Job Demands–Resources Theory

Frequently Asked Questions

Bakker, Arnold B.
Demerouti, Evangelia

Center of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg
Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology

This article was inspired by .

Arnold B. Bakker played a lead role in conceptualization and writing–original draft. Evangelia Demerouti played a lead role in conceptualization and writing–review and editing.

Arnold B. Bakker, Center of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Woudestein Campus, Mandeville Building T16-35, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands [email protected]

Received September 11, 2023

revised March 22, 2024

Accepted March 27, 2024

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 29(3):p 188-200, June 2024. | DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000376

Job demands–resources (JD–R) theory is commonly used to predict employee well-being, work behaviors, and performance. This article provides a short description of JD–R theory and discusses issues and questions that have been raised regarding the theory. These issues include the differences between conservation of resources theory and JD–R theory, whether a job resource can be a job demand, the impact of job resources on strain and health, the role of hindrance and challenge job demands in JD–R theory, the relationship between job demands and resources, and the likelihood of work engagement being a redundant concept. We also discuss whether JD–R theory can be falsified, the role of personality in the theory, within- and between-person effects in JD–R theory, the question whether there is a standard JD–R questionnaire, and the existence of loss and gain spirals. Finally, we discuss the use of JD–R theory in domains other than work and answer the question whether JD–R theory is universally applicable.