PSM502: Comparing Work Stress Models - Effort-Reward & JD-R

This essay provides a comprehensive comparison and contrast of two prominent models in industrial psychology: the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The ERI model, introduced by Johannes Siegrist, focuses on the negative health outcomes resulting from an imbalance between an employee's efforts and the rewards they receive, emphasizing factors like low job security and limited promotional opportunities. The JD-R model, on the other hand, examines the interplay of job demands (physical, social, psychological) and job resources (physical, mental, socio-cultural) in influencing employee well-being and motivation. The essay highlights the similarities, such as both models addressing occupational stress, and the differences, with the JD-R model offering a more flexible and multifaceted approach applicable across various work settings. The analysis includes the models' strengths, limitations, and their implications for organizational strategies, such as employee development and incentive programs. The essay concludes by emphasizing the diverse and evolving nature of industrial psychology and the significance of these models in understanding and managing work-related stress to enhance employee productivity and well-being.

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The respective paper is a comparison and contrast between the two industrial psychology
models, namely, Effort- reward imbalance model and job demands- resources model. The scope
and credibility of the social science discipline of industrial psychology is diverse and ever
evolving. With the advent of new enterprises, new set of laws, rules and regulations in the
business world come new challenges and opportunities, which impacts profoundly on the
individuals associated with the work industry. In order to understand the organizational
behavioral psychology of the employees working in an industry, industrial psychology is of
utmost importance. With the help of the outcomes of the eminent industrial psychologists, an
organization is able to take correct decisions and strategies for the company. The respective
paper comprehensively compares and contrasts the similarities and the differences between the
respective models in an essay format.
A theoretical model or framework that tries to identify and understand a difficult
psychosocial environment of work or employment which provides the basis of explaining its
negative outcomes such as health risks related to work stress is called effort reward imbalance
model (Siegrist, 2016). The respective model is based on the imbalance in the relationship of
effort given by an employee and the reward he or she receives in return. The model focuses on
the negative outcomes of the employees when they do not receive the compensation or reward
which they are capable of getting or deserve. The model tries to understand the obnoxious effect
of health on the employees due to such imbalances in the organization. Effort- reward imbalance
is indeed important to understand the industrial psychology of the society so that the
organizations are able to make correct strategies and decisions of incentives (monetary and non-
monetary) and rewards in order to motivate their employees to squeeze out the maximum
productivity from them and leverage them with the organizational objectives. A combination of

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low reward and high effort condition of an employee is indeed a matter of concern in the global
world where financial resources have become an utterly important factor for the survival of an
individual. The Effort reward model was introduced by Johannes Siegrist. The model
comprehensively defines threatening job conditions as a mismatch between high workload in a
profession with high demand and low control over long- term rewards (Gilbert-Ouimet et al.,
2014). Siegrist often had emphasized personal control over long term reward as he believed in
the fact that “distressing experiences often happen due to the basic threats inculcated by the
individual to the continuity of the crucial role. The fear of job termination and job instability are
some of the reasons for such fears in the mind of the professionals and employees working in the
organizations. Enumeration of the effort- reward imbalance model provided hereafter.
High effort which is considered to be measured with a number of factors, such as
constant time pressure, work load and responsibility, pressure to work overtime and many
interrupters and disturbances. High effort is generally given for a job which has high demand in
the labor market. Such jobs generally need a high degree of skills and proficiencies (Siegrist &
Li, 2016). According to the statistics of labor market, such jobs are generally followed with high
amount of salary. However, in certain cases, high- demand jobs too are not properly
compensated or rewarded. The imbalance occurs when there are low rewards for the high
demand jobs. Low rewards include low job security, low promotional prospects and unforced job
change. The relationship between high demand jobs and low reward is inversely proportional
towards each other. The possible health outcomes of such effort reward imbalance is
hypertension, anxiety and insomnia which can lead to cardiovascular diseases and psychological
problems such as nervous breakdown and depression, often leading to suicidal tendencies
(Dragano et al., 2017).

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On the other hand, job demands- resources model or JD-R model is a model depicting
occupational stress that suggests strains to be the root result of imbalance between demands on
the individual and the resources he or she has to deal with those demands (Schaufeli & Taris,
2014). The basic difference between the effort- reward imbalances Model with that of the JD- R
model is that effort- reward imbalance model tends to show the negative aspects of low morale
or motivation in an organizational environment while the JD- R model shows both the negative
and the positive outcomes of employee behavior in an organizational environment. The JD- R
model can be classified hereafter. The JD- R model is classified into two factors, such as job
demands and job resources. Under the section of job demands, physical, social, psychological
and organizational aspects of job are investigated, where the jobs require sustained physical and
psychological efforts or skills. The physical, mental, socio-cultural and organizational factors of
professions that are also responsible for getting work objectives, reduction of excessive pressure
and demand of job and associated physical- mental costs in order to galvanize individual and
personal progress and illumination is also called job resources. While comparing effort reward
imbalance model and JD- R model, it can be found out that effort reward imbalance model tends
to assert the dynamics of “failed reciprocity” in the organizational atmosphere examining the
long-term health consequences of the employee while the JD- R model tries to find out the
causes between the imbalance of effort and resources (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014). The former
holistically assesses the industrial psychological dynamics while the latter tries to find out the
critical causes. The former deals with the negative emotions while the latter deals with the
positive and negative outcomes of imbalance in effort and resources. However the similarity
between both the models is that both of them depict occupational stress, its factors, statics and
dynamics. The current version of JD- R model claims that high job demand leads to strain and

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health impairment whereas high resources can lead to increased motivation and higher
productivity (Schaufeli, 2017). The assumption of the JD- R framework or model is that well
being and health of the workers or employees are direct and indirect outcome of optimistic
resources and pessimistic demands of the job and its characteristics. The respective framework or
model believes that there are positive as well as negative point of view based on any resource or
any demand that may affect the well being or health of a worker. After the JR- R model is
compared and contrasted with the effort- reward imbalance model, the outcome is that the scope
and limits of JD- R model is much higher and broader that deals with occupational stress and
psychosocial behavior of the industrial sector. The organizations can utilize both the models in
order to understand the employee behavior and characteristics in order to take proper strategies
and implement them in the organization in the areas such as employee development, employee
training, learning and development, incentive measures (both monetary and non monetary) so
that the productivity of employees are not hampered, or rather, increased. Both the models are
the models that focus on occupational stress. However, the JD- R Model is more flexible than the
effort- reward imbalance model because it is more flexible and can be tailored to a much wide
variety of work settings, in every other kind of enterprises and ventures, beginning from small
enterprises to large, from national to trans- national and international and from start up venture or
a market ruler organization. The broad scope of the model appeals to researchers, just as its
flexibility is attractive to practitioners. The limitations of the effort- reward imbalance model, on
the other hand, are visible. For instance, the respective model of effort reward imbalance is rigid
as it is not multifaceted and multidimensional. The effect and outcome of professional conditions
of CHD is only speculated. Factors such as psychological soundness, motivation and morale,
learning activities and coping skills on professional arena are not speculated. Therefore, it can be

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termed that while comparing effort- reward imbalance model with that of the Job- Demand
Resources Model, it is found out that even though both of the models depict occupational stress
and workplace issues that the employees generally face, the models have certain advantages and
limitations as well. To enumerate the critical analysis and comparison between the two models, it
can be deduced that the model effort- reward imbalance talks about a one- dimensional
occupational stressor in order to understand employee behavior, while the Job demands-
resources model suggests a flexible, multi- dimensional and multifaceted as well as a holistic
approach towards the occupational stress factors and it provides a comprehensive and a deep
insight about the work stress and its indicators (Bakker, 2015).
The respective paper concludes to be a comparison and contrast between the two
industrial psychology models, namely, Effort- reward imbalance model and job demands-
resources model. The respective paper concludes by enumerating the scope and credibility of the
social science discipline of industrial psychology which is diverse and ever evolving. The
respective paper has described about different aspects of industrial psychology and its
significance. With the advent of new enterprises, new set of laws, rules and regulations in the
business world come new challenges and opportunities, which impacts profoundly on the
individuals associated with the work industry. The respective paper concludes after
comprehensively comparing and contrasting the similarities and the differences between the
respective models in an essay format.

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References:
Bakker, A. B. (2015). A job demands–resources approach to public service motivation. Public
Administration Review, 75(5), 723-732.
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2014). Job demands–resources theory. Wellbeing: A complete
reference guide, 1-28.
Dragano, N., Siegrist, J., Nyberg, S. T., Lunau, T., Fransson, E. I., Alfredsson, L., ... & Fahlén,
G. (2017). Effort–reward imbalance at work and incident coronary heart disease: a
multicohort study of 90,164 individuals. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 28(4), 619.
Gilbert-Ouimet, M., Trudel, X., Brisson, C., Milot, A., & Vézina, M. (2014). Adverse effects of
psychosocial work factors on blood pressure: systematic review of studies on demand-
control-support and effort-reward imbalance models. Scandinavian journal of work,
environment & health, 109-132.
Schaufeli, W. B. (2017). Applying the job demands-resources model. Organizational Dynamics,
2(46), 120-132.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Taris, T. W. (2014). A critical review of the job demands-resources model:
Implications for improving work and health. In Bridging occupational, organizational
and public health (pp. 43-68). Springer, Dordrecht.
Siegrist, J. (2016). Effort-reward imbalance model. In Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and
Behavior (pp. 81-86). Academic Press.

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Siegrist, J., & Li, J. (2016). Associations of extrinsic and intrinsic components of work stress
with health: a systematic review of evidence on the effort-reward imbalance model.
International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(4), 432.