Keywords: illegitimate tasks, primary healthcare, general practitioner, well-being, job satisfaction

Background:

Illegitimate tasks are work tasks that employees perceive as unnecessary or unreasonable. They are associated with decreased well-being at work, job dissatisfaction, and impaired intrinsic motivation, but their significance in healthcare is poorly known. This study aims to explore the extent of illegitimate tasks perceived by general practitioners in Finland and their associations with well-being at work.

Research questions:

1. What is the frequency of illegitimate tasks perceived by GPs, and does it vary according to gender, work experience and working sector?
2. How are illegitimate tasks associated with work engagement, job satisfaction, stress symptoms, and meaningfulness of work experienced by GPs?

Method:

Data was gathered via an online questionnaire in fall 2023. Illegitimate tasks were assessed using the Bern illegitimate tasks scale. As indicators of well-being at work, work engagement, job satisfaction, stress symptoms, and meaningfulness of work were measured. The Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for group comparisons. The associations between illegitimate tasks and well-being at work were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis.

Results:

Participants were 526 GPs. Almost 80 % of the respondents reported often having tasks that wouldn’t exist if things were organized differently, and 76 % reported often having tasks that should be done by someone else. Public sector GPs reported a higher level of illegitimate tasks than GPs in other sectors. Unreasonable tasks were associated with lower work engagement (β=-0.23, p<0.001), lower job satisfaction (β=-0.33, p<0.001), lower meaningfulness on work (β=-0,25, p<0,001), and higher stress (β=0.37, p<0.001).

Conclusions:

Illegitimate tasks are abundant in GPs’ work in Finland. The nature of the tasks perceived as illegitimate should be investigated to improve GPs' working conditions and the productivity of their work. As unreasonable tasks may lead to decreased well-being of GPs, attention should be paid to the appropriate division of tasks and availability of service personnel in primary care.

Points for discussion:

Strenghts and limitations of the study

Practical implications

Future research: how to explore the nature of illegitimate tasks in the future?