Systematic review of the job demands and resources of academic staff within higher education institutions

Abstract

The Higher Education sector has been through an array of changes, such as globalisation, massification, lack of job security, decolonisation and a number of technological advancements. These changes have impacted academic workload and have increased work pressure with resultant effects on family and work life balance. A review of the existing literature indicates a lack of clarity when it comes to the job demands and job resources inherent to the academic occupation. In order to determine the job demands and job resources of academics, a systematic review of empirical literature is warranted. This paper systematically reviewed empirical research published from 2014 to 2019 investigating job demands and resources based on the job demands-resources model in the higher education environment. Six articles were identified that met the criteria for inclusion. Thus, a list of quantitative, qualitative and organisational job demands as well as organisational and personal resources specific to the academic environment were identified. This will allow Higher Education Institutions to provide targeted development of job resources and mitigation of job demands for their academic employees and enable the development of specific interventions.