Long-term profiles of work-related rumination associated with leadership, job demands, and exhaustion: A three-wave study

ABSTRACT

This study extends previous research on recovery from work stress by investigating the role of qualitative job demands and leadership in employees’ work-related rumination (WRR). The long-term development of WRR was examined from a person-centred approach across 22 months. Drawing on the stressor-detachment framework and conservation of resources theory, we investigated whether different WRR profiles could be understood in terms of levels of and changes in quantitative, cognitive, and emotional job demands, several aspects of supervisory leadership, and exhaustion that was expected to result from the impeded energy restoration process. A three-wave questionnaire study was conducted among Finnish municipal employees in heterogeneous occupations. Factor mixture modelling was used to identify latent classes (i.e. subgroups of participants with similar mean levels and mean-level changes) of WRR. The results indicated five distinct classes of WRR. Participants in the higher WRR classes reported higher levels of job demands, less supervisor fairness, and more abusive supervision. In the decreasing class, WRR decreased concurrently with decreasing job demands. Exhaustion showed considerable congruence with WRR both between and within persons. The findings are discussed from the point of view of a loss cycle concerning energetic psychological resources and difficulties in goal attainment.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-related rumination
• leadership
• job demands
• exhaustion
• recovery from work stress

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Professor Asko Tolvanen for valuable advice on the statistical analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research project “Rewarding and Sustainable Health-Promoting Leadership (Re-Su-Lead)” was financially supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund [grant number 109398]. Work by the first author was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation.