employees in the sample. Furthermore, no-systematic attrition was found in the mean level of job satisfaction between responders and non-responders at the two follow-up measurements.
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Table 3 shows the mean level of job satisfaction over time by personal smoking behaviours and by attitudes towards the ban prior to the enactment of the ban. When looking at the overall change in job satisfaction across the three measurements, the table shows that there is a small but significant decrease in job satisfaction from baseline to the first follow-up measurement, followed by an equally small but significant increase from the first to the second follow-up. For non-smokers there is a slightly, but still significantly, higher level of job satisfaction at the second follow-up compared with the baseline measurement, and the first follow-up. Furthermore, a significant decrease in job satisfaction is found among employees who smoke from baseline to the first follow-up, while no significant differences are found between the second follow-up and the two prior measurements. No significant differences are found among quitters and beginners between the measurements.
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Some significant differences are also detected when examining employees' job satisfaction across time by personal attitudes towards the ban before the enactment. A small decrease in job satisfaction among employees who were negative towards the ban is found between baseline and the first follow-up, whereas a small increase is found for the employees who were positive towards the ban before the enactment from the first to the second follow-up. However, no significant differences are detected between the baseline measurement and the second follow-up across the specific attitudes.
To provide a more formal test of possible interactions between predictor variables and change in job satisfaction from baseline to the second follow-up, analyses of variance for repeated measures were conducted subsequently (Table 4). A significant interaction was found for smoking behaviour. The interaction between change over time and attitudes towards the ban was borderline significant (p = 0.053). Estimated mean scores indicate a small decrease in job satisfaction among daily smokers, whereas there is a small increase in job satisfaction among employees who are occasional or non-smokers. Estimated mean scores indicate that there is a decrease in job satisfaction across time among those who were negative towards the ban, whereas there is an increase among those who were positive. The mean scores among the employees who were neutral towards the ban before it was enacted were virtually constant.
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Based on the results presented in Table 4, additional analyses were conducted to test for a possible three-way interaction between smoking behaviour, attitudes and change in job satisfaction from baseline to the second follow-up. In order to have a sufficient number of subjects in the different groups, the attitude variable was recoded into a dichotomous variable separating those who were positive or neutral from those who were negative towards the ban. The analysis reveals, in addition to a significant interaction between smoking behaviour and change in job satisfaction (p <0 .05), a significant three-way interaction (p <0.05), indicating a different developmental pattern by smoking behaviour and attitudes before the ban. While all other groups showed a modest increase in job satisfaction 1 year after the baseline measurement (
= 0.061, 0.030 and 0.138, for positive/neutral non- or occasional smokers, positive/neutral daily smokers and negative occasional or non-smokers, respectively), those who were daily smokers and had a negative attitude towards the ban prior to the ban showed a lower level of job satisfaction after the introduction of the ban (= –0.186). Figure 1 illustrates the change in job satisfaction across all three measurement occasions for daily smokers with a negative attitude towards the ban (n = 118, 20.4% of the total sample) compared with a combined group consisting of positive or neutral non- or occasional smokers, positive/neutral daily smokers and negative occasional or non-smokers (n = 460). The figure reveals in line with the prior results a different developmental pattern for smokers with a negative attitude than the combined group (p < 0.01). For smokers with a negative attitude towards the ban, there was a persisting drop in job satisfaction from baseline to the two follow-up measurements, while for the combined group there was a slight decrease in the level of job satisfaction from baseline to the first follow-up (5 months later), followed by a delayed increase from the first to the second follow-up (1 year later). Examination of the developmental pattern within the separate groups in the combined group reveals an almost identical pattern across these groups. In order to examine whether the mean changes within the groups were due to small change of a majority of employees or a large change in a minority of employees, a difference score between the baseline measurement score and the final measurement was calculated. The difference score indicated that there had been a negative change in job satisfaction among 36.4% of the daily smokers with a negative attitude before the ban, while 33.9% showed no change, and 29.7% had a positive change. For the combined group, consisting of all other respondents, a positive change in the level of job satisfaction was found for 36.2% of the respondents, while 34.7% showed no change, and 29.1% showed a negative change.
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DISCUSSION |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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Two different patterns of change in job satisfaction by employees' smoking behaviour and attitude towards the ban were found following the introduction of total smoke ban in bars and restaurants in Norway. The overall changes in job satisfaction that have been observed may look different when specific subgroups are examined. For the majority of the employees, a small increase in job satisfaction was found 1 year after the baseline measurement, while a small and persisting reduction in job satisfaction was found among employees who were daily smokers and had a negative attitude towards the ban before it was enacted.
Overall, the present paper reveals only small changes in job satisfaction among employees in the hospitality business, and the results show a high level of job satisfaction before as well as after the introduction of the ban. However, despite the fact that the overall job satisfaction over time is high, a small and temporary decrease in the employees' job satisfaction was found 5 months after the baseline measurement. As resistance to change is a common reaction (Yukl, 2006), this momentary decline in job satisfaction may be interpreted as a general reaction towards a major and novel change in the employees' working environment. Furthermore, the decline in job satisfaction may be understood in light of a possible increase in job insecurity experienced by the employees following the introduction of the ban (Witte, 1999). Finally, based on the results in the present paper, it is also important to take into account the possible effects of employees' own smoking behaviour, as well as their attitudes towards the ban, when analysing the patterns of change in job satisfaction.
The findings in the present study confirm that among employees in the hospitality business, there are a higher proportion of daily smokers than in the Norwegian adult population in general. When weighted by the sample age distribution of the present sample, 27% of the adult population in Norway were daily smokers in 2003. The corresponding proportion in the current sample was 52% at baseline. It is probable that quite many of the restaurant employees who were smokers have or had a quite emotional relationship to smoking, since it typically used to constitute an essential part of the organizational culture, involving employees as well as their restaurant guest. Thus, it is a reasonable assumption that employees' own smoking status may be related to the perceived level of an emotional construct such as job satisfaction, before and after a total ban of smoking on their workplace premises. Based on existing evidence of improved air quality (Mulcahy et al., 2005; Ellingsen et al., 2006), and improved respiratory health among non-smoking employees in bars and restaurants (Eisner et al., 1998; Eagan et al., 2006; Skogstad et al., 2006), the introduction of a smoke ban may especially improve the job satisfaction among non-smoking employees. Consequently, employees who themselves smoke could be less likely to be satisfied with a smoke-free working environment. Furthermore, employees who smoke regularly may experience that it is less convenient to smoke during their working hours, and smoking personnel may in general perceive that it is less socially accepted to be a smoker. Central values and norms in the organizational culture (Schein, 1985) may then have shifted, to the disadvantage of the daily smokers and their degrees of freedom when it comes to maintenance of their habits concerning smoking. In line with these assumptions, the current paper shows evidence of a slight improvement in job satisfaction among employees who are non-smokers, as well as some evidence of a moderate decrease in the level of job satisfaction among employees who smoke.
The results in the present study also suggest that employees' attitudes towards the ban before it was enacted interact with the change in job satisfaction after the introduction of the ban to some degree. There is some evidence of an increase in job satisfaction among employees who were positive towards the ban before it was enacted, and a decrease among employees who were negative towards the ban. It is presumable that employees who had a positive attitude prior to the ban, to a larger degree experienced discomfort from tobacco smoke in their workplaces before the ban, and benefited from the improvements accompanying the introduction of the ban. On the other hand, employees with a negative attitude were perhaps more likely to perceive possible negative sides of the introduction of the ban e.g. frequency of patronage and job insecurity. Furthermore, as a larger portion of the employees who were negative towards the ban were themselves smokers, they may as mentioned earlier experience increased inconvenience when wishing to smoke during working hours. In line with this, there is evidence of a persisting decrease in job satisfaction particularly among employees who concurrently were daily smokers and portrayed negative attitudes towards the ban before it was enacted.
Although the longitudinal design in the present study is a clear advantage when studying processes of change, some methodological considerations are in place. The fact that the smoke ban was introduced in all of Norway at the same time made it impossible to have an appropriate control group within the Norwegian hospitality business. One may argue that comparing with neighbouring countries (e.g. Denmark and Sweden) could have been a possible solution to this weakness. However, differences in smoking habits, contextual factors and legislation may question the suitability of such a comparison.
The response rates at the two follow-up measurements were 58.6% and 49.7%, and it is therefore appropriate to question whether systematic attrition may have influenced the results. When examining response rate by baseline characteristics, a significantly higher attrition was found among the youngest age group compared to the older age groups from baseline to the second follow-up. However, this finding is consistent with the literature within the field of organizational psychology, reporting a higher degree of voluntary and involuntary turnover among younger employees across organizations (Cotton and Tuttle, 1986, Somers, 1996).
In general, there seems to be a somewhat lower level of job satisfaction among the youngest group of employees. This finding is in accordance with general literature on job satisfaction. Research has shown that age and job satisfaction are related (Spector, 1997). A meta-analysis of 19 studies demonstrated that in general job satisfaction increases with age (Brush et al., 1987), even though others have found a curvilinear relation (Zeitz, 1990), with lower levels of job satisfaction among employees in the last part of their career. Wright and Hamilton proposed that older workers are more satisfied with their jobs than younger workers because they are more accepting of authority and expect less from their jobs (Wright and Hamilton, 1978). Another likely mechanism is that older workers have better jobs and more skill than their younger counterparts, and therefore have better opportunities to stay satisfied (Spector, 1997).
In conclusion, the present paper indicates that the employees' job satisfaction was only moderately affected by the introduction of a total ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in Norway. However, there is evidence of a delayed improvement of the job satisfaction taking place for a majority of the employees during the first year after the ban. In contrast a modest, but persisting, worsening of the job satisfaction among employees who were daily smokers had a negative attitude towards the ban. These results suggest that both employees' smoking behaviour and attitudes are important factors in terms of job satisfaction in relation to implementing a total smoke ban in bars and restaurants.
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FUNDING |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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Directorate of Health and Social Affairs, Division for Tobacco Control, Norway.
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Appendix A |
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TOPSUMMARYINTRODUCTIONMETHODSRESULTSDISCUSSIONFUNDINGAppendix AREFERENCES |
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Job satisfaction: five items from the original Brayfield and Rothe's index for job satisfaction suggested in Judge et al. (Judge et al. 2001
). 1. I feel fairly satisfied with my present job.
2.Most days I am enthusiastic about my work.
3.Each day at work seems like it will never end.
4. I find real enjoyment in my work.
5. I consider my job to be rather unpleasant.
Categories: Strongly disagree; disagree; neither agree or disagree; agree; strongly agree.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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We are grateful for valuable advice during the planning phase of this study from Rita Lill Lindbak (Division for Tobacco Control), and Karl Erik Lund and Jostein Rise (Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research).
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