Is Job Control a Double-Edged Sword? A Cross-Lagged Panel Study on the Interplay of Quantitative Workload, Emotional Dissonance, and Job Control on Emotional Exhaustion

Anne-Kathrin Konze, Wladislaw Rivkin and Klaus-Helmut Schmidt
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Anne-Kathrin Konze: Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University Dortmund, 44139 Dortmund, Germany
Wladislaw Rivkin: Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University Dortmund, 44139 Dortmund, Germany
Klaus-Helmut Schmidt: Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University Dortmund, 44139 Dortmund, Germany

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: Previous meta-analytic findings have provided ambiguous evidence on job control as a buffering moderator of the adverse impact of job demands on psychological well-being. To disentangle these mixed findings, we examine the moderating effect of job control on the adverse effects of quantitative workload and emotional dissonance as distinct work-related demands on emotional exhaustion over time. Drawing on the job demands-control model, the limited strength model of self-control, and the matching principle we propose that job control can facilitate coping with work-related demands but at the same time may also require employees’ self-control. Consequently, we argue that job control buffers the adverse effects of quantitative workload while it reinforces the adverse effects of emotional dissonance, which also necessitates self-control. We examine the proposed relations among employees from an energy supplying company ( N = 139) in a cross-lagged panel study with a six-month time lag. Our results demonstrate a mix of causal and reciprocal effects of job characteristics on emotional exhaustion over time. Furthermore, as suggested, our data provides evidence for contrasting moderating effects of job control. That is, job control buffers the adverse effects of quantitative workload while it reinforces the adverse effects of emotional dissonance on emotional exhaustion.

Keywords: cross-lagged panel; emotional dissonance; emotional exhaustion; job control; job demands-control model; quantitative workload (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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