Job design under lean manufacturing and the quality of working life: a job demands and resources perspective

Abstract

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.