The Role of Self-Criticism and Self-Compassion in Job Demands Resources Theory

• Main Author: Ahmad, Usman
• Format: E-Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2018
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HD Industries. Land use. Labor
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26580/1/The%20Role%20of%20Self-Criticism%2024pgs.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26580/2/The%20Role%20of%20Self-Criticism%20ftext.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/26580/

Job stress has shown to have a significant impact on employees, organizations and even economies especially in the fragile and instable economic environment prevailing in developing countries. Besides affecting the heath of employees, job stress hinders them from performing well in their jobs. This study has examined a comprehensive model based on Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory involving direct, indirect and moderating effects among the variables of present study. More specifically, the objectives of present study were to examine if job demands can predict both job stress and job performance; if the JD-R theory can be expanded to include the role of personal demands and can these factors act in similar way as job demands and predict both job stress and job performance; if job stress can predict job performance; if job stress can mediate the relationship between (job and personal) demands and job performance; and if both (job and personal) resources can moderate the relationship between job demands and job stress. In order to test these objectives, data was collected from 382 nurses working in private hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. Results from SEM confirmed the main propositions of JD-R theory such that job demands predicted job stress (anxiety and depression), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) revealed that personal demands can act as a second order reflective construct for the first order factors of selfcriticism and neuroticism, and functions the same way as job demands in predicting job stress which is the main contribution of present study. As hypothesized, job stress had a negative and significant relationship with the job performance of nurses. SEM revealed that job stress in form of anxiety and depression mediated the relationship between (job and personal) demands and job performance (task and contextual performance) which is another contribution of present study. Moreover, personal resources (self-compassion) moderated the relationship between job demands and job stress (another contribution) but no moderating effect was found for job resources (social support) in the relationship between job demands and job stress. It can be concluded that besides the already well-integrated personal characteristics of personal resources, job demands-resources theory can be expanded to include the role of personal demands to better understand the underlying processes of the model. The variables of self-criticism and self-compassion used in present study are the new variables in the realm of JD-R theory research. Theoretical and practical implications of the study, limitations of the study and guidelines for future research are discussed.