This study examined the influence of job demands on stress and work engagement for employees in the IT-industry. For this purpose, a research model was developed based on the job demands-resources model by Bakker and Demerouti and the coping theory by Lazarus which integrates the appraisal of demands as mediators and job resources as moderators. In the context of a qualitative study, ten construct interviews have been conducted and evaluated with the aid of the qualitative content analysis. For the following quantitative study, five job demands (leadership, time pressure, unexpected tasks, necessary accurateness, interruption of work) and six job resources (calmness, dissociation, reinterpretation, social support, self-organization, having fun with the task) have been extracted. With the aid of structural equation modelling, a positive relation between job demands and stress has been confirmed in the quantitative study (N=252). No relation appeared between job demands and work engagement. A mediating function of the appraisal of demands in the relation between job demands and stress and job demands and work engagement could not be found. The job resources did not serve as moderators in the direct relation between job demands and stress as well as job demands and work engagement. However, there were indications for a moderating role of some job resources (i.e. dissociation, reinterpretation, social support) where the appraisal of demands (i.e. threat, harm) was implemented as a mediator in the model. |