The Causal Structure of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model and Absenteeism in a Cohort Study of German Employees

Diego Montano,Richard Peter

doi:10.1007/s41542-021-00097-2

Abstract

The present study contributes to previous research by assessing the validity of the causal structure of the Effort-Reward Imbalance model in relation to the psychosocial mechanisms involved in sickness absenteeism. To this end, data from the German Cohort Study on Work, Age, Health and Work Participation are analysed (lidA Study, n = 6,270). The main hypotheses concerning short- and long-term sick-leave rates are investigated with six hurdle regression models. The results suggest that a high effort-reward imbalance, and high efforts and low rewards at work are associated with an increasing likelihood of sick leave. However, the combination of high effort-reward imbalance and high overcommitment was associated with lower sick-leave rates, in contradiction to the hypothesis postulating cumulative adverse effects of increased effort-reward imbalance and high overcommitment on health-related outcomes. Long-term sick-leave rates among workers of higher occupational and educational status were substantially lower in comparison to those among workers of lower status categories. Even though most hypotheses of the Effort-Reward Imbalance model are suitable for explaining the patterns of absenteeism in this sample, the results point to more complex motivational processes and socioeconomic characteristics of employees moderating and mediating the associations between perceived efforts and rewards at work and absenteeism.

Highlights

The Effort-Reward Imbalance model (ERI) is one of the most frequently investigated job-stress models in occupational health (Siegrist, 2016)
Even though most hypotheses of the Effort-Reward Imbalance model are suitable for explaining the patterns of absenteeism in this sample, the results point to more complex motivational processes and socioeconomic characteristics of employees moderating and mediating the associations between perceived efforts and rewards at work and absenteeism
As observed in the fully adjusted model M2 (Table 2), the associations of high efforts and low rewards depend on the spell length of sickness absence: Whereas high efforts contribute substantially to longer sickness absence spells, low rewards are important for short-term sick-leave spells

Summary

Introduction

The Effort-Reward Imbalance model (ERI) is one of the most frequently investigated job-stress models in occupational health (Siegrist, 2016). According to the ERI model, a lack of social reciprocity in the work environment reflects the imbalance between the extrinsic efforts demanded from the individual workers, and three types of experienced rewards at work, namely, financial rewards (salary or wages), rewards in terms of the social status (career promotion or job security), and socio-emotional rewards (esteem or recognition of one’s work performance). According to the ERI model, the experienced (im)-balance between efforts and rewards is assumed to be influenced by the intrinsic motivation of individual workers to commit themselves to the fulfilment of the extrinsic demands implied by the job assignment or the organisational control structure. The causal structure of the ERI model postulates that (i) each single dimension of the model, namely, efforts, rewards and overcommitment, have a large impact on health, (ii) the ratio of effort and rewards (the so-called ERI ratio) has an additional explanatory power over the single effort and reward dimensions, and (iii) the degree of overcommitment moderates the associations between the ERI ratio and health outcomes (Siegrist, 2016)

Methods

Results

Conclusion