| Many attempts have been made to gain more insight into the relationship between work-related psycholocial risk factors and employee health/well-being. The present study investigates two of the most promising models in this context, namely the Demand-Control Model (DCM; cf. Karasek, 1979) and the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model (cf. Siergrist, Siegrist, & Weber, 1986). Through both models assume a similar compensation mechanism, it is remarkable that assumptions derived from either model have not been integrated so far. The present study tries to fill this gap by introducing and integrated model, called the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) Model of job stress (De Jong & Dormann, 2000). One of today's key develoments in the world of work is a growing human service sector, outlined by, among other things, working with people and information-processing. Human Service Organization (HSO) theory (cf. Hasenfeldt, 1983) tries to capture the specific characteristics of work in human service organizations, since working with people is more complex than working with inanimate objects. Another aim of this study is to apply the previously mentioned theoretical models on HSO work. Furthermore, to expand the knowledge of causal relationships between (human service) work an (adverse) healt/well/being (e.g., burnout, satisfaction) this study will be longitudinally based. The central research questions are to which extent employee health and/or well-being (expressed in burnout and motivational outcomes) can be explained by job characteristics: a). by the core assumptions of the DCM in a human service perspective? b). by the core assumptions of the ERI Model in a human service perspective? c). by an integration of the core assumptions of both models (refected by the DISC Model) in a human service perspective? These questions will be investigated with the help of three longitudinal databases (i.e., one existing Swedish database and two new Dutch databases). The results will be written down in a PhD-thesis, containing an introduction, at least four-reviewed articles and a discussion addressing the core issues of the project. |
