Job demands and psychological well-being among Gabonese civil servants: The mediating role of perceived organizational support

Abstract

The working conditions observed in public administration organizations have deleterious effects on the psychological well-being of employees. Professional resources can predict the relationship between job demands and psychological well-being. The aim of this article is to determine the impact of job demands on the psychological well-being of civil servants and the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in Gabon’s public administration. Currently, Gabon’s public administration is undergoing organizational changes through the introduction of professional technologies. Studies have predominantly focused on job satisfaction and national culture. These studies have provided little information on the influence of organizational changes, demands and resources on the well-being of public servants in this country. It was therefore important to understand the factors related to the psychological well-being of civil servants. A questionnaire survey plan was drawn up with 162 participants from one of the country’s major public institutions. Correlation, regression and mediation analyses were conducted to determine the relationships between the variables. The results revealed that job demands significantly predicted psychological well-being. It was also found that the impact of job demands on psychological well-being was fully mediated by POS. According to these results, POS plays a mediating role in the relationship between job demands and psychological well-being. We conclude that interventions that strengthen organizational support could help civil servants cope with the pressures of working conditions in their administrations.

Keywords:

• Civil servants
• Gabon public administration
• organizational support
• psychological well-being at work
• work conditions

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the public servants who participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).