Job demands and resources and their association with employee well-being in the European healthcare sector: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective research

Despite the extant research on work and well-being in the healthcare sector, a comprehensive overview of the key work characteristics, and a meta-analytic investigation of their over-time relationships with well-being, are still lacking. This study provides (1) a summary of the most investigated job demands and resources at the group, leadership, and organisation levels (GLO) explored in the European healthcare sector; (2) a quantitative analysis of their prospective association with well-being; (3) a test of the moderator effect of work characteristics’ source (GLO) and time lag. A systematic literature search was completed resulting in 47 independent samples (N = 39,467 healthcare employees). We identified a wide range of challenge (i.e. workload), hindrance (i.e. role stress), threat demands (i.e. violence from patients) and resources (i.e. control, support). Meta-analytic results showed that hindrance and threat demands were more detrimental than challenge demands, but unexpectedly challenge demands were not related to motivational outcomes. Baseline resources had an important role in protecting and promoting follow-up employee well-being, with group-level resources being more strongly negatively associated with strain. We found no significant differences in well-being between GLO levels of job demands. Time lag did not significantly moderate the prospective associations among work characteristics and employee well-being.