The mediating role of employee wellness in the relationship between working overtime and work quality

Abstract

This is a quantitative, descriptive study that examines the mediating role of employee wellness in the relationship between overtime working hours and self-reported work quality among professionals in the South African banking sector. Theoretical frameworks included the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a sample of 206 banking employees. The study's three assumptions were tested through multiple regression and path analysis with bootstrapping. Contrary to theory, there was no significant negative relationship between overtime work (>45 hours per week) and employee wellness (H1 was not supported). Instead, wellness was found to be significantly predicted by demographic factors, particularly education and seniority. However, there was a strong, significant positive relationship between employee wellness and self-reported work quality, concluding that wellness is a strong predictor of performance (H2 was supported). Thus, employee wellness did not act as a mediator (H3 was not supported). Overall, a significant direct negative effect of overtime work on self-reported work quality was found, independent of the wellness construct. Ultimately, the study concludes that for this professional sample, a dual pathway model exists where wellness acts as a foundational driver of performance and overtime hours directly erode self-reported work quality through a separate mechanism. A possible untested explanation is the role of cognitive fatigue. This implies that organisations must treat the promotion of wellness and the management of workload as two distinct but equally critical strategic priorities to ensure sustainable high performance.