Article Schaufeli & Taris (2014)

Question 1

What models are recognized as the leading job stress models?

Answer 1

• The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model
• The Job Demands Control (JD-C) model
• Effort Reward Imbalance (ER) model

Question 2

What is the first possible reason that the JD-R model is so popular?

Answer 2

Because it assumes that employee health and well-being result from a balance between positive (resources) and negative (demands) job characteristics. Just like the JD-C and ERI models.

Yet, unlike the JD-C and ERI models, the JD-R model does not restrict itself to specific job demands or job resources. It assumes that any demand and any resource may affect employee health and well-being. Thus, the scope of the JD-R model is much broader than that of other models, because it potentially includes all job demands and job resources.

The JD-R model is also more flexible and can be tailored to a much wider variety of work settings.

The broad scope of the model appeals to researchers, just as its flexibility is attractive to practitioners.

Question 3

What is the second possible reason that the JD-R model is so popular?

Answer 3

Because of the relatively loose way in which the label “Job Demands-Resources model” has been used. There is no single JD-R model.

Instead of relating well-defined and specific sets of concepts to each other (as applies to the ERI and JD-C models), the JD-R model is heuristic in nature and represents a way of thinking about how job (and recently also personal) characteristics may influence employee health, well-being, and motivation.

This implies that even if two studies show no overlap in terms of the study concepts, they could still be based on and test the same assumptions of the JD-R model.

Question 4

Why was the first JD-R model published? And by who?

Answer 4

In an attempt to understand the antecedents of burnout.

Demerouti et al. (2001)

Question 5

Definition job demands

Answer 5

Those physical, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs.

Question 6

What does the JD-R model assume because of the model of compensatory control (Hockey, 1997)?

Answer 6

That when job demands are high, additional effort must be exerted to achieve the work goals and to prevent decreasing performance. This comes with psychological and physical costs.

Question 7

Job resources

Answer 7

Those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that may:

• Be functional in achieving work goals
• Reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs
• Stimulate personal growth and development

Question 8

What are the to processes for the dvelopment of burnout that the JD-R model proposes?

Answer 8

1. Long-term excessive job demands from which employees do not adequately recover may lead to sustained activation and overtaxing, eventually resulting in exhaustion – the energetic component of burnout.
2. A lack of resources precludes that job demands are met and that work goals are reached, which leads to withdrawal behaviour.

Question 9

How does withdrawal or reduced motivation/ disengagement (the motivational component of burnout) act to prevent further energy depletion?

Answer 9

As a self-protective strategy

Question 10

What are the main effects of demands and resources on burnout?

Answer 10

Job demands were associated with exhaustion
Lacking resources were linked to disengagement.

Question 11

What does the JD-R model predict?

Answer 11

That job resources mitigate the negative effect of job demands on exhaustion.

Question 12

The early JD-R model was extended to include what?

Answer 12

Performance measures, which were conceived as outucmoes of burnout.

Question 13

The revised JD-R model

Answer 13

It included work engagement in addition to burnout.

It considered burnout and work engagement to be mediators of the relation between job demands and health problems, and job resources and turnover intention, respectively.

• Job demands => burnout => health problems
• Job resources => engagement => turnover intention/performance

It gave a positive-psychological twist to the JD-R model.

• The revised JD-R model not only sought to explain a negative psychological state (i.e., burnout) but also its positive counterpart (work engagement).

Question 14

Work engagement in the revised JD-R model

Answer 14

A positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption.

• Vigor = high levels of energy and mental resilience while working
• Dedication = referring to a sense of significance, enthusiasm, and challenge
• Absorption = being focused and happily engrossed in one’s work

Question 15

How does the revised JD-R model look at burnout?

Answer 15

It assumes that burnout results from high job demands and poor job resources, except that now burnout is treated as a unitary instead of a two-dimensional construct.

Question 16

The energetic or health impairment process of the revised JD-R model

Answer 16

Burnout is expected to mediate the relation between job demand and employee health and well-being, through the gradual draining of mental resources.

Question 17

Motivational process of the revised JD-R model

Answer 17

It is sparked by abundant job resources.

Engagement is expected to mediate the relation between job resources and organizational outcomes.

Question 18

What does the revised JD-R model emphasize?

Answer 18

The inherently motivational qualities of job resources

Question 19

Do job resources play a role in intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation?

Answer 19

Both

Extrinsic because they initiate the willingness to spend compensatory effort, thereby reducing job demands and fostering goal attainment. That is, job resources are instrumental in achieving work goals.

Intrinsic because they satisfy basic human needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

Question 20

Are the following job resources or job demands and are they intrinsic or extrinsic motivators?

• Social support
• Feedback
• Decision latitude

Answer 20

Feedback is an extrinsic job resource.

Social support and decision latitude are intrinsic job resources.

Question 21

What kind of study was used a lot in early research on the JD-R?

Answer 21

Cross-sectional

Question 22

The cross-sectional evidence for the revised JD-R model

Answer 22

It is convincing, although the evidence for joint effects of demands and resources is rather weak.

• The joint effect adds little beyond their additive effects

Question 23

What was an important finding in the longitudinal evidence for the revised JD-R model?

Answer 23

No reversed causation was observed – that is, neither burnout nor engagement predicted job demands or job resources.

Question 24

Personal resources

Answer 24

The psychological characteristics or aspects of the self that are generally associated with resiliency and that refer to the ability to control and impact one’s environment successfully.

Similar to job resources, personal resources are functional in accomplishing work goals, and they stimulate personal growth and development.

Question 25

What was added to the JD-R model and in what ways?

Answer 25

Personal resources are incorporated in the JD-R in 5 ways:

1. Personal resources directly impact well-being
2. Personal resources moderate the relation between job characteristics and well-being
3. Personal resources mediate the relation between job characteristics and well-being
4. Personal resources influence the perception of job characteristics
5. Personal resources act as a “third variable”

Question 26

Personal resources directly impact well-being

Answer 26

They may reduce burnout and increase engagement. Personal resources (self-efficacy, optimism) predict work engagement. It is reciprocal: work engagement predicts personal resources.

Question 27

Personal resources moderate the relation between job characteristics and well-being

Answer 27

Personal resources may buffer negative effects of job demands on burnout.

Question 28

Personal resources mediate the relation between job characteristics and well-being

Answer 28

Resources tend to accumulate. Employees working in resourceful environments are likely to develop confidence and optimism. They in turn are positively related to work engagement.

Question 29

Personal resources influence the perception of job characteristics

Answer 29

Social cognitive theory proposes that personal resources (like self-efficacy) shape the way people understand their environment and react to it.

Question 30

Personal resources act as ‘third variable’

Answer 30

Personal resources may affect both perception of job characteristics and employee well-being. They act as a third variable that could explain the relation between both.
- Example: neuroticism positively related to job demands and psychological strain.

Question 31

Personal resources in the JD-R

Answer 31

Which place personal resources should take is as yet unclear.

Moreover, findings may vary across different types and different combinations of personal resources, job resources, job demands, and outcomes.

Question 32

What was proposed in a narrative review by Huhtala & Parzefal (2007) where they used the revised JD-R model as a conceptual framwework?

Answer 32

They argued that work-related resources influence employee innovativeness and creativity via work engagement. Whereas a certain level of stimulation (i.e., job demands) is beneficial, too high a level of challenge may turn into a stressor and subsequently lead to burnout and hinder innovativeness.

Question 33

What was found when the revised JD-R model was used to test a meta-analytic model of safety behaviour at work?

Answer 33

Job demands (i.e., risks and hazards, physical demands, and complexity) and job resources (knowledge, autonomy, and a supportive environment) were indirectly associated with safety outcomes (such as accidents, injuries, and unsafe behavior) via burnout and engagement.

Thus, consistent with the JD-R model, support was found for the health impairment process and the motivational process, as far as safety outcomes are concerned.

Question 34

What are the two categories of job demands according to a meta-analysis?

Answer 34

• Challenges (e.g., workload, time pressure, responsibility)
• Hindrances (e.g., role conflict, role ambiguity and bureaucratic “red tape”)

Question 35

What is the similarities and differences between challenges and hindrances according to a meta-analysis?

Answer 35

Both challenges and hindrances tend to be demanding, but challenges have the potential to promote mastery, personal growth, and future gain, whereas hindrances could thwart personal growth, learning, and goal attainment.

Both challenges and hindrances are positively related to burnout.

Hindrances are negatively related to engagement, whereas challenges are positively related to engagement.

Question 36

How is are job demands related to specific outcome variables?

Answer 36

Job demands may relate differentially to specific outcome variables

Question 37

What were the novel constructs that were added to the model when applying the model to safety behaviour at work?

Answer 37

• Job demands and job resources were indirectly related to routine violations (i.e., using “short cuts”) and situational violations (i.e., organizational failings regarding tools or equipment that provide an easier way of working), through job strain and work engagement.
• A good psychosocial safety climate predicts a decrease in psychological strain through lower job demands (work pressure and emotional demands) as well as an increase of work engagement through higher resources (skill discretion).

Question 38

What were the outcomes of the studies that only studied job demands, job resources and work engagement?

Answer 38

They found that job resources buffered the negative effect of job demands.

Moreover, job resources boosted engagement particularly when job demands were high.

Question 39

What was shown by studies that only focused on the motivational process?

Answer 39

Positive reciprocal relations were observed across time between job demands and work engagement, and between work engagement and personal initiative.

This points to the existence of gain spirals at work, in which two concepts mutually reinforce each other.

Question 40

What designs have most studies on the JD-R model used and what design have recently been used?

Answer 40

Most studies employed between-group designs. Recent work has investigated within-employees across time. The last type are usualy diary studies.

Question 41

What can be studied with a within-persons design?

Answer 41

Changes in day-level variables, controlling for their baseline levels.

Question 42

What was found in a study on day-specific job resources and personal resources?

Answer 42

Day-specific job resources (positive psychological climate and job control) and personal resources (being recovered in the morning) promoted work engagement over the course of one working week.

Moreover, on days when employees perceived high job control, day-specific time pressure was positively associated with work engagement, whereas on days when less control was perceived, time pressure was negatively associated with engagement.

This demonstrates that job control facilitates employee coping with job demands and also that the co-occurrence of demands and resources boosts engagement.

Question 43

How is support related to the JD-R?

Answer 43

The more support, the more engagement, the better the performance

Question 44

How does the motivational process of the JD-R model unfold across time?

Answer 44

• Day-specific work engagement varies over the working week and these variations can be explained by day-specific job demands and job resources.
• Day-specific work engagement mediates the relation between daily job resources and daily performance.
• Job resources and personal resources have a joint effect on work engagement.

Question 45

What are the 6 issues with the JD-R model?

Answer 45

1. The epistemological status of the JD-R model
2. The nature of job demands and job resources
3. The role of personal resources
4. The distinction between health impairment and motivational process
5. Reciprocal causation
6. Multilevel issues

Question 46

The Epistemological Status of the JD-R Model

Answer 46

• The fact that all sorts of demands, resources, and outcomes can be included is a strength as well as a weakness of the model. It adds to its flexibility, in that it can be used in many different contexts (parsimonious), but this comes at the cost of limited generalizability.
• Additional explanatory theoretical frameworks are usually needed to argue why particular demands interact with particular resources.
• Rather than being an explanatory model, the JD-R model is a descriptive model that specifies relations between classes of variables without providing any particular psychological explanation, except that (1) by definition, job demands consume energy and may therefore eventually lead to exhaustion and related health problems (the health impairment process), and (2) by definition, job resources have motivational potential and may therefore lead to work engagement, which may result in positive organizational outcomes (the motivational process).

Question 47

The Nature of Job demands and Job resources

Answer 47

Problem:

• A lack of resources implies that more effort has to be spent to achieve work goals. This leads to the paradoxical conclusion that lack of resources may be construed as a job demand.
• Not all job demands in the JD-R model seem to be equal (challenges and hindrances).

Explanation and solution: Demands are valued negatively and resources are valued positively. The value based nature of demands and resources calls for a redefinition of the concepts.

• Job demands are negatively valued physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or psychological effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs.
• Job resources are positively valued physical, social, or organizationala spects of the job that are funtional in achieving work goals, reduce job demands, or stimulate personal growth and development.
• In the redefinition challnges would be conceptualized as resources, because they are valued positively
• As a rule demands are appraised negatively, whereas resources are appraised positively, but occasionally demands can be challenging and resources can be threatening.

Question 48

The Role of Personal Resources

Answer 48

Peronal resources may play different roles in the job characteristics-well-being connection. The roles are not mutually exclusive, hence, personal resources can be integrated into the model in various ways and there is no best way to include it.

Different types of explanatory models (see above) can be used to specify the role of personal resources. This illustrates the heuristic nature of the JD-R model once more.

Personal resources do matter, but the specific explanatory framework determines how they should be integrated into the model.

Question 49

The distinction between health impairment and motivational process

Answer 49

The JD-R suggests that health impairment and motivational processes are independent, but they might represent two sides of the same coin.

There are negative relationships between (1) job demands and resources, (2) burnout and engagement, and (3) job resources and burnout, thus confirming the link between both processes.

This implies that in order to understand one process, the other process should also be taken into account, and vice versa. Stated differently, the health impairment and motivational processes should be studied jointly.

Question 50

Reciprocal Causation

Answer 50

The JD-R proposes straightforward unidirectional causal relations among demands, resources and outcomes. However, many studies demonstrated reciprocal causation, particularly regarding the motivational process. This suggests the existence of gain cycles.

Assuming linear causation is overly simplistic, future research should focus more systematically on the dynamic relations among the concepts in the model.

Question 51

What is needed for a gain spiral to exist?

Answer 51

There should not only be reciprocal causation but one variable (e.g., a specific job demand) should also increase the level of another variable (work engagement), and vice versa.

Question 52

Multilevel Issues

Answer 52

The JD-R model presents an individual-level approach, but it has also been applied to higher aggregation levels (e.g., teams).

In doing so they must follow the compatibility principle, which stipulates that all variables in a model must be operationalized at the same level of specificity.

• For example, collective constructs (e.g., team resources) should be studied in relation to other collective constructs (e.g., team engagement or team performance).
• E.g., referring to “my team”, instead of “I”.

The fact that the JD-R model also applies at the supra-individual level (i.e., in teams and perhaps even in entire organizations) assumes social-psychological processes involving shared perceptions (e.g., regarding team demands and resources) and shared experiences (e.g., collective engagement and burnout).

Question 53

How is the JD-R model unlike other approaches and models?

Answer 53

The JD-R model:

• Is non-limitative in terms of the study concepts; the model can be tailored to the specific needs of an organization, given any specific situation.
• Considers both negative and positive outcomes and processes. This balanced approach increases its recognition and, hence, acceptability.
• May bridge the gap between occupational health management and HRM. This is because the “negative” stress perspective appeals to occupational health professionals and the “positive” motviational perspective is attractive to HR professionals. As the JD-R model considers the health impairment and motivational processes as two sides of the same coin, it is perfectly suited to guide the integration of occupational health and human resources policies in organizations
• Complements, encompasses and integrates previous approaches and ideas, rather than replaces older theory, concerning the relations between work characteristics. The JD-R model is a master of none: Its generality comes at the cost of lack of specificity, in that additional explanatory theoretical frameworks are needed to account for the associations between specific demands, resources and outcomes.

Question 54

What kinds of information does the JD-R online tool provide?

Answer 54

1. immediate online personal feedback in the form of a comparison between the respondent’s scores on each scale with the scores of a benchmark.
2. relative scores of organizational units on each scale, compared with those of other units and the entire organization.
3. relative scores of the entire organization on each scale as compared with the national average and/or similar organizations.
4. a specific set of job demands, job resources, and personal resources that are identified as possible antecedents of employee well-being and organizational outcomes.

This type of information might be used for drafting interventions at personal, team, and organizational level.

Question 55

When is the JD-R monitor used?

Answer 55

In a specific seven-step cyclical process for evidence-based organizational consultancy.

Question 56

What are the 7 steps of the JD-R monitor??

Answer 56

problem => designing the JD-R monitor => internal cmomunication => survey and feedback => analsyes and report => survey feedback => intervntion => evaluation => problem

Question 57

The problem step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 57

Step 1

An organization may have a very general question r a specific question

Question 58

The designing step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 58

Step 2

Together with key persons the most relevant job stressors, personal and job resources, stress reactions, and outcomes are selected and included in the JD-R monitor.

No matter what the final content of the JD-R-monitor will be, its basic stature remains the same.

Question 59

The internal communication step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 59

Step 3

Before carrying out the survey, an internal communication campaign is launched. The basic goal of the campaign is to emphasize the importance of the survey and to underline the commitment of various stakeholders, including top management and unions.

Question 60

The survey and feedback step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 60

Step 4

All employees receive a link to the online JD-R monitor. Immediately after completing the JD-R monitor, the employee receives an automatically generated feedback report which compares employees score to benchmark’s scores.

In case of an unfavorable score, the feedback text invites the employee to take action.

Question 61

The analyses and report step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 61

Step 5

Like the individual feedback report, the company report gives an overview of the average scores for each element of the JD-R monitor, including a comparison with a benchmark.

Based on these benchmarks and on an in-depth analysis of possible antecedents, the report gives recommendations for improvements in terms of reducing job stress, stimulating work engagement, and improving organizational outcomes.

Question 62

The survey feedback step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 62

Step 6

The report is discussed throughout the company at various levels.

Feeding back the results and discussing these is crucially important to build commitment and trust for implementing interventions.

Question 66

The intervention step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 66

Step 7

Based on the results of the JD-R monitor, two types of measures can be taken.

1. Employees can take measures themselves (see step 4) to improve their own personal or job resources or decrease their demands.
2. Team and organization-based interventions can be implemented.

Question 67

The evaluation step in the JD-R monitor

Answer 67

Step 8

After the intervention, the organization can go through steps 1–7 again to check whether the implemented intervention has been effective. By comparing the scores before and after the intervention an unambiguous answer to this question can be given.

In the ideal case, the JD-R monitor is integrated in the annual HR cycle.