JD-R model

The Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model is a theoretical framework that tries to integrate two fairly independent research traditions: the stress research tradition and the motivation research tradition. According to the JD–R model, job demands are initiators of a health impairment process and job resources are initiators of a motivational process. In addition, the model specifies how demands and resources interact, and predict important organisational outcomes.

The present study uses the Job Demands-Resources model to examine how job characteristics and burnout (exhaustion and cynicism) contribute to explaining variance in objective team performance. A central assumption in the model is that working characteristics evoke two psychologically different processes. In the first process, job demands lead to constant psychological overtaxing and in the long run to exhaustion. In the second process, a lack of job resources precludes actual goal accomplishment, leading to cynicism. In the present study these two processes were used to predict objective team performance. A total of 176 employees from a temporary employment agency completed questionnaires on job characteristics and burnout. These self-reports were linked to information from the company's management information system about teams' (N 071) objective sales performance (actual sales divided by the stated objectives) during the 3 months after the questionnaire data collection period. The results of structural equation modeling analyses did not support the hypothesis that exhaustion mediates the relationship between job demands and performance, but confirmed that cynicism mediates the relationship between job resources and performance suggesting that work conditions influence performance particularly through the attitudinal component of burnout.

This study used the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, developed in the context of occupational well-being in the paid workforce, to examine the antecedents of burnout and connectedness in the formal volunteer rural ambulance officer vocation (N= 487). Structural equation modeling using self-reports provide strong evidence for the central assumptions of the JD-R model.

This study among 477 employees working in the call centre of a Dutch telecom company (response 88%) examined the predictive validity of the job demands -resources (JD -R) model for self-reported absenteeism and turnover intentions. The central hypothesis was that job demands would be the most important predictors of absenteeism, through their relationship with health problems (i.e., exhaustion and Repetitive Strain Injury-RSI), whereas job resources would be the most important predictors of turnover intentions, through their relationship with involvement (i.e., organizational commitment and dedication). Results of a series of SEM analyses largely supported these dual processes. In the first energy-driven process, job demands (i.e., work pressure, computer problems, emotional demands, and changes in tasks) were the most important predictors of health problems, which, in turn, were related to sickness absence (duration and long-term absence). In the second motivation-driven process, job resources (i.e., social support, supervisory coaching, performance feedback and time control) were the only predictors of involvement, which, in turn, was related to turnover intentions. Additionally, job resources had a weak negative relationship with health problems, and health problems positively influenced turnover intentions. The application of the JD -R model as a human resource management tool in call centres as well as in other organizations is discussed.