Summary of the articles and the knowledge clips for the Work & Performance Course for the master Social, Health & Organisational Psychology at Utrecht University.
Schaufeli & Taris – A Critical Review of the Job Demands-Resources Model: Implications
for Improving Work and Health
4.1 Introduction
JD-R model assumes that employee health and well-being result from a balance between
positive (resources) and negative (demands) job characteristics. Popular because:
Model does not restrict itself to specific ones but assumes any demand or resource
may affect the health and well-being of an employee. It is broader that other
models. The broad scope and flexibility of the model is attractive to practitioners.
JD-R model is heuristic in nature. It can be used in a loose way.
4.2 A Brief History of the JD-R Model
JD-R model was first published by Demerouti et al. (2001) to understand antecedents of
burnout. It defined:
Job demands: those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require
sustained physical or mental effort.
Job resources: those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that may:
o Be functional in achieving work goals
o Reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs
o Stimulate personal growth and development
The JD-R model assumes when job demands are high, additional effort must be exerted to
achieve the work goals and to prevent decreasing performance. This coms with
psychological and physical costs. The JD-R model poses 2 processes for burnout:
1. Long-term excessive job demands from which you cannot recover may lead to
sustained activation and results in exhaustion.
2. Lack of resources precludes that work goals are met leading to withdrawal behavior.
4.2.2 The Revised JD-R Model
The revised model of the JD-R includes work engagement. It considers work engagement
and burnout to be mediators. It gives a positive twist to the JD-R model. It not only seeks to
explain negative states (burnout) but also positive (work engagement).
work engagement: positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor,
dedication and absorption.
Energetic or health impairment process: burnout is expected to mediate the relation
between job demand and employee health and well-being.
Motivational process: Engagement is expected to mediate the relation between job
resources and organizational outcomes.
Job resources play an extrinsic motivational role because they initiate willingness to spend
compensatory effort and reducing job demands. They also play an intrinsic motivational
role: satisfy basic human need for autonomy and competence.
,4.4 The Integration of Personal Resources
Personal resources: 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. Personal resources are incorporated in JD-R in 5 ways:
1. Personal resources directly impact well-being: they may reduce burnout and increase
engagement. Personal resources (self-efficacy, optimism) predict work engagement.
It is reciprocal: work engagement predicts personal resources.
2. Personal resources moderate the relation between job characteristics and well-being:
personal resources may buffer negative effects of job demands on burnout.
3. Personal resources mediate the relation between job characteristics and well-being:
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.
4. Personal resources influence the perception of job characteristics: social cognitive
theory proposes that personal resources (like self-efficacy) shape the way people
understand their environment and react to it.
5. Personal resources act as ‘third variable’: 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.
4.6 Elaborations and Refinements of the JD-R Model
Two categories of job demands:
1. Challenges: workload, time pressure, responsibility
2. Hindrances: role conflict, role ambiguity
Both are demanding but challenges have potential to promote mastery and growth but
hindrances could thwart personal growth and goal attainment. Both are positively related to
,burnout but hindrance is negatively related to engagement, whereas challenges are related
positively to engagement.
4.9 Critical Comments and Unresolved Issues
There are 6 issues.
1. The epistemological status of the JD-R model:
o Limited generalizability because all sorts of demands, resources and
outcomes can be included in the model.
o Therefore, additional explanatory frameworks are needed to argue why
certain demands interact with certain resources
o JD-R model is a descriptive model without giving particular explanations
2. The Nature of Job demands and Job resources: Demands are valued negatively and
resources are valued positively. Value based nature of demands and resources
would have to redefine the concepts. E.g.: job demands are negatively valued
physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or
psychological effort.
3. The role of Personal Resources: Personal resources play may roles in job
characteristics and can be integrated in the model in many ways. Specific
explanatory frameworks determine how they should be integrated. (Heuristic
manner of JD-R model)
4. The distinction between health impairment and motivational process: JD-R suggests
health impairment and motivational processes are independent they probably
represent the same thing. There are negative relationships between (1) job demands
and resources, (2) burnout and engagement. Therefore, health impairment and
motivational processes should be studied jointly.
5. Reciprocal Causation: JD-R proposes straightforward unidirectional causal relations
among demands, resources, outcomes but studies proposed reciprocal causation.
6. Multilevel issues: JD-R presents individual level approach, but it has been applied to
higher aggregation levels. They violated the compatibility principle in doing so: all
variables in a model must be operationalized at the same level of specificity.
4.10 Practical Implications
Unlike other approaches and models, the JD-R model:
1. The model can be tailored to the specific needs of an organization, given any specific
situation: it Is non-limitative in terms of study concepts. It is applicable to an
extremely wise set of job and personal characteristics.
2. Its balanced approach increases recognition and acceptability by employees,
supervisors and executives: it considers both negative and positive outcomes and
processes
, 3. JD-R might bridge the gap between occupational health management and HRM: it
appeals to different occupational groups.
4. It complements previous approaches and ideas concerning the relations between
work characteristics rather than replaces older theories. The JD-R is a master of none.
Because it is so generalizable, this comes at the costs of it specificity. Additional
explanatory theoretical frameworks are needed.
4.10.1 The JD-R Monitor
The JD-R Monitor is Used in a 7-step cyclical process.
Step 1: The Problem
An organization may have general questions: how do employees experience work? Or
specific: how can employees levels of work engagement be increased?
Step 2: Designing the JD-R Monitor
The most relevant job stressors, personal and job resources and outcomes are selected and
included in the JD-R Monitor.
Step 3: internal Communication
Before carrying out the survey, an internal communication campaign is launched. Goal of
campaign: to emphasize importance of the survey and to underlie commitment.
Step 4: Survey and Individual Feedback
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