Teachers' perceived work ability: a qualitative exploration using the Job Demands-Resources model

The study addresses how teachers, working in a profession characterized by high workloads, bureaucracy, time pressure, emotional demands, and challenging stakeholder interactions, perceive their work ability and how job demands affect it. Work ability (WA) has been conceptualized as a balance between personal resources and job characteristics, with recent literature distinguishing objective WA from perceived work ability (PWA). The JD-R model provides a framework to understand how job demands and resources influence outcomes via health impairment and motivational processes. Noting gaps stemming from predominantly quantitative, deductive WA research and concerns about the Work Ability Index, the authors propose a qualitative, inductive exploration focused on teachers' lived experiences. The study aims to clarify what teachers evaluate when assessing their PWA and identify the job demands they encounter and the mechanisms by which these demands act on PWA.

The paper reviews the evolution of the work ability construct, from its origins as a balance between personal resources and work characteristics to current distinctions between objective WA (health/functional limitations) and perceived WA (self-assessed ability to continue working given job requirements). Prior research indicates that work-related physical, psychosocial, and organizational factors influence WA, with negative influences including poor indoor environments, noise, physical demands, time pressure, fear of failure, monotonous work, and lack of autonomy, while positive influences include meaningful work, supportive climates, and personal resources such as self-efficacy and sense of coherence. The JD-R model, encompassing job demands, job resources, personal resources, and dual processes (health impairment and motivation), is proposed as an integrative framework for anchoring WA, with WA (and specifically PWA) conceived as an outcome negatively influenced by demands and positively influenced by resources. Critical issues in WA scholarship include atheoretical origins, inconsistent operationalizations, and conceptual ambiguities between demands and resources. The review motivates an inductive, qualitative approach to uncover mechanisms linking demands to PWA, including potential roles of non-work domains and personal resources.

Design: A qualitative design was used to capture teachers' emic perspectives on perceived work ability (PWA), enabling an in-depth understanding of how PWA is understood and formed, and how contextual and individual conditions shape it. Sampling: Purposeful sampling of 14 upper secondary school teachers in the South Moravian Region, Czech Republic, recruited via the Towards Successful Seniority training program. Inclusion emphasized age diversity due to known age-related WA decline. The sample: 11 women and 3 men; mean age 46.9 years (SD = 9.22), range 27–57; varied roles (general education, vocational education and training, and some school counselors). Participants provided preliminary consent; confidentiality and anonymity were ensured. Data collection: In-depth interviews (approximately 90 minutes each) conducted in September–October 2020, in person/online/phone, using a structured pyramid protocol (62 open-ended questions) flexibly adapted to participants' focal points. Topics included health and lifestyle, competence and job requirements, motivation and values, work environment, community and leadership. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, yielding a corpus of 433 pages. Data collection ceased at theoretical saturation. Analysis: ATLAS.ti (v7.5.18) supported analysis. Following grounded theory approaches (Charmaz; Corbin & Strauss), the team conducted open coding to identify semantic units, constant comparison to develop codes and categories, and then logical/causal chain construction (Miles & Huberman) to identify processes, relationships, and temporal sequences. Ethics: Approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Masaryk University (EKV-2018-045); procedures aligned with the Declaration of Helsinki and APA standards. Informed consent was obtained; participation was voluntary, unpaid, anonymous, and confidential.

Sample and context: Fourteen upper secondary teachers (mean age 46.9, SD 9.22) from the Czech Republic. Perceptions of PWA: Three distinct conceptions emerged:

• PWA as physical and mental health: Especially among older teachers, health and functional capacity (with emphasis on mental health due to stress/emotional demands) were seen as foundational. Some conditions (e.g., voice disorders) directly threatened ability to teach.
• PWA as professional competence: Some equated PWA with being fully qualified and self-sufficient, focusing on maintaining and updating knowledge/skills; this narrows PWA to competence alone.
• PWA as capacity to meet job demands: Others viewed PWA dynamically as the ability to meet evolving teaching demands (preparation, adaptability, understanding student contexts), emphasizing ongoing development and person–job fit. Job demands identified and mechanisms:
• Physical demands: Noise exposure and sedentary, static/repetitive work (increased computer time) affected musculoskeletal health and well-being. Physical demands impacted PWA indirectly via stress and health impairment, more salient for aging teachers.
• Social and emotional demands: Challenging interactions with students and especially parents (perceived disrespect, questioning expertise), classroom discipline, and changing student values increased stress, evoked professional inadequacy, and depleted personal resources. Difficulties acquiring needed competencies reduced motivation and heightened insecurity. Personal resources potentially buffered stress effects.
• Organizational demands: Unfavorable scheduling (short breaks, corridor/lunch supervision), insufficient time for rest/hygiene, and disrupted eating/drinking patterns increased rushing, fatigue, and stress, contributing to health issues and reduced PWA. Spillover to non-work domains: Work encroached into home time (preparation, grading), blurring boundaries and impeding recovery. Caregiving responsibilities (children, aging parents) compounded demands, elevated stress, reduced rest, and contributed to work–family conflict, further impairing health and PWA. Process mechanisms: High job demands elevated job stress; unmitigated stress led to fatigue/exhaustion and impaired physical/mental health, reducing PWA—aligning with the JD-R health impairment process. Teachers differentiated stress (tension from excessive demands) from exhaustion (fatigue from prolonged stress/inadequate rest); reported that stress could also directly contribute to health complaints. Success/failure in coping with demands affected personal resources; successful coping grew resources and buffered stress. Some demands could function as challenges/resources depending on context. Overall: Findings support incorporating PWA into the JD-R model as an outcome adversely influenced by job demands, often indirectly via health impairment, with notable contributions from work–nonwork interplay.

The findings answer Research Question 1 by showing that teachers variably assess PWA as health, competence, or as the dynamic capacity to meet evolving job demands. Many participants lacked a holistic understanding of PWA as a balance between personal resources and job demands, likely reflecting inconsistent definitions in the literature. For Research Question 2, the study identified physical, social, emotional, and organizational job demands and showed that their effects on PWA are largely indirect through increased stress, fatigue/exhaustion, and impaired health, consistent with the JD-R health impairment process. The results refine JD-R considerations in teaching by distinguishing perceived job stress from exhaustion, noting that prolonged stress may directly contribute to health problems, and by emphasizing how organizational practices (e.g., break scheduling) and non-work demands (caregiving, work–family conflict) shape recovery and health. The data suggest that certain job demands can also catalyze growth and act as resources, particularly when matched with appropriate supports, aligning with interaction/matching hypotheses. Personal resources emerged as potential buffers, influencing how demands are perceived and coped with, thereby mitigating adverse outcomes. Collectively, the study underscores the need to educate teachers about PWA, integrate PWA as an outcome in JD-R frameworks, and expand models to include non-work domains to accurately capture mechanisms affecting teachers' PWA.

This qualitative study contributes to work ability scholarship by clarifying how teachers conceptualize perceived work ability and by uncovering mechanisms linking job demands to PWA through the JD-R health impairment process. Empirical evidence supports treating PWA as a JD-R outcome negatively influenced by demands, often indirectly via stress, fatigue/exhaustion, and health impairment, with significant spillover from work to family/non-work domains. The study highlights limited teacher awareness of PWA's holistic nature and calls for informational initiatives and organizational practices to support recovery, healthy routines, and boundary management. It also suggests that some demands can act as challenges/resources, contingent on context and available supports, and that personal resources may buffer adverse effects. Future research should: develop and test comprehensive frameworks that integrate organizational and individual factors across work and non-work domains; examine conditions under which job demands function as resources; assess the moderating and mediating roles of specific personal resources; and expand inquiry across different teacher groups and cultural contexts using mixed-methods and longitudinal designs.

• Qualitative sample (n = 14) recruited from a training program may not represent the broader teacher population; potential selection bias toward health- or improvement-oriented individuals.
• Findings are based on subjective self-reports and may not generalize beyond upper secondary teachers in the Czech Republic.
• Researcher biases and expectations could have influenced interviewing, coding, and interpretation.
• Cultural and occupational specificity limits transferability to other teacher groups and contexts; caution is needed when extrapolating.