In the Eye of the Beholder: Challenge and Hindrance Appraisals of Work Characteristics and Their Implications for Employee's Well-Being.

Peikai Li,Yejun Zhang,Toon W Taris,Maria C W Peeters

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708309

Abstract

Previous research on the association between job characteristics and employee well-being has returned mixed results. In particular, the possible impact of individual appraisal of these job characteristics has not been well-acknowledged. To address this limitation, we drew on appraisal theory and examined: (a) how workers appraise particular job characteristics, and (b) how these appraisals affect the relationships between these job characteristics and well-being (i.e., work engagement and burnout). We tested our hypotheses across two studies. In a cross-occupation sample (Study 1, n = 514), we found that job demands and resources can be appraised as both challenges and hindrances. In addition, challenge appraisals can mitigate the detrimental impact of job demands on engagement and burnout; and hindrance appraisals can strengthen the detrimental effects of job demands on burnout. Further, hindrance appraisals of job resources reduce their beneficial effects on engagement and burnout. Study 2 (n = 316 nurses in a hospital) further showed that challenge appraisals of job demands can reduce their impact on burnout while challenge appraisals of job resources will strengthen their positive effect on employee engagement and burnout. We discuss study implications as well as future research directions.

Highlights

Scholars have often classified job characteristics as either job demands or job resources (e.g., Demerouti et al, 2001), this distinction has not remained unchallenged
Across two studies, we found that time urgency was more likely to be considered as a challenge than a hindrance; it demonstrated a negative effect on work engagement
While some studies have examined the mediating role of appraisals (e.g., Boswell et al, 2004; Liu and Li, 2018), relatively less attention has been paid to the moderating role of appraisals in the job characteristics literature (O’Brien and Beehr, 2019). Our study addressed this limitation and showed that challenge appraisals moderate the associations between time urgency, role conflict, and emotional demands and work engagement, which resonates with the findings of a recent study (Li et al, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Scholars have often classified job characteristics as either job demands or job resources (e.g., Demerouti et al, 2001), this distinction has not remained unchallenged. Organizational researchers have expanded traditional job characteristics theory (e.g., the JD-R model, Demerouti et al, 2001; the Job Demand-Control model, Karasek, 1979) by recategorizing job demands as either challenge or hindrance demands (e.g., van den Broeck et al, 2010; Teng et al, 2020) This distinction has certainly advanced our understanding of how different types of demands relate to important organizational and individual outcomes, the role of Appraisals of Job Characteristics employees’ subjective appraisals of their job characteristics has not yet been well-acknowledged and needs further investigation (Parker, 2014; González-Morales and Neves, 2015). Building on this argument and recent empirical studies (e.g., Li et al, 2017, 2020), we propose that appraisals may influence the magnitude of the effects of job demands and job resources on employee well-being

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Conclusion