Hov do the same job demands and resources predict work engagement and workaholism? - A SEM analysis investigating the relation between job characteristics and heavy work investment

Abstract

Work engagement and workaholism are considered as, respectively, positive and negative heavy work investment constructs, and predict opposite outcomes for job performance and well-being. Thus, work engagement should be promoted and workaholism should be prevented. Using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework, this study aimed to investigate how job resources (i.e., autonomy and supervisor support) and job demands (i.e., workload and role conflict) related to work engagement and workaholism. The cross-sectional study comprised 5146 academics from the higher education sector in Norway. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that job resources were positively related to work engagement, and job demands were positively related to workaholism. In addition, the job demand workload was positively related to work engagement, and job resource autonomy was positively related to the working excessively dimension of workaholism. More specifically, these findings indicate that workload can act as a challenging demand in relation to work engagement, and autonomy can act as a threatening resource in relation to workaholism. The findings challenge the JD-R model’s current definitions of when to categorize a job characteristic as a job demand or resource.