Managing Employee Perceptions of Job Demands, Burnout and POS in Times of Organizational Change

This study sheds light on an area which is challenging for many leaders: how to positively affect employees during OC implementation. We argue that the tactics leaders use to communicate about the change implementation can influence the way employees experience job demands (i.e. work pressure, role ambiguity, and job complexity) as either challenging or hindering, and that these demands subsequently affect employee burnout and POS. We expect that the quality of the leadership relation (i.e. LMX) acts as a first stage moderator in the above described mediation model because social resources such as LMX can help employees deal better with demanding situations. We surveyed 963 employees and 123 supervisors working in a governmental agency at two time points. The results largely supported the suggested moderated mediation processes. In addition to the hypothesized direct effects, we found several conditional indirect effects. Against our expectations pressuring did not relate directly to burnout (but was linked through job demands), indicating that job demands may play a key role in the development of employee strain. Importantly, the results revealed that in combination with low LMX, leader’s use of rational persuasion can reduce perceived job complexity among employees, while high LMX would enhance these perceptions.