Relationships between Effort‐Reward Imbalance, Over‐Commitment, and Fatigue in Japanese Information‐Technology Workers

Siegrist has suggested that situations in which people believe they have expended high effort, but perceive themselves to have reaped relatively little reward, lead to a state of emotional distress . People’s ability to cope with stress varies, and the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model can accommodate this. People who are overcommitted will exaggerate their efforts because of their desire for esteem and approval, and will find the discrepancy between effort and reward particularly stressful. Therefore, Siegrist proposed that overcommitment not only results in emotional exhaustion but also exacerbates the negative effects of the ERI 2, . In Japan, the economic recession of the 1990s and increased international competition have forced companies to restructure. The Japanese traditional systems, which include lifetime employment and seniority-constrained wages and promotions, are being dismantled. Consequently a performance-based pay system has been introduced that has resulted in a competitive working climate, over-commitment, and job insecurity among workers. Fatigue may lead to occupational accidents in the workplace, as well as negative health outcomes. In this study, Siegrist’s hypothesized model, the negative effect of ERI on fatigue and its exacerbation through over-commitment, was assessed in Japanese overtime workers 2, .