Job Overload, Work Engagement, and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Indian Banking Employees

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21305579

Kshitij Sharma¹ and Jasleen Kour² (ISSER, Punjab University, Chandigarh¹ and MIER College of Education, ISSER, Punjab University, Chandigarh²)

This cross-sectional study of the Indian banking sector aimed to investigate the associations among job overload, job engagement, and job satisfaction. We drew on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and hypothesised that job overload would be negatively associated with both job engagement and job satisfaction. We also stated that job engagement would be positively related to job satisfaction. The sample for our study consisted of 165 employees, of whom 47% worked in the banking sector. The remaining participants represented various other job sectors. Job overload, job engagement, and job satisfaction were measured using the Quantitative Workload Inventory (QWI; Spector & Jex, 1998), the Job Engagement Scale (Rich et al., 2010), and the Job Satisfaction Index (Brayfield & Rothe, 1951) respectively. The results revealed a positive relationship between job engagement and job satisfaction. Contrary to our expectations, the results showed that job overload was associated positively with both job satisfaction and job engagement. The findings suggest that job demands such as work overload may not always have detrimental consequences when accompanied by sufficient job resources. The contrasting results may also be because of increased job autonomy and flexibility that employees have started to experience under remote and hybrid work arrangements. Finally, this study offers some practical implications for organisations on how to combine job demands with resources to increase job engagement and satisfaction.