Work intensity, change readiness and well-being : the moderating role of sleep quality

Zajc, Kaja (author), Andolšek, Jure (author), Černe, Matej (author), Škerlavaj, Miha (author)

Purpose - As work intensity rises and change becomes the norm, employees are pushed to their limits, challenging resilience and well-being. Despite wide use of the job-demands-resources (JD-R) theory, little is known about how and when demands like work intensity undermine well-being through psychological and recovery-based mechanisms. This study advances the model by positioning change readiness as a dynamic mediator and sleep quality as a moderating recovery resource, showing how these factors interact with daily work intensity to shape well-being. Design/methodology/approach - Conducted in Slovenian and Croatian branches of a multinational pharmaceutical company, 32 professionals participated in a multi-level longitudinal study over 30 days, providing daily self-reports via digital diaries and objective sleep data from Oura ring trackers. Findings - Daily work intensity consistently undermined well-being, while change readiness did not mediate this effect and sleep quality offered limited and inconsistent buffering. Cumulative sleep patterns showed minimal protective influence, suggesting short-term recovery may be insufficient to offset high work intensity. Direct effects of sleep quality on well-being remain robust and important for research and practice. Research limitations/implications - The data were collected within a single organizational context with highest relevance for knowledge workers. The generalizability of the findings to other industries, organizational cultures or countries may be limited. Future research should examine whether the observed relationships hold across different sectors, particularly those with varying degrees of work intensity and change frequency, such as public administration, education or creative industries, but also different job designs such as shift workers. Future studies could include data from other sectors, job designs, but also longer time series to capture long-term patterns or more complex lagged effects. Future research could investigate how multilevel, systems-level organizational factors interact with individual readiness and recovery resources to influence well-being under high work intensity. Practical implications - From the perspective of organizational change management, our results underscore the need for employers to actively monitor and manage work intensity, not only from a productivity perspective but also in terms of its psychological impact. Sleep quality emerged as a potential personal resource that can buffer the adverse effects of work intensity. This suggests a compelling case for employers to take a more proactive stance on sleep health as part of broader well-being initiatives, particularly during organizational transformations. Originality/value - This study refines JD-R theorizing in high-intensity, change-intensive knowledge work by showing that change readiness operates as a bounded, context-sensitive resilience resource rather than a pathway through which demands translate into well-being and that sleep quality supports overall well-being but offers only limited buffering under sustained work intensity.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sleep, work intensity, change readiness, well-being, sleep quality, job demands-resources theory
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business; FFA - Faculty of Pharmacy
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 56-81
• Numbering: iss. 8, Vol. 39
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182127
• UDC: 331.3
• ISSN on article: 0953-4814
• DOI: 10.1108/JOCM-08-2025-0691
• COBISS.SI-ID: 275708675
• Publication date in RUL: 24.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of organisational change management
• Shortened title: J. organ. change manag.
• Publisher: Emerald
• ISSN: 0953-4814
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512565785

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: spanje, dobro počutje, delovna uspešnost, vrednotenje dela

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-60089
• Name: Poskrbimo za oskrbovalce! Emocionalno delo, spanje in dobro počutje zdravstvenih delavcev

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0441
• Name: Regeneracija ekonomije in posla