Investigating the Heterogenous Impacts of Job Demands and Control: A Recentred Influence Functions Analysis of Employee Exhaustion

Abstract

Karasek’s (1979) original thesis on job demand-controls (JD-C) in the workplace suggested that job demands and job autonomy impact employees’ emotional exhaustion. In the past 4 decades, a large number of studies into JD-C practices have followed. These have all been based on theoretical assumptions that employees are homogenous in their responses to workplace JD-Cs. Contrary to these prior studies, in the current study we theorise that employees are heterogenous in their responses to workplace JD-Cs. Specifically, changes to job demands (hassles, work pressure, cognitive demands) and job autonomy impact employees’ emotional exhaustion differently depending on their level of mental strain. This new approach of allowing for estimations of heterogenous impacts is made possible by recent developments in the recentered influence function. We provide three empirical examples which shows the differential impacts of JD-Cs on employees’ emotional exhaustion depending on their level of mental strain.