Employees working in teams experience less depression compared to those working alone. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study has found that employees working in teams experience less depression compared to those working alone.
On January 21, researchers from the Department of Preventive Medicine at Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, including Ph.D. candidate Hong Ki-hoon (the first author), along with professors Choi Byung-sun and Park Jeong-deok, published their findings in the Journal of Medical Communication, in a paper titled ‘The Impact of Team Work on Wage Workers’ Depression’.
The research team analyzed data from 30,235 wage workers aged 15 and above, part of the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) conducted in 2017 by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency. They defined ‘team workers’ as those who work on shared tasks or plan work within a team or group.
Based on this criterion, out of the 30,235 respondents, 33.5% (10,119 people) were team workers, while 66.5% (20,116 people) worked alone.
To measure depression, the research team utilized the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Well-Being Index, which includes five questions such as ‘I feel cheerful and in good spirits’ and ‘I feel calm and relaxed.’ Respondents rated these on a scale of 0-5 (with higher scores indicating more positive responses).
A combined score below 50 (after multiplying by 4) was defined as ‘depressed,’ and above 50 as ‘normal emotional state.’
The analysis revealed that 26.6% of team workers felt depressed, compared to 29.5% among solo workers. The depression rate among male team workers was 1.5 percentage points lower (27.4%) than solo workers (28.9%).
For women, the difference was more significant, with 25.5% of team workers feeling depressed compared to 29.9% of solo workers.
The research team inferred that belonging to a horizontal team, as opposed to a vertical organization, increases employee participation and contribution, which in turn reduces depression. This correlation was particularly strong among service and sales professionals working in teams.
In this group, the rate of depression among team workers (22%) was 6.7 percentage points lower than solo workers (28.7%).
The researchers suggested that changing organizational structures to more horizontal forms like ‘teams’ could reduce worker depression by enhancing participation and contribution.
Overall, 28.5% of all workers felt depressed, with little difference between men (28.3%) and women (28.7%). Office workers had the lowest depression rate at 21.1%, followed by those with service/sales jobs (24.6%), managers/professionals/soldiers (25.1%), and production workers (30.5%). The highest rate was among unskilled laborers at 43.6%.
Additionally, the study found that older age, lower education level, and lower household monthly income correlated with higher depression rates. Workers exceeding 40 hours per week reported more depression than those working fewer hours.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
