Challenge and hindrance demands in relation to self‐reported job performance and the role of restoration, sleep quality, and affective rumination

Abstract

Longitudinal research on the relationship between job demands and job performance and its underlying mechanisms is scarce. The aims of this longitudinal three‐wave study among 920 Finnish employees were to ascertain whether (1) challenge job demands (i.e., workload, cognitive demands) and self‐reported job performance are positively related over time, (2) job insecurity (i.e., a hindrance demand) and job performance are negatively related over time, (3) restorative experiences during off‐job time and sleep quality are underlying mechanisms in these relations, and (4) affective rumination mediates the proposed relations of job demands and job insecurity with restoration and sleep quality. Self‐report data were analysed with structural equation modelling. The results revealed a positive, temporal relationship between challenge job demands and job performance (task and contextual performance) across 1 year, but no temporal relationship between job insecurity and self‐reported job performance. Moreover, high challenge job demands were positively related to the restorative value of off‐job activities, and favourable restoration was positively related to subsequent task performance. Finally, affective rumination mediated the relationship of challenge job demands with both restoration and sleep quality. Job insecurity was not longitudinally related to restoration, sleep quality, or affective rumination. The implications of our findings for occupational health psychology are discussed. Practitioner points Provide employees with sufficient job resources (e.g., high autonomy and social support) to adequately deal with high job demands. Allow employees sufficient time to recover from high job demands during off‐job time and provide training sessions in recovery, relaxation, meditation, and goal setting. Employees may attempt to counteract perseverative thoughts by actively pursuing distracting restoration activities (e.g., exercise, meditation).

How Stress Hinders Health among Chinese Public Sector Employees: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion and the Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

“…They might resort to maladaptive coping styles that could hurt their emotional wellbeing and eventually their health [14]. It was reported that a high level of stress is related to rumination and then to lower sleep quality and less restoration activities [56]. While rumination, sleep quality, and restoration are related to health, in this regard, hindrance stressors would lead to health problems.…”

Putting the Episodic Process Model to the Test: Explaining Intraindividual Fluctuations in Job Performance Across the Working Day

“…Time pressure is the extent to which employees feel that they have insufficient time to accomplish their work tasks, or that they need to work at a faster pace than usual because the amount of work to be done exceeds the capacity available (Roe & Zijlstra, 2000). When employees experience time pressure, they are more likely to appraise their tasks as challenging (Prem, Ohly, Kubicek, & Korunka, 2017), which should translate into increased effort and concentration on the tasks (Hockey, 1993;LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005) and thus into higher performance on the task (Ohly & Fritz, 2010;Van Laethem, Beckers, Bloom, Sianoja, & Kinnunen, 2018). However, there is evidence that a positive relationship between time pressure and performance emerges on the within-person level of analysis and for shorter time frames only, but not on the between-person level and for longer time frames.…”

Antecedents and consequences of workplace mood variability over time: A weekly study over a three‐month period

“…Although other measures of job performance, such as objective productivity indicators or supervisor ratings, are sometimes considered superior due to their lower bias susceptibility (e.g., regarding social desirability or overconfidence; Carpenter et al ., 2014), researchers have argued that performance self‐reports have some advantages. First, an individual is often the person most knowledgeable about their own tasks and objectives, and can hence best evaluate whether their work was completed satisfactorily (Berry et al ., 2012; Chan, 2009; Van Laethem et al ., 2018). Second, when aiming for large and longitudinal datasets, especially if they comprise respondents from many organizations, self‐reports are often just more realistically attainable than other measures of performance (Van Laethem et al ., 2018).…”

“…First, an individual is often the person most knowledgeable about their own tasks and objectives, and can hence best evaluate whether their work was completed satisfactorily (Berry et al ., 2012; Chan, 2009; Van Laethem et al ., 2018). Second, when aiming for large and longitudinal datasets, especially if they comprise respondents from many organizations, self‐reports are often just more realistically attainable than other measures of performance (Van Laethem et al ., 2018). Moreover, some studies have shown a moderate to strong relationship between self‐rated performance and other performance measurements (e.g., Blanch‐Hartigan, 2011; Harris & Schaubroeck, 1988; Montgomery & Baker, 2007).…”