Individual Characteristics Influencing Physicians' Perceptions of Job Demands and Control: The Role of Affectivity, Work Engagement and Workaholism.
The first purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of individual characteristics, i.e., positive and negative affectivity, in explaining the different perception of job control and job demands in a particularly demanding environment such as the healthcare setting. In addition, we aimed to explore the mediational role of work engagement and workaholism using the Job Demands-Resources Model as a theoretical framework. Data were collected using a sample of 269 Italian head physicians working in nine general hospitals. To test our hypotheses, the collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. Moreover, Sobel Test and bootstrapping were employed to assess the mediating hypotheses. Our results indicated that positive affectivity is related to work engagement, which, in its turn, showed a positive association with job control. In addition, workaholism mediated the relationship between negative affectivity and job demands. All in all, this study represents a first attempt to explore the role of trait affectivity as a dispositional characteristic able to foster the level of work engagement and workaholism exhibited by employees and, in turn, to increase the perceived levels of job control and job demands.
Department of Educational Science, University of Bologna, Via Filippo Re, 6-40126 Bologna, Italy. greta.mazzetti3@unibo.it.
Greta
G
Mazzetti
Department of Educational Science, University of Bologna, Via Filippo Re, 6-40126 Bologna, Italy. r.biolcati@unibo.it.
Roberta
R
Biolcati
Department of Educational Science, University of Bologna, Via Filippo Re, 6-40126 Bologna, Italy. dina.guglielmi@unibo.it.
Dina
D
Guglielmi
Department of Educational Science, University of Bologna, Via Filippo Re, 6-40126 Bologna, Italy. caryn.vallesi@studio.unibo.it.
Caryn
C
Vallesi
Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. w.schaufeli@uu.nl.|Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. w.schaufeli@uu.nl.
Wilmar B
WB
Schaufeli
D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*
JD-R Model; affectivity; job control; job demands; work engagement; workaholism