How Is Work Ability Shaped in Groups of Shift and Non-Shift Workers? A Comprehensive Approach to Job Resources and Mediation Role of Emotions at Work

There is much less research on the relationship between shift work and positive states experienced in the workplace, e.g., emotions and work ability. Using the job demands-resources model, conservation of resources theory and the broaden-and-build theory as theoretical frameworks, the direct and indirect (mediated via positive and negative emotions) relations between the complex of job resources and work ability were tested in the group of shift and non-shift workers. Three types of resources related to task, leadership and interpersonal relations were taken into account. Data were collected among 1510 workers. Structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that only leadership was directly related to high work ability in both occupational groups. Indirect effects of positive and negative emotions were strongly supported. Both of them mediate the effects of the three analysed job resources on work ability, but individual job resources impacted were different. Leadership resources led to “good” work ability by the intensification of positive and reduction of negative emotions. Interpersonal resources decrease negative emotions. Task resources, conversely, intensified positive emotions, which in turn increased work ability. These research results shed more light on the ways of shaping work ability among shift and non-shift workers.