JD-R model stands for Job Demands-Resources Model.
It is a model that supports the functioning of employee well-being.
JD-R model model is known as one of the leading job stress models which are used by managers and supervisors to manage employees’ involvement.
This work stress model suggests that our stress arises from the imbalance between the requirements of the job & the resources the employee has available to meet those requirements.
WHAT’S IN IT
The Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R model) Overview
The Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R model) was introduced in 2006 along with other models such as Karasek’s Job Demands Control (JD-C) model & Siegrist’s Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) model for employee well-being.
The authors of this JDR (Job Demands-Resources) Model are Eva Demerouti & Arnold Bakker.
They published the results of a long-term study in The Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Moreover, this Model became much popular among researchers.
The present model states that high job demands lead to strain and Damaging the Health and high resources lead to increased motivation and higher productivity
Types of components in the JD-R Model
This model divides the working conditions into two Components or two Categories:
They are job requirements and job resources.
Their study before the creation of this JD-R model shows proof for the existence of these two parallelly occurring processes.
A complex or difficult job demands a lot of both the mental and physical capacities of employees.
This can lead to a decrease in our energy and other health problems.
However, when the job resources don’t form a block these could improve the involvement of employees and the performance of the company or organisation as a whole.
Generally, it is true for people with a high position.
For people with a lower position, the availability of job resources doesn’t necessarily create extra motivation.
Job Requirements
It is also called Job Demands that relates to the physical, social or emotional features of the job and the work environment.
This mainly concerns our factors such as time and work pressure, poor relationships, Heavy workload, role uncertainty, stressful environments and leadership.
These often demand long-term physical effort and skills.
Job Resources
The job resources, also called positives, are the physical, organisational or social factors that help the employee or the worker to achieve the established objectives or the goal and reduce stress.
Examples of these include coaching and monitoring, learning and career development opportunities, good/strong relationships, freedom and more.
The JD-R model of engagement states that when job demands are high and job positives are low, stress and nervousness (Break down )are common.
Good job positives can offset the effects of extreme job demands, and encourage or cheer motivation and engagement.
The JD-R Model Explanation
Let us learn the model After three years of JD-r Model implementation it includes work engagement in addition to burnout.
Considering burnout & work engagement to be mediators of the relation between job demands, job resources, health problems, and etc.
The revised JD-R model not only look out to explain a negative psychological state i.e., burnout but also its positive counterpart (work engagement).
Work engagement refers to a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by high levels of energy and mental strength.
This model assumes that burnout results from high job demands & poor job resources.
Generally, it is assumed that burnout will lead to health problems, such as depression, cardiovascular or heart disease, or psychological complaints.
As a result, burnout is expected to mediate the relation between the job demands and employee health and well-being through the slow draining of mental resources that is burnout.
Hence, This is the energetic or health impairment process of the JD-R model.
Revised JD-R model highlights
Similarly, a motivational process operates that is sparked or flash by huge job resources.
The revised JD-R model highlights the Stress motivational qualities of job resources.
Job resources play an external motivational role, as they initiate the ability to spend compensatory effort.
Thereby reducing job demands and encouraging in achieving goals. That is, job resources are important in achieving work goals.
Moreover, they also play an internal motivational role, because they satisfy basic human needs for freedom.
For instance, feedback may promote learning, thereby increasing job capacity whereas, decision latitude and social support convince needs for autonomy or freedom and relatedness, respectively.
In both these cases, job resources stimulate a positive work-related state of mind that is work engagement either through the achievement of work goals or the satisfaction of basic needs.
So engagement is assumed to be an intermediate relation between job resources and organizational outcomes.
Balance
Balancing between the job resources in the JD-R model & the job requirements determines the degree to which employees feel energized by their job or work.
If the balance is negative, and the work demands more in terms of energy than it yields.
The negatives outcomes could be Lack of concentration, More mistakes, Negative working atmosphere.
This will lead to burnout or physical symptoms. If The balance is positive when the job gives more energy than it costs.
A positive outcome can be an employee is more productive, there is little absence or leave, the working atmosphere is quite good.
This leads to an engagement visible in the attitude and behaviour of the employees.
The Role of Involved Employees
Both employee satisfaction or pleasure and employee involvement play a central role in the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R Model).
Employee satisfaction indicates how happy or satisfies the employees are Satisfy employees more often have a good balance between both job resources and job requirements.
A Satisfied employee is also generally more involved. And creates great value for the organization or the Company.
Uses of Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R Model)
The JD-R model, shown below, can help us to understand and respond to our team’s needs.
For instance, if job demands are high and resources are low, our team members are more likely to experience greater levels of stress.
As a result, we are likely to see high absence and high employee turnover. In this situation, we should work to increase job positives.
By doing the below activities you’ll reduce stress and increase people’s motivation.
It is easy to apply and can be used at each position. Using the step-by-step plan can determine our work balance.
Step-By-Step Plan to Determine Personal Balance
Step 1. Identify Job requirements
Start by making a list of all the job requirements of the position.
Job demands include all physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of a job.
Start by noting the stress that could hurt our team. These could include the following:
- Short deadlines.
- The bulk of work.
- Complex/Difficult or boring projects.
- An uncomfortable work environment.
- Poor at working relationships.
- High work pressure
- Time pressure
- Availability
- Limited or fewer opportunities for career growth
Step 2: Address Job Demands
There are Chances that we have a long list of factors that could negatively affect our team. It will be within your power to change many of these.
So, separate the ones that we can influence from the ones that we can’t, and do what you can to reduce job demands.
Some of the things to reduce job demands are:
- Pleasant working Environment
- Understanding the true purpose
- Supporting Our team members
- Team members are engaged in emotional labor
Step 3: Identify Possible Job Resources
The list of job requirements might look negative, but it isn’t necessary to have so.
Below list includes examples and the job requirements differ per job.
When we get the right resources available, this might even create extra motivation.
- Firstly, Opportunities for career growth
- Training and development opportunities
- Mentoring or Coaching
- Pleasant work environment
- Good work relationships
Step 4: Promote Job Resources
Look for opportunities to encourage learning, Training and development.
But don’t overlook low positives, such as good working relationships; these are highly important for reducing job stress.
Provide regular constructive feedback to your people. This will help them to feel supported as they grow, build and develop.
Also, offer a wide range of training and development opportunities. Cross-training is great for developing people interestingly and easily.
The JD-R Monitor
As an example of practical usage of the JD-R:
A large pool of reliable and valid short scales that assess job demands, job resources, personal resources, psychological states, and positive and negative outcomes.
Which are available and can be included to dress up the JD-R model, depending on the information needed.
The JD-R monitor is used in a particular seven-step cyclic process for evidence-based organizational consultancy. The below figure shows JD-R Monitor
Step 1: The Problem
An organization or Company may have a very general question, such as:
How do the employees experience their work? But the problem could also be more specific such as:
1. How can an employee’s levels of work engagement be increased?
2. What are the risk factors for burnout?
3. How can we keep older employees ready for work?
Step 2: Designing the JD-R-Monitor :
Together with key persons:
Such as
- HR officers
- Management
- Team members
- Occupational physicians
- Most relevant job stressors, personal and job resources, stress reactions, & outcomes are chosen or select and include in the JD-R monitor.
It doesn’t know what the final content of the JD-R-monitor will be.
Step 3: Internal Communication:
Before taking out the survey, an internal communication campaign is a launch.
This usually includes keeping a kick-off meeting with all employees, sending all announcements via the company’s network, and publishing background articles in the company’s magazines.
The basic goal of the campaign is to highlight the importance of the survey and to underline the commitment of various Partners, including top management and unions.
Step 4: Survey and Individual Feedback :
All employees will receive an email with a link to the online JD-R monitor.
It takes employees 15–30 min approximately to complete the survey, and response rates usually range from 65 % to 85 %, depending on how well the project is communicated to the employees.
Privacy is the guarantee that nobody in the organization has access to the data of the employees.
Moreover, in the case of a negative score, the feedback text invites the employee to take action.
Step 5: Analysis and Reporting:
The company report is based on total data, which means that average scores for the entire company and its various units are calculated.
Like the individual feedback report, the company report gives an outline of the scores for each element of the JD-R monitor, including a comparison with a benchmark
Step 6: Survey Feedback:
The report discusses throughout the company at various levels, not only in the boardroom but also with the employees at the team or department level, or even in focus groups.
Feeding back the results and discussing these critically with management, supervisors, and employees is much important to build commitment and trust for implementing interruptions or Interventions
Step 7: Interventions:
Base on the results of the JD-R monitor, two types of measures can be taken.
First, the employees can take measures themselves to improve their own personal or job resources or to decrease their demands.
But also team and organization-based interventions can be implemented.
These may take on many different forms, ranging from the training programs for employees and supervisors to team-building, job redesign, or culture change.
Step 8: Evaluation :
After the intervention, the organization or Company can go through steps 1 to 7 again.
For Example: To check whether the implemented intervention has been effective or not. The JD-R monitor is then used in a second cycle to investigate
In the ideal case, the JD-R monitor is Combined in the annual HR cycle to monitor the quality of the company’s human capital, so that evidence-based HR policy decisions can be made.
CONCLUSION
The distinctive feature of the JD-R model is its generalization and flexibility, meaning that the model can be used in a broad array of situations Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R Model).
It is a model that studies the functioning of employees’ well-being.
This model consists of two main elements:
That is job requirements and job resources.
Job requirements relate to the physical, social or emotional characteristics of the job and the work environment.
The job resources comprise organisational or social factors that could help the employee to strive for objectives.
Therefore, the balance between the above two factors is telling about the experienced stress levels and the well-being of the employees.
The Job Demands-Resources Model can be used by everyone with a job or work to determine the balance.
For this purpose, the user must create a list of the job requirements, and compare this to the list of job resources and positives.
However, In the case of an unbalance, job resources must be pro-actively promoted.
Making sure an employee is involved doesn’t just benefit the employee’s well-being, it also benefits the entire organization or Company through the extra value he/she offers.
Also you can read our blog on 10 Ways to Stay Calm During in Crisis