Self-reported job characteristics and negative spillover from work to private life as mediators between expert-rated job characteristics and vital exhaustion

Abstract

Negative spillover from work into private life has often been found to be a mediator between work characteristics and health complaints. This study examined whether this mediator role can also be found when work characteristics are measured independently of job incumbents, i.e., when self-reported bias can be ruled out as a likely alternative explanation of the findings. Multiple mediator models in a heterogeneous sample of 517 employees from three occupational sectors were tested. Job demand and job control, both self-reported by job incumbents, and assessed by job analysis experts via a standardized observational interview, were measured as job characteristics. As hypothesized, the relations between expert-rated job characteristics and vital exhaustion are mediated by both, self-reported job characteristics and negative spillover. However, whereas expert-rated job demands have an impact on negative spillover and vital exhaustion without being perceived, the perception of job control plays a crucial role for the relations between expert-rated job control, negative spillover, and vital exhaustion. Altogether, we demonstrate that the strong relations between job characteristics, negative spillover, and vital exhaustion are not merely a consequence of biased subjective perception, but are rooted in the “real” job environment.

Keywords:

• Job control
• Job demands
• Vital exhaustion
• Work–life balance

Notes

¹The question arises, whether negative spillover and vital exhaustion are really distinct constructs because of the relative high correlation between both variables (r = .650, p < .001). Therefore, we additionally calculated an exploratory factor analysis including the items that measure negative spillover, and the items that measure vital exhaustion. As a result, the items that measure negative spillover and the items that measure vital exhaustion loaded on different factors. We ran further confirmatory factor analyses to test whether a model with all items loading on one factor, or a model with the items that measure vital exhaustion loading on one factor and the items that measure negative spillover loading on a second factor would be superior. The model with two factors had a much better fit (chi-square = 1091.34, df = 371, RMSEA = .065, CFI = .88, SRMR = .058) than the model with only one factor (chi-square = 1370.49, df = 370, RMSEA = .077, CFI = .83, SRMR = .065). Thus, we conclude that the items do indeed measure distinct constructs.