Well-Being of Public Servants Under Pressure: The Roles of Job Demands and Personality Traits in the Health-Impairment Process

Abstract

The health-impairment process from job demands to lower well-being among public servants is still understudied. This article therefore uses the Job Demands-Resources model and answers the following question: What is the relationship between sector-specific job demands and public servants’ work-related well-being, and which of the Big Five personality traits ensure that either the hindering effect of these demands is lowered or the challenging effect enlarged? Four public sector specific demands are studied including organizational restructurings, technological innovations, aggression from citizens, and integrity pressure. The analysis of two representative subsamples of the Dutch public sector show that all job demands negatively relate to well-being. Organizational restructurings is the strongest hindering job demand, while technological innovations is the least hindering demand. Moreover, some personality traits turned out to be demands instead of resources, opening new doors for future research in the health-impairment process of public servants.