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Is Work Intensification Bad For Employees A Review Of Outcomes For

Leo Migdal
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is work intensification bad for employees a review of outcomes for

Background: Work intensification can lead to both work-related and non-work-related outcomes that positively and negatively affect the employee, organization, and job in question. The criticality of this phenomena necessitates conducting a systematic review to capture the essence of the extant literature. Objective: This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on work intensification from 1989 to 2022. It reviews the conceptualization of the construct, explores the factors influencing work intensification, identifies its outcomes, moderators, and mediators, and provides a review of the theories that have been used to support the phenomena... Methods: The systematic review employed the PRISMA approach to screen 2823 records from the Web of Science database and extract 74 quantitative studies for final examination. Results: Firstly, work intensification has primarily been conceptualized through various constructs such as workload, long work hours, and time pressure.

Secondly, there are well-established positive and negative outcomes associated with work intensification, either directly or through mediators. Thirdly, both the conservation of resource theory and the job-demands resource theory are widely utilized to support models related to work intensification. Conclusion: The study urges practitioners to enhance their efforts in effectively managing employees' intensified work demands, particularly in relation to work overload, working hours, and time pressure. By addressing these factors, organizations can minimize negative outcomes and promote positive consequences. There exists a peculiar form of exhaustion that has nothing to do with physical exertion. It arrives not at day’s end but seeps into the morning, an invisible weight that grows heavier with each endless to-do list.

This is the signature of work intensification—a quiet epidemic reshaping the modern workplace, where employees are expected to accomplish exponentially more within the same constrained hours. The phenomenon isn’t entirely novel. What distinguishes today’s iteration is its unprecedented scale and stealth. Fuelled by digital connectivity, lean staffing models, and an obsession with optimisation, work intensification has paradoxically become productivity’s greatest enemy. Workers toil longer, take fewer breaks, and respond to emails well past midnight—yet somehow feel perpetually behind. The mathematics of modern work are brutally simple: more tasks, same resources, tighter deadlines.

Praveer Priyadarshi, a senior HR leader, observes how this equation has become systemic. “Earlier, a task may have been distributed among two or three individuals. Today, with cost pressures and client expectations, we often see one person handling the entire load. The deadlines are tighter, the demands more intense, and support less available.” “Earlier, a task may have been distributed among two or three individuals. Today, with cost pressures and client expectations, we often see one person handling the entire load.

The deadlines are tighter, the demands more intense, and support less available.” Consider a mid-sized services firm that recently consolidated roles to reduce costs. In theory, this promised leaner teams and faster turnaround. In practice, it meant project managers simultaneously handling client communication, scheduling, and quality control. Within three months, employee morale plummeted, deliverables were delayed, and staff turnover spiked. Mauno, S., Herttalampi, M., Minkkinen, J., Feldt, T., & Kubicek, B.

(2023). Is work intensification bad for employees? A review of outcomes for employees over the last two decades. Work and Stress, 37(1), 100-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2080778 All authors or editors: Mauno, Saija; Herttalampi, Mari; Minkkinen, Jaana; Feldt, Taru; Kubicek, Bettina

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2080778 Publication open access: Openly available Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

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