Understanding remote workers' job demands and resources and their implications for well‐ and ill‐being: Development and validation of a new measure

BackgroundHybrid working arrangements that combine remote and office work are on the rise. Although hybrid work has been associated with mental health benefits in employees, challenges in the transformation to hybrid persist particularly in public administration organizations which have been connected to a pronounced culture of presence and inadequate technical infrastructure. Further evidence on the link between hybrid working conditions and employee health is needed. To support the establishment of healthy hybrid working conditions, this study aims to identify employees' job demands, resources and support needs in public administration.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with N = 13 employees who work hybrid in public administration organizations in Northern Germany between February and May 2023. Interviewees were asked about their perceived job demands, resources, and support needs in hybrid work. The data was analyzed in a deductive-inductive approach of qualitative content analysis, primarily supported by the job demands-resources model as a theoretical framework.ResultsSeveral job demands, e.g., an increase in work and meetings, and resources such as personal freedom and responsibility, were identified in the context of hybrid work. A multitude of the reported job resources and demands relate to work organization and social relationships. The results disclose discrepancies between participants' experiences of job demands and resources, underlining the subjectivity of employees' perceptions of hybrid working conditions. Interviewees' support needs for hybrid work also varied, encompassing structural-level aspects such as increased acceptance and promotion of hybrid work in the organization as well as behavioral-level aspects, for instance, strategies and self-discipline for boundaries and structure.ConclusionsThis study provides a first comprehensive overview of the job demands, resources and support needs in hybrid work in public administration. This study builds an important basis for further research to understand the impact of hybrid working conditions on health-related employee outcomes. The identified support needs provide a valuable point of reference for health-promoting hybrid working conditions which public administration employers should begin establishing as early as possible in the ongoing transition to hybrid work.

Summary This paper reports on a systematic thematic synthesis of literature focusing on encouraging and discouraging factors for social workers to train and practise as Approved Mental Health Professionals in England. These professionals have legal authority to authorise the detention for assessment/treatment of people with a ‘mental disorder’ under the Mental Health Act 1983 and other statutory responsibilities. The review included 23 papers, which reported on 14 research studies and is presented using the job demands and resources model. Findings The review identified a lack of quantitative studies and specific gaps in evidence about social workers’ motivations or reasons why they do not want to become Approved Mental Health Professionals. It identified job resources and demands relating to the intrinsic nature of Approved Mental Health Professional work and extrinsic factors such as fit with social work values and the shortage of inpatient beds. Some job resources and demands overlapped and interacted. Applications The review suggests that a national survey of Approved Mental Health Professionals might be timely, to examine the relative importance of the job resources and demands; to assess their impact on levels of stress and burnout and on Approved Mental Health Professionals’ motivations to continue or cease working in the role. The findings of the review support the need for increasing the number of inpatient mental health beds and community resources and establishing requirements for the availability of doctors (who may make the medical recommendation to detain) and local agreements about the role of the police and ambulance services in Mental Health Act assessments.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to shed light on the job resources and demands of employees working in virtual teams and the impact of these job factors on their work engagement levels. Specifically, the authors focus on identifying the differing significance of employee job resources and demands on their virtual work engagement levels. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach grounded on abductive analysis is used to arrive at the findings. The methods for data collection include participant observation and semistructured interviews of 27 software engineers in the Indian information technology sector, working with virtual teams. Findings The authors identified the virtual-work-induced job demands and resources. Primarily, the authors found 14 job factors related to high and low levels of individual virtual work engagement, and classified them under eight aggregate dimensions: psychosocial hurdles, collaboration challenges, leadership and operational issues, dehumanization under job demands, supportive leadership, personal resources, alternate sources of income and learning goal orientation under job resources. Consequently, the authors built an importance–frequency work engagement map based on how these job factors are related to low and high levels of work engagement. Research limitations/implications This study’s qualitative nature limits the generalizability of the findings. Hence, further studies are encouraged to corroborate the findings. There is also a possibility of the social desirability bias that could have affected the results as participants may have perceived an element of risk in sharing all their honest feelings and perceptions. This may have especially been the case for those with higher status or positions in the company. Practical implications The findings suggest practical measures either to engage employees in their free time or to improve loyalty. There is a clear potential for the organization and virtual leader to communicate effectively about the expected goals, arrange informal interactions and reduce scrutiny of monitoring, thereby increasing the remote workers’ resources. Originality/value The originality of this study comes from multiple factors. First, the authors highlight ta contextual adaptation of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model into a virtual team context. By extension, the authors examine “how much” does both the job resources and demands contribute to the wellbeing of the employees working in virtual teams. Second, the authors construct an importance–frequency work engagement map (specifically for the virtual work context) based on the findings, which categorizes the observed resources and demands into four quadrants. The authors propose that this map could be a possible extension to the JD-R model, highlighting the differing significance of each resource and demand to employee work engagement.

Working from home (WFH) has become the expected trend as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. The impact of family conflict, social isolation, distracting environment, job autonomy, and self-leadership on employees' productivity, work engagement, and stress levels have been examined in this study with a mediating role of Psychological capital. There has been little study on the impact of Psychological capital as a mediator and its influence on remote work productivity, work engagement, and stress. The data was collected from employees of IT sector organizations. Through online and print surveys, a sample of 429 respondents was gathered using the convenience sampling method. The dependent variables were workers’ productivity, work engagement, and Stress, the mediating variable was Psychological Capital and the independent variables were family-work conflict, social isolation, distracting environment, job autonomy, and self-leadership under the framework of the Job Demand and Resource model. The PLS-SEM tool was used to investigate the association between research variables. The SPSS tool was used to run the descriptive statistics of respondents. Through this study, it was able to conclude that Job Demand and Job Resources significantly impact productivity, work engagement, and stress through psychological capital. Job Demand negatively impacts productivity, and work engagement and positively impacts stress while Job Resource positively impacts productivity, and work engagement and negatively impact stress.

Social distancing policies ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic have altered working conditions and created new job demands. This study adopted the Job Demands−Resources (JD−R) model to investigate the relationship between demands and strains (i.e. social isolation, remote work stress, and fear of COVID-19) and remote work satisfaction and remote work performance. Additionally, the study sought to identify the moderating roles of employees’ digital literacy and cyberslacking in the relationship between remote work satisfaction and remote work performance. After analysing data collected from a sample of 340 Iranian remote workers, results showed social isolation, remote work stress, and fear of COVID-19 related to remote work satisfaction negatively and decrease remote work performance through the mediation of remote work satisfaction. Moreover, digital literacy and cyberslacking moderated the relationship between remote work satisfaction and remote work performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. By linking job demands and strains, psychological states, and employee output, this research notably contributes to the literature on remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of this study was to identify specific management practices that promote the psychological health of remote workers in the context of the COVID‐19 crisis. A two‐round Delphi study was conducted among 28 teleworkers and 22 managers. A list of 60 specific management practices was presented and participants had to identify whether each one could be used in the current remote working context and, if so, how useful it was to promote psychological health at work. Results indicate that most specific management practices usually used in a face‐to‐face setting can also be used in a remote context (85%). Practices that show consideration, establishing work structure, and allowing flexibility were also identified as the most useful to promote remote workers' psychological health during the pandemic. This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge about specific management practices, remote working, and crisis management. It also suggests specific practices that managers can adopt to promote the psychological health of their employees during a period of crisis, even while managing from a distance.

Working from home (WFH) has had both positive and negative impacts on the work conduct. To maximise the benefits of homeworking, previous literature mainly focuses on creating self-help strategies for homeworkers to reduce work stress and maintain work engagement. However, fewer studies take on the policymaker perspective and evaluate optimal working conditions in the homeworking context. Using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study evaluates the effects of various work characteristics (job demands and resources) on the stress and engagement of infrequent and frequent homeworkers. Using the sixth European Working Conditions Survey 2015 which contains 5090 participants from 34 European countries, we studied 6 job demands and 5 job resources via Exploratory Factor Analysis. After testing the model’s fitness using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, multiple mixed-effects models were used to test the job demands and resource effects on worker stress and engagement. Dominance Analysis was then used to identify the relative importance of each job demand and resource when explaining employee stress and engagement. We found emotional demands, time pressure, and workload to be the top three demand factors that cause work stress across the groups. Other than daily homeworkers, a positive and fair social climate is the most prominent resource able to boost job engagement across all of the other groups. By identifying the homeworkers’ most influential demands and resources, this study will help managers better understand the steps to take to provide healthy job conditions for homeworkers.

Background: Several studies have been conducted on the effects of job demands, job resources, work-life balance, and supervisor-resident relationships on burnout syndrome in cardiology residents globally, but no such study has been conducted in Indonesia. Objectives: To investigate the impact of job demands, job resources, work-life balance, and supervisor-resident relationship quality on burnout syndrome among cardiology residents in Indonesia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 42 cardiology residents from 10 Indonesian universities from March to July 2024, with data collected online using a validated questionnaire. Results: Our results indicated that there was no significant difference between the burnout and non-burnout groups regarding job demand variables such as emotional demand, mental demand, and work overload (p > 0.05). Similarly, job resources, including work independence, supervisor support, colleague support, schedule flexibility, and feedback, were not significantly associated with the risk of burnout (p > 0.05). Additionally, work-life balance factors such as work time, family time, break time, and supervisor-resident relationships showed no significant association with burnout among residents. Conclusion: The study indicates that job demands, resources, work-life balance, and supervisor-resident relationship quality do not significantly impact burnout in cardiology residents. Other factors may contribute to burnout, and further research is needed to identify these factors to improve prevention efforts. Keyword: Burnout Syndrome, Cardiology, Mental Health, Residents, Quality of Life

How the work environment contributes to employees' overall subjective well-being remains inadequately explored. Building upon the seminal Job Demands-Resources model, this study aims to test a complex model that combines leadership, job demands, and job resources, as factors contributing either indirectly (via job satisfaction) or directly to employees' subjective well-being (SWB). The cross-sectional data (N = 1,859) of the Belgian National happiness study (2020) were used. Leadership (satisfaction with leadership; perceived supervisor support), job demands (role conflict; job insecurity; work-private conflict; perceived working conditions), job resources (autonomy; relatedness; competence; skill utilization; personal growth), job satisfaction and subjective well-being (life evaluation; positive affect; negative affect) were assessed via self-report questionnaires. The proposed model investigates the direct impact of job demands and resources on SWB, as well as the indirect impact with job satisfaction as mediating factor, and was tested using the Structural Equation Modeling technique. Findings supported the proposed model. Both job demands and job resources have a direct relationship with SWB. Job resources are positively related to overall SWB, whereas job demands negatively affected SWB. Moreover, job resources are more strongly related to SWB compared to job demands. The demands and resources also indirectly contribute to employee's SWB via job satisfaction as job satisfaction appeared to mediate these relationships. The current study shows that both job demands and resources directly and indirectly contribute to employees' SWB. Creating a supportive and healthy work environment is thus of paramount importance in order to foster employees' SWB. In particular, investing in improving job resources may be a fruitful approach to promote employees' overall subjective well-being.

BackgroundMany elements in the workplace contribute to nurses’ burnout experiences, affecting patient safety and the healthcare organizations’ efficiency. Leaders’ presence and conduct are the most potent “master” factors in every work setting. Although previous studies have shown that head nurse leadership, job demands, job resources, and job burnout are significantly related, the interaction mechanism remains unclear. This study investigates the parallel mediating roles of job demands and job resources between head nurse leadership and job burnout in nursing staff.MethodsA cross-sectional, anonymous, and confidential online survey was conducted from March to June 2024 to collect data from 579 registered nurses in four hospitals in Hunan provinces. The independent variable was head nurse leadership, the mediating variables were job demands and resources, and the dependent variable was job burnout. Parallel mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS.ResultsThis study found that head nurse leadership negatively relates to nurses’ burnout. The parallel mediation analysis suggests that job resources and job demands play parallel roles in the relationship between head nurse leadership and job burnout. As predicted, head nurse leadership weakened job burnout through job resources and contributed to job burnout through job demands.ConclusionThis study finding highlights the importance of head nurse leadership in decreasing nurses’ job burnout and reveals two potential mechanisms through which head nurse leadership is related to nurses’ burnout. By understanding the role of head nurse leadership, job demands, and job resources, interventions can be targeted to improve nurses’ mental health.

Job demands, job resources, and self-regulatory behavior : exploring the issue of match

This cross-sectional study sought to investigate job demands and resources as predictors of teacher well-being. Participants were 319 portuguese teachers in grades 1–11 (elementary up to secondary level). Data were analysed through confirmatory factorial analysis, structural equation modelling and mediation analysis. Main findings revealed that job demand variables are negative predictors of teacher well-being, whereas job resources variables predict positively teacher well-being. Additionally, the results showed two indirect mediation effects: job resources buffered the job demands and well-being relationship. In particular, support from colleagues and autonomy were identified as the main mediators of the relation between job demands and teacher well-being. Overall, the main results are consistent with the Job Demands-Resources model and contribute to the understanding of interplay between job resources and demands and their influence over teacher well-being.

Orientation: Mining companies are major sources of employment in South Africa. Withstanding the challenges that the mining industry faces, maintaining work engagement of employees is essential to success in this context.Research purpose: To investigate the mediating effect of job and personal resources (in parallel and serial) in the relationship between the job demands and work engagement of employees at two iron-ore mines in a remote South African locale.Motivation for the study: Most South African research on work engagement in the mining industry focuses on the role of job resources. There is a lack of research investigating the influence of both job and personal resources in the relationship between job demands and mineworkers’ work engagement.Research approach/design and method: Data were collected using questionnaires from 238 employees working for two open-pit iron-ore mines. Three mediating relationships were investigated using variance-based structural equation modelling.Main findings: The results indicate that job and personal resources (in parallel) partially mediated the relationship between job demands and work engagement, with personal resources having a stronger effect than job resources. In addition, job and personal resources (in serial) partially mediated the relationship between job demands and work engagement but not as strongly as personal resources (in parallel).Practical/managerial implications: Despite job demands, mineworkers’ work engagement can be increased by investing in interventions and a work environment that enhances job and personal resources (such as mindfulness and psychological capital).Contribution/value add: The study bridges a specific gap in the literature by exploring the role of both job and personal resources (i.e., mindfulness and psychological capital) in the relationship between mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement. No previous studies explored these variables in combination in the South African mining industry.

Nurses demonstrate high burnout prevalence. Moreover, destructive leadership, as well as job demands and resources, are associated with burnout. However, these associations, particularly in the context of nursing, warrant further investigation. To explore the associations of destructive leadership, as well as job demands and resources, with burnout in registered nurses. A cross-sectional survey. Participants. 2115 registered nurses in Finland. The self-administered questionnaire survey was distributed nationwide to 106,000 members of the Finnish trade union for health and social care professionals via an online newsletter in February 2023. Nurses' burnout was measured with the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT). The data were analysed through descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis. Destructive leadership and job demands were positively associated with burnout (β = 0.39 and 0.32, respectively; both p < 0.001), whereas job resources and burnout were negatively associated (β = -0.41, p < 0.001). The associations of destructive leadership and job demands with burnout became less positive when job resources were added to the regression model (β = 0.21 and 0.14, respectively; both p < 0.001). Job resources led to the greatest reduction in burnout among registered nurses. Moreover, job resources reduced burnout by diminishing the negative effects of destructive leadership and job demands. Providing a sufficient amount of job resources might reduce burnout and diminish the negative effects of destructive leadership and job demands among nurses. These relationships warrant examination in other cultural settings.

Introduction: The growth of gig work has transformed the contemporary labor market, provided flexibility and independence but also subjected workers to high stressors like job insecurity, economic uncertainty, and irregular workloads. Gig workers work in various sectors, such as ridesharing, food delivery, freelancing, and on-demand services, and usually encounter distinctive occupational hazards. Gig Workers' Well-being (GWW) Model, based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and Psychological Capital (PsyCap) theory, presents a systematic approach to understanding job demands and resources and their effect on stress resilience, mental well-being, and job performance among gig workers. This research explores how resilience interventions can reduce stress and improve work engagement and productivity among gig workers. Objectives: The main aim of this research is to create and test a multi-dimensional stress resilience framework that explains the dynamic interaction of multiple influences on wellbeing among gig workers. More specifically, the research intends to explore how job demands can intensify burnout while job resources promote work engagement, and to investigate the dual nature of gig-related factors that can benefit or detract from job performance. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate the contribution of technostress in exacerbating burnout, evaluate the effectiveness of boundary management in enhancing work engagement, and identify the degree to which resilience is responsible for enhanced job performance. Through this holistic examination, the study aims to offer detailed insights into the stress and coping processes in the gig economy, ultimately guiding strategies to enhance the wellbeing and performance of gig workers. Methods: A qualitative research design was used to obtain rich insights into the well-being of gig workers. A stratified random sampling strategy provided representative diversity across work categories, demographics, and geographic regions. Data were collected through structured online questionnaires distributed through LinkedIn, social media groups, and gig work platforms. The questionnaire contained validated scales assessing stress levels, financial security, work-life balance, resilience, and well-being. 400 questionnaires were distributed and 338 returned (84.5% response rate). After excluding incomplete or invalid responses, the final sample of 323 gig workers was analyzed. Statistical analysis using IBM SPSS 25.0, including correlation and regression analysis, was conducted to examine the relationships between job demands, burnout, resilience, and work engagement. Results: Correlation analysis indicated significant relationships between the most important variables. Job demands were positively correlated with job resources (r =.900, p &lt;.01), indicating that as stressors, resource needs also increased. Burnout had significant correlations with job demands (r =.489, p &lt;.01) and technostress (r =.804, p &lt;.01), supporting the negative effect of workload unpredictability. Regression analysis showed that job demands strongly predicted burnout (β = 0.489, R² = 0.239, p &lt;.000), whereas job resources positively affected work engagement (β = 0.415, R² = 0.172, p &lt;.000). Gig-specific factors also significantly contributed to the formation of job performance (β = 0.368, R² = 0.135, p &lt;.000). In addition, technostress strongly raised levels of burnout (β = 0.476, R² = 0.227, p &lt;.000), whereas resilience helped job performance to the extent of β = 0.499, R² = 0.289, p &lt;.000, highlighting its significance when managing stress. Conclusions: The results highlight the intricate interaction between job demands, resilience, and performance in the gig economy. Digital stressors and high job demands are sources of burnout, which is detrimental to well-being. Nevertheless, job resources such as autonomy, skill development, and social support improve work engagement and reduce stress. The GWW Model highlights the importance of resilience in mediating stress outcomes and proposes that interventions like boundary management, adaptive coping, and financial security programs can enhance mental health and performance. Policy measures should aim to augment gig workers' access to social security, training, and mental health care. By building resilience, gig platforms can establish a more sustainable and supportive work culture, guaranteeing long-term well-being and productivity.