Job Design and Workers’ Wellbeing: Evidence from a Hospital Setting

Language:English

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between job design imbalance and workers’ well-being. We build on Simons (2005) framework for the design of high-performing jobs and develop a survey instrument to capture workers’ perceptions of their job design and work conditions. We deploy this instrument in a healthcare setting. We find support for our predictions that job design imbalance is significantly associated with lower ability to decompress outside of work and higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, this relation is driven by imbalances between task interdependence and obtained collaboration. We do not find a significant relationship between job design and professional fulfillment. Our results suggest that managerial practices, such as job design, can influence workers’ well-being in the workplace.