Job strain in nonprofit human service agencies: Job demands and job control's additive effects, and goal‐related feedback's mediating role

Abstract

AbstractFew quantitative studies in the nonprofit literature have examined job demands' strain‐inducing impact. The classic demand‐control (DC) model predicts a positive main effect for job demands and a negative main effect for job control on job strain, respectively. However, four decades of DC model studies have uncovered modest support for this additive model. As a means of addressing both issues, the present study tested a recently introduced modified additive model using 621 employees from two different types of nonprofit human service agencies located in the city of New York. Two mediational analyses, structural equation modelling and bootstrapping, corroborated goal‐related feedback's intervening role on the control‐strain relationship. Findings not only replicate and extend prior research, but also make a unique contribution to the nonprofit literature. Implications for the stress management of nonprofit human service employees, as well as recommendations for the DC model literature are also discussed.