Implications of Work Effort and Discretion for Employee Well-Being and Career-Related Outcomes

An Integrative Assessment

Bibliographic Data

ID3340741
AuthorsArgyro Avgoustaki (0000-0002-0824-0055, University of London), Hans T W Frankort (0000-0002-0022-1570, Argyro Avgoustaki is an Associate Professor of Management at ESCP Europe Business School. Hans T. W. Frankort is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy at Cass Business School at City, University of London, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume72
Issue3
Pages636-661
Publication date2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0019793918804540
OpenAlexW2885413479
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited58

How does work effort affect employee outcomes? The authors bridge distinct literatures on the well-being versus career-related implications of work effort by analyzing the relation of overtime work and work intensity to both types of outcomes. They also extend examination of the role of discretion in modifying the effects of work effort from well-being to career-related outcomes. Using data from the fifth and sixth European Working Conditions Surveys, the authors show that greater work effort relates strongly to reduced well-being and modestly to inferior career-related outcomes, while discretion may attenuate these adverse implications. Even with discretion, work intensity generally is a stronger predictor of unfavorable outcomes than is overtime work. Implications include the need for employees to become aware of the broader limitations of excessive work effort, for employers to give discretion when viable, and for public policy to devise strategies that help limit the adverse consequences of work intensity

Affect (linguistics) · Business · Discretion · Economics · Labour economics · Overtime · Political science · Public relations · Well-being · Work (physics) · Work Intensity · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Workaholism, burnout, and well-being

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