Journal of Applied Psychology 2026

Do interactions matter? Assessing the role of job characteristics interactions on employee well-being.

Jan Digutsch^1,2,3; Richard N. Landers⁴; Hannah M. Schade^5,6; Hans-Joachim Lincke⁷; Matthias Nuebling; Clemens Stachl^1,2,3; Gerhard Rinkenauer^5,6; Yannick A. Metzler^5,6

¹ University of St.Gallen · ² Institute of Behavioral Sciences · ³ University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen · ⁴ University of Minnesota · ⁵ TU Dortmund University · ⁶ Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors · ⁷ University of Freiburg

Abstract

= 100,000) stratified by industry, gender, age, and employment status. We compared the out-of-sample predictive performance of models capturing main effects (linear mixed-effects models) with models capable of modeling complex interactions (boosting algorithms). The inclusion of interaction effects did not improve predictive accuracy beyond models based solely on main effects. These findings challenge the validity of buffer and boost effects as global mechanisms across jobs and organizations, as interactions among job characteristics did not meaningfully contribute to predicting either burnout or work engagement. Instead, job characteristics appear to exert only additive effects. (PsycInfo Database Record

DOI

10.1037/apl0001414

Language

en

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