Jan de Jonge

Stressors, Resources, and Strain at Work: A Longitudinal Test of the Triple-Match Principle

Two longitudinal studies investigated the issue of match between job stressors and job resources in the prediction of job-related strain. On the basis of the triple-match principle (TMP), it was hypothesized that resources are most likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if resources, stressors, and strains all match. Resources are less likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if (a) only resources and stressors match, (b) only resources and strains match, or (c) only stressors and strains match. Resources are least likely to moderate the relation between stressors and strains if there is no match among stressors, resources, and strains. The TMP was tested among 280 and 267 health care workers in 2 longitudinal surveys. The likelihood of finding moderating effects was linearly related to the degree of match, with 33.3% of all tested interactions becoming significant when there was a triple match, 16.7% when there was a double match, and 0.0% when there was no match. Findings were most consistent if there was an emotional match or a physical match.

Specific relationships between psychosocial job conditions and job-related stress: A three-level analytic approach

This cross-sectional questionnaire study presents a multi-level analysis on 2565 workers in 188 departments in 36 organizations in the Netherlands. A three-level model is used in which individual workers are nested within departments, which in turn are nested within organizations. Research questions concern (1) the amount and distribution of variance in job-related stress explained for the three levels in the study (individuals, departments, organizations), and (2) the specificity of relationships between psychosocial job demands and job-related stress in the three-level model. Well-being showed slightly more raw variance to be explained at supra-individual levels than strain. The full regression model explained about 35% of the total variance in both work-related strain and well-being. Psychosocial job conditions did not exceed the expected amount of 10 to 15% contribution to this explained variance. These results do not differ from comparable studies that do not use multi-level analysis. The variance distribution in the full model, however, showed unexplained variance to be located at the individual level for both strain and well-being, and at the departmental level only for well-being. This last finding shows a direction for possible improvement of work stress models. Specificity of relationships was also shown: psychological job demands were more strongly related to strain, whereas job content variables (i.e. job variety, job control) were more strongly related to well-being. Results also suggested that social support was more strongly associated with well-being than with strain. Well-being appeared to have a more widely varying range of predictors than strain.

Emotional job demands and the role of matching job resources: A cross-sectional survey study among health care workers

BACKGROUND Research on emotional labour in health care work has not yet revealed under what conditions emotional job demands have an impact on employee health and well-being. There is a need for more theory to unveil the black box of emotional labour processes. OBJECTIVES To test the moderating role of matching (i.e. emotional) and non-matching (i.e. cognitive) job resources in the relation between emotional job demands and employee health/well-being (i.e. emotional exhaustion, employee creativity, and work motivation). DESIGN A cross-sectional survey with anonymous questionnaires was conducted. SETTINGS A large organization for residential elderly care with eight locations in an urban area in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Questionnaires were distributed to 1259 health care workers, of which 826 people returned the questionnaire (66% response rate). METHODS In addition to descriptive statistics, multivariate multiple regression analysis (LISREL 8.54) with cross-validation was conducted. RESULTS Findings showed that emotional job resources moderated the relation between emotional job demands and health/well-being outcomes. Firstly, emotional job resources were able to moderate the relation between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. Secondly, both emotional job resources and, to a lesser extent, cognitive job resources were able to moderate the relation between emotional job demands and positive well-being outcomes (i.e. employee creativity and work motivation). Finally, cross-validation showed that parameter estimates did not vary across subsamples. CONCLUSIONS Job resources could compensate for resources lost through meeting the requirements of emotional job demands, thereby reducing stress-reactions and increasing well-being. Providing health care workers with more, preferably matching, job resources could make emotional job demands less stressful, and even stimulating and challenging. Future longitudinal studies should investigate the interplay of emotional job demands and (matching) job resources more profoundly.

Managing job stress in nursing: what kind of resources do we need?

AIM This paper is a report of a study to investigate the functionality of different kinds of job resources for managing job stress in nursing. BACKGROUND There is increasing recognition that healthcare staff, and especially nurses, are at high risk for burnout and physical complaints. Several researchers have proposed that job resources moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes, particularly when there is a match between the type of demands, resources, and outcomes. METHOD Based on the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Model, cross-sectional survey data were collected between November 2006 and February 2007 by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 69 nurses from a Dutch nursing home (response rate 59.4%). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses. RESULTS High physical demands had adverse effects on both physical complaints and emotional exhaustion (i.e. burnout), unless employees had high physical resources. A similar pattern was found for high physical demands and emotional resources in predicting emotional exhaustion. The likelihood of finding theoretically-valid moderating effects was related to the degree of match between demands, resources, and outcomes. CONCLUSION Job resources do not randomly moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes. Both physical and emotional resources seem to be important stress buffers for human service employees such as nurses, and their moderating effects underline the importance of specific job resources in healthcare work. Job redesign in nursing homes should therefore primarily focus on matching job resources to job demands in order to diminish poor health and ill-being.

A longitudinal test of the demand-control model using specific job demands and specific job control.

BackgroundSupportive studies of the demand–control (DC) model were more likely to measure specific demands combined with a corresponding aspect of control.PurposeA longitudinal test of Karasek’s (Adm Sci Q. 24:285–308, 1) job strain hypothesis including specific measures of job demands and job control, and both self-report and objectively recorded well-being.MethodJob strain hypothesis was tested among 267 health care employees from a two-wave Dutch panel survey with a 2-year time lag.ResultsSignificant demand/control interactions were found for mental and emotional demands, but not for physical demands. The association between job demands and job satisfaction was positive in case of high job control, whereas this association was negative in case of low job control. In addition, the relation between job demands and psychosomatic health symptoms/sickness absence was negative in case of high job control and positive in case of low control.ConclusionLongitudinal support was found for the core assumption of the DC model with specific measures of job demands and job control as well as self-report and objectively recorded well-being.

Factorial invariance and stability of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Scales : a longitudinal analysis of two samples with different time lags

Background; Key measures of Siegrist’s (1996) Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model (i.e., efforts, rewards, and overcommitment) were psychometrically tested. Purpose: To study change in organizational interventions, knowledge about the type of change underlying the instruments used is needed. Next to assessing baseline factorial validity and reliability, the factorial stability over time—known as alpha-beta-gamma change—of the ERI scales was examined. Methods: Psychometrics were tested among 383 and 267 healthcare workers from two Dutch panel surveys with different time lags. Results: Baseline results favored a five-factor model (i.e., efforts, esteem rewards, financial/career-related aspects, job security, and overcommitment) over and above a three-factor solution (i.e., efforts, composite rewards, and overcommitment). Considering changes as a whole, particularly the factor loadings of the three ERI scales were not equal over time. Findings suggest in general that moderate changes in the ERI factor structure did not affect the interpretation of mean changes over time. Conclusion: Occupational health researchers utilizing the ERI scales can feel confident that self-reported changes are more likely to be due to factors other than structural change of the ERI scales over time, which has important implications for evaluating job stress and health interventions.

The moderating role of decision authority and coworker- and supervisor support on the impact of job demands in nursing homes: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND Healthcare workers in nursing homes are faced with high job demands that can have a detrimental impact on job-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Job resources may have a buffering role on this relationship. The Demand-Control-Support (DCS) Model offers a theoretical framework to study how specific job resources can buffer the adverse effects of high demands, and can even activate positive consequences of high demands. OBJECTIVES The present study tests the moderating (i.e. buffering and activating) effects of decision authority and coworker- and supervisor support that are assumed by the hypotheses of the DCS Model. DESIGN A national cross-sectional survey was conducted with an anonymous questionnaire. SETTING One hundred and thirty six living arrangements that provide nursing home care for people with dementia in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen healthcare workers per living arrangement. In total, 1147 people filled out the questionnaires (59% response rate). METHODS Hierarchical multilevel regression analyses were conducted to test the assumption that the effect of job demands on the dependent variables is buffered or activated the most when both decision authority and social support are high. This moderation is statistically represented by three-way interactions (i.e. demands×authority×support), while lower-order effects are taken into account (i.e. two-way interactions). The hypotheses are supported when three-way interaction effects are found in the expected direction. The dependent variables studied are job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and personal accomplishment. RESULTS The proposed buffering and activation hypotheses of the DCS Model were not supported in our study. Three-way interaction effects were found for emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, though not in the expected direction. In addition, two-way interaction effects were found for job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Decision authority was found to buffer the adverse effect of job demands and to activate healthcare staff. Supervisor support was found to buffer the adverse effect of job demands on emotional exhaustion in situations with low decision authority. Finally, coworker support was found to have an adverse effect on personal accomplishment in high strain situations. CONCLUSIONS Findings reveal that decision authority in particular makes healthcare workers in nursing homes less vulnerable to adverse effects of high job demands, and promotes positive consequences of work.

Convergence of self-reports and coworker reports of counterproductive work behavior: A cross-sectional multi-source survey among health care workers

BACKGROUND Most studies of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) are criticized for overreliance on single-source self-reports. This study attempts to triangulate on behaviors and perceptions of the work environment by linking job incumbent self-report with coworker report of the job incumbents behaviors. Theoretical framework is the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) Model, which proposes in general that specific job resources should match specific job demands to reduce deviant behavioral outcomes such as CWB. OBJECTIVES To test the extent to which job incumbent self-report and coworker report of CWB in health care work converge, and the extent to which job incumbent-reported work-related antecedents (i.e., job demands and job resources) similarly predict both self-reported and coworker-reported behaviors (in line with DISC theory). DESIGN A cross-sectional survey with anonymous questionnaires was conducted, using data from two different sources (self-reports and coworker reports). SETTINGS A large organization for residential elderly care in the Northern urban area in The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Self-report and coworker questionnaires were distributed to 123 health care workers, of which 73 people returned the self-report questionnaire (59% response rate). In addition, 66 out of 123 coworker questionnaires were returned (54% coworker response rate). In total 54 surveys of job incumbents and coworkers could be matched. METHODS Next to descriptive statistics, t-test, and correlations, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 15.0 for Windows. RESULTS Correlations and a t-test demonstrated significant convergence between job incumbent and coworker reports of CWB. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that both job incumbent and coworker data consistently demonstrated CWB to be related to its work-related antecedents. Specifically, findings showed that both physical and emotional job resources moderated the relation between physical job demands and CWB. CONCLUSIONS The current findings provide stronger evidence that (multi-source measured) CWB is associated with job demands and job resources than has been provided in the past. Moreover, the present study implies that DISC theory has the potential of making a profound contribution to our understanding of counterproductive working behaviors in health care work. Future longitudinal studies should investigate this kind of relations more intensely.

Match making and match breaking: The nature of match within and around job design

We explore the notion of ‘match’. In the context of job design, this is congruence or correspondence between two or more job characteristics (e.g. cognitive demands and cognitive control). This congruence is thought to benefit health, well-being, and performance. The origins of the match concept lie in buffering models of work stress, where resources such as workplace social support and job control are thought to attenuate deleterious effects of adverse job characteristics like excessive job demands. We outline the historical developments in work stress research that has led to notions of match, contrast match with the related concept of person-environment fit, explore current conceptualizations and operationalizations of match, and outline how the concept of match can be developed.

Reciprocal relations between effort-reward imbalance at work and adverse health: A three-wave panel survey

Siegrists [1996. Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 27-41.] Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model assumes that ERI at one point in time influences health at a later point in time. Empirical cross-sectional and longitudinal findings have supported the influence of ERI on adverse health. However, the ERI model does not explicitly take into account that the relation between ERI and adverse health may be also explained by reversed causal relations, or even reciprocal (bi-directional) relations in which ERI and health mutually influence each other. The present 3-wave panel study among 211 Japanese male blue-collar workers in one construction machinery company examined reciprocal relations between ERI and adverse health (i.e., psychological distress and physical complaints) with a 1-year time-lag per wave. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (Amos 7.0J). Results showed cross-lagged and causally dominant effects of ERI on both psychological distress and physical complaints after 1 year for both Time 1-Time 2 and Time 2-Time 3. In addition, cross-lagged effects of psychological distress on ERI were found after 1 year for both Time 1-Time 2 and Time 2-Time 3. These findings suggest that (perceived) ERI and employee health influence each other reciprocally rather than uni-directionally, and underline the importance of studying reversed causal effects in the relation between ERI and employee health.