Explaining worker strain and learning: how important are emotional job demands?

This study examined the added value of emotional job demands in explaining worker well-being, relative to the effects of task characteristics, such as quantitative job demands, job control, and coworker support. Emotional job demands were expected to account for an additional proportion of the variance in well-being. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 11,361 female Dutch home care employees. Hierarchical stepwise regression analysis demonstrated that low control, low support and high quantitative demands were generally associated with lower well-being (as measured in terms of emotional exhaustion, dedication, professional accomplishment and learning). Moreover, high emotional demands were in three out of four cases significantly associated with adverse well-being, in these cases accounting for an additional 1-6% of the variance in the outcome variables. In three out of eight cases the main effects of emotional demands on well-being were qualified by support and control, such that high control and high support either buffered the adverse effects of high emotional demands on well-being or increased the positive effects thereof. All in all, high emotional demands are as important a risk factor for worker well-being as well-established concepts like low job control and high quantitative job demands.