Documents Demerouti, Evangelia 3 results

"Objectives The present study was designed to test the demand-control model using indicators of both health impairment and active learning or motivation.Methods A total of 381 insurance company employees participated in the study. Discriminant analysis was used to examine the relationship between job demands and job control on one hand and health impairment and active learning on the other.Results The amount of demands and control could be predicted on the basis of employees' perceived health impairment (exhaustion and health complaints) and active learning (engagement and commitment). Each of the four combinations of demand and control differentially affected the perception of strain or active learning. Job demands were the most clearly related to health impairment, whereas job control was the most clearly associated with active learning. Conclusions These findings partly contradict the demand-control model, especially with respect to the validity of the interaction between demand and control. Job demands and job control seem to initiate two essentially independent processes, and this occurrence is consistent with the recently proposed job demands-resources model."

"Studies examining the relationship between lean manufacturing and employee well-being to date have yielded contradictory findings, whereby positive, negative and contingent effects have all been demonstrated. These inconsistencies are partly attributed to the absence of an appropriate model that captures the complex job design associated with this context and its relationship with employee outcomes. In this paper, we propose and test a model of job design under lean manufacturing using the job demands-resources framework to capture the distinct motivational and health-impairing potential of this context. Data from 200 employees from a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer with extensive levels of long-term lean usage supported the direct and interactive effects of lean-specific resources and demands in the prediction of employee work engagement and exhaustion. The findings encourage lean users to minimise the health-impairing potential of its demands and utilise their motivational potential by complementing them with the appropriate job resources necessary to cope with a high-involvement, fast-paced work environment."

"Since its introduction in 1974, the concept of burnout has generated a lot of scientific research. The World Health Organization only recently recognised it as an occupational phenomenon, defined as a ‘prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job and characterized by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy'. This paper provides a scoping literature review of burnout and possible interventions. The literature suggests that the current measurement instruments are not appropriate for diagnostic purposes, and their scores overlap substantially with other disorders, such as fatigue, anxiety and depression. A valid diagnosis of burnout requires a combination of questionnaire and interview data, including information about its causes. The review discovered that the main triggers of burnout are chronic exposure to high job demands and low job resources. Whereas individual characteristics (such as neuroticism) make some people more prone to burnout, there is no clear picture of what personality characteristics entail a higher risk. Burnout has detrimental effects on both individuals and organisations, however. Burnout interventions typically focus on stress-relief and coping strategies to deal with the high level of job demands, but their effects diminish over time. Research also shows that organisations focus primarily on the consequences of burnout, while more attention should be given to the underlying causes within the job. Evidence from organisational interventions shows that organisations can improve their employees' working conditions to reduce burnout risk. Combined interventions show promise: they allow the organisation to develop a healthy work environment, while employees can deal adequately with (sporadic) stress. Social partners need to urge governments and policymakers to support research on burnout to develop clear diagnosis and treatment of burned-out employees together with preventive measures to reduce the psychosocial risks in the work environment."