142 Chapter 6 According to proactive motivation theory (Parker et al., 2010), individuals are more likely to be proactive about something when they recognize that change toward the envisioned future is important for themselves, others, or both (i.e., ‘reason-to’ motivation). Chronic illnesses are health conditions that are persistent and long-lasting in their effects, require medical treatment, and are accompanied by some degree of functional limitation. Accordingly, chronically ill employees’ challenging health condition may provide ample reason to proactively engage in efforts that protect their well-being and day-to-day functioning. Doing so may enable them to continue spending time with friends and family, and engaging in meaningful activities. Moreover, and fundamental to the subject at hand, individuals may protect their value to society and the organizations they work for by trying to retain functional work capacity. Accordingly, retaining an optimal degree of functioning in their work may be very important and rewarding to chronically ill employees. Such reason-to motivation can stimulate them to proactively manage their vitality in pursuit of that goal (Parker et al., 2010). JD-R Theory Central to JD-R theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017; Demerouti et al., 2001) are two parallel, core processes: the ‘health impairment process’ and the ‘motivational process.’ In the first process, high demands exhaust the individuals’ mental and physical resources, leading to strain and health problems. In contrast, the second, motivational process is instigated by job resources that satisfy basic psychological needs, and foster work engagement and performance. Research has provided ample support for these two processes and their distinct outcomes in terms of functioning at work (for a short review, see Bakker et al., 2014). For example, Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) showed that job demands were particularly positively related to health problems through increased levels of burnout, whereas job resources were particularly negatively related to turnover intentions through work engagement. In a similar vein, De Beer et al. (2016) provided evidence for the health impairment process and showed that work overload leads to burnout and psychological ill-health symptoms over time. Research in support of the motivational process showed that organizational resources fuel work engagement and indirectly contribute to job performance and customer loyalty (Salanova et al., 2005). More recently, Bakker and Demerouti (2017; see also Bakker, 2017) integrated employee behaviors in JD-R theory and argued that employees may use various behavioral
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw