Bettina Kubicek

Work engagement and burnout: testing the robustness of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study focuses on work engagement and its negative antipode, burnout, as well as their antecedents and consequences. According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, two different processes have to be distinguished: a motivational process that links job resources with turnover intention through work engagement, and an energetic process that links job demands and health complaints via the mediating role of burnout. The robustness of the JD-R model was tested in a heterogeneous occupational sample (N = 846). Structural equation modeling analyses yielded a slightly modified model with only exhaustion being indicative of burnout and vigor, dedication along with absorption being indicative of engagement. The results provide evidence for the dipartite structure of the JD-R model. Multi-group analyses revealed the model to be invariant across age and gender. Although strengths of path coefficients and factor loadings differed among white- and blue-collar workers, the basic structure of the model was also confirmed among these subgroups. Therefore, the findings underscore the robustness of the JD-R model.

Work and Family Characteristics as Predictors of Early Retirement in Married Men and Women

This study presents an integrative model of early retirement using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The model extends prior work by incorporating work—family conflict to capture the interaction between the work and family domains and by assuming proximal and distal predictors of early retirement. More precisely, the model suggests that family and job demands and resources predict family-to-work and work-to-family conflict, respectively. All of these factors are presumed to have only indirect effects on retirement timing via the intervening effect of quality-of-life measures, that is, marital satisfaction, job satisfaction, and health. The authors assume that these three factors constitute predictors of early retirement in addition to socioeconomic status and the availability of a pension plan and health insurance. The model was tested with structural equation modeling techniques, and the results were supportive. Therefore, the proposed model offers a general framework for the integration of previous research findings.

Development and validation of an instrument for assessing job demands arising from accelerated change: The intensification of job demands scale (IDS)

Accelerated societal and organizational changes have placed new pressures on employees. Especially, service employees are exposed to intensified workloads, planning and decision-making, and learning demands. Despite the growing attention given to this intensification of job demands, a comprehensive measure is missing. In the present study, we developed the Intensification of Job Demands Scale (IDS) and validated it in four samples (N = 1363). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation into five subscales, namely work intensification, intensified job-related planning and decision-making demands, intensified career-related planning and decision-making demands, intensified knowledge-related learning demands, and intensified skill-related learning demands. This five-factor structure holds for both the German and the English versions of the instrument. Convergent and discriminant validity tests showed that the IDS subscales are moderately related to established measures of job demands, but at most have small correlations with negative affectivity. Providing support for the incremental validity, the IDS subscales were found to add to the prediction of burnout and job satisfaction beyond established job demands. Finally, the IDS subscales helped to identify employees who experienced changes in their work situation. In sum, the results indicate that the IDS is a valid and reliable measure to assess the intensification of job demands.

Acceleration in working life: An empirical test of a sociological framework

Although perceptions of ‘acceleration’ are common in everyday life, empirical studies are rare. We investigated Rosa’s theoretical framework of social acceleration in working life. Based on the framework and the concept of job demands in work and organizational psychology we developed a questionnaire that distinguishes between demands for technological acceleration, demands for the acceleration of social change, and demands for the acceleration of the pace of life. The results of two studies (in the fields of office work and aviation service work) confirmed the tripartite structure of the framework and delivered evidence that employees indeed perceive acceleration-related demands in working life.

Recovery and detachment between shifts, and fatigue during a twelve-hour shift

The study investigated the role of recovery and detachment in the break period between two shifts for fatigue in the current shift. A time-based paper-and-pencil diary study was carried out observing sixty-four railway controllers over ten consecutive working shifts. The results demonstrated that fatigue in the current shift was not only affected by recovery and psychological detachment during break phases before a shift, but also by fatigue at shift onset and perceived workload during the shift.

Changing Working Conditions at the Onset of the Twenty-First Century: Facts from International Datasets

Modern societies are currently undergoing accelerated social change (see also Chap. 4). In this chapter, we are interested in whether these societal changes influence individual working conditions. More specifically, it is argued that the speeding up of production, consumption, and decision processes due to the implementation of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and increased international competition confront employees with work intensification and increasing job insecurity. Using data from the European Working Conditions Surveys, we analyze trends in work intensity and job insecurity in Europe from 2000 onwards; using data from the Health and Retirement Study as well as the German Socio-Economic Panel, we also model individual change trajectories from 2000 onwards. The results show that employees differ in the extent to which they are confronted with changes in work intensity and job insecurity. European trend data suggest that work intensification occurred basically in conservative welfare states (i.e., Germany, France, and Spain), but not in the United Kingdom or Finland. Individual change trajectories show that nearly 30 % of German and American workers have experienced an increase in work intensity over the past decade. Less-educated workers are the most affected. Moreover, job insecurity has risen for a majority of employees in Europe and America. Especially, well-educated workers who have thus far been in rather stable employment relations perceived an increase in job insecurity.

Beschleunigung im Arbeitsleben – neue Anforderungen und deren Folgen

Das Gefuhl, immer mehr Arbeitsaufgaben immer rascher erledigen zu mussen, kennzeichnet gegenwartig die Grundbefindlichkeit vieler arbeitstatiger Menschen. Gesellschaftstheoretische Ansatze erklaren dieses Gefuhl mit der Veranderung moderner Zeitstrukturen. Konstatiert wird eine fortschreitende Steigerung von Geschwindigkeiten und Veranderungsraten, die auch in der Arbeitswelt neue Anforderungen erzeugt. Arbeitsintensivierung sowie die Notwendigkeit zur Neuorientierung, zum Unsicherheitsmanagement und zur Selbstkontrolle sind konkrete Beispiele hierfur. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, diese neuen, beschleunigungsbedingten Anforderungen vor dem Hintergrund veranderter Zeitstrukturen zu beschreiben und ihre Auswirkungen auf arbeitstatige Personen auszuloten. Dabei wird die These vertreten, dass beschleunigungsbedingte Anforderungen sowohl Gewinne als auch Verluste, positive wie auch negative Folgen fur das Individuum bereithalten und dass die Art und Intensitat der Auswirkungen von Bewertungsprozessen, Umgangsstilen und den vorhandenen Ressourcen beeinflusst werden.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Job Autonomy

In recent decades, the regulation of work has been increasingly handed over to the individual worker, who is given greater autonomy in performing his/her job. Employees can decide not only how (methods autonomy) but also when (worktime autonomy) and where they perform their work (workplace autonomy ). Although an array of theoretical and empirical accounts have praised the positive effects of job autonomy on employee well-being and motivation since the 1970s, a small body of empirical work indicates that too much job autonomy may be detrimental to employees. This chapter therefore sheds light on the bright and dark sides of job autonomy in today’s world of work. It discusses different forms of job autonomy as well as their meaning in highly regulated and more flexible forms of work and offers insights into when job autonomy has beneficial and deleterious effects. It proposes that worktime and workplace autonomy are more likely to have negative effects on employee well-being than methods autonomy and that the potential positive and negative effects of various forms of autonomy are contingent on characteristics of the individual worker as well as on constellations of job characteristics .

Does job complexity mitigate the negative effect of emotion-rule dissonance on employee burnout?

ABSTRACT In interactions with clients or patients, human service workers are at risk of experiencing discrepancies between felt and organizationally mandated emotions (i.e. emotion-rule dissonance). Given the documented detrimental effects of such discrepancies on employee strain, the present study investigated whether job complexity mitigates the relation between emotion-rule dissonance and employee burnout using data from a two-wave panel study of eldercare workers (N = 583, 16-month time lag). Structural equation modelling revealed that emotion-rule dissonance at Time 1 preceded emotional exhaustion and depersonalization at Time 2. Beyond that, employees whose work offered job complexity were found to suffer less from emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when encountering discrepancies between felt and stipulated emotions compared to employees who conducted noncomplex work. Thus, designing complex tasks appears to be a crucial starting point for alleviating employee burnout in jobs that provoke emotion-rule dissonance.

Changes in work intensification and intensified learning: challenge or hindrance demands?

Purpose – Increasing speed in many life domains is currently being discussed under the term “social acceleration” as a societal phenomenon which not only affects western societies, but may also lead to job demands arising from accelerated change. Demands such as work intensification and intensified learning and their changes over time may increase emotional exhaustion, but may also induce positive effects. The purpose of this paper is to examine how increases in demands arising from accelerated change affect employee well-being. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 587 eldercare workers provided data on work intensification and intensified learning as well as on exhaustion and job satisfaction at two points in time. Findings – Work intensification was negatively related to future job satisfaction and positively related to future emotional exhaustion, whereas intensified learning was positively associated with future job satisfaction and negatively with future emotional exhaustion. Social implications ...