#0023 “Resources-Demands Ratio”: Translating the JD-R-Model for company stakeholders
Less is More: Condensing the Job Demands–Resources Model into a Simpler Ratio
Researchers in the field of work, stress, and health have developed widely known and used models that explain the relationship between working conditions with health deterioration and motivational improvements. While these models can be useful to bring about positive changes to the workplace through carefully planned interventions, many company stakeholders, such as consultants, managers, and experts, require a condensed, more easily communicable version of the models.
In our study, we focused on condensing the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model into a single ratio. This ratio compares the total amount of job demands, which are negatively valued job characteristics, with the total amount of job resources, their positively perceived counterparts. More specifically, demands are related to undesirable job qualities such as uncertainty, pressure, and overload, whereas job resources involve positive qualities like supportive leadership, peer appreciation, and control over one’s job.
To select the most representative indicators from the JD-R model to aggregate into our ratio, we based our study on data from a previous large stress management intervention study involving 2983 participants from multiple Swiss organizations from 2008 to 2011. Our statistical analyses on this data verified that an increase in the proposed resources-to-demands ratio is associated with a decrease in health problems and an increase in productivity. Moreover, we found that condensing the model’s variables into a single ratio did not cause significant loss of information. Finally, we translated the ratio into a graph resembling a dial indicator to make it easier to understand for company stakeholders.
Overall, the JD-R model is a powerful tool that can effectively bridge occupational health management and human resources management by addressing both health and performance outcomes, and the JD-R ratio makes the information contained in the model more accessible. We believe the proposed ratio will be useful for intuitively communicating the big picture to consultants, managers, and experts, and could serve as the starting point of discourse and action in intervention projects.
Link to the original journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1348-9585.12101
Title of the paper:
“Resources-Demands Ratio”: Translating the JD-R-Model for company stakeholders
Authors:
Gregor J. Jenny, Georg F. Bauer, Désirée Füllemann, Sylvia Broetj, Rebecca Brauchli
