We investigated the dual relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) use at work and employee well-being through the framework of the job demands-resources theory. Data were collected from the seventh European Working Conditions Survey (Eurofound), which involved 37 countries and a representative sample of 7,900 workers. The findings revealed that ICT plays a dual role. On one hand, ICT enhances job autonomy, which positively influences work engagement and, subsequently, improves well-being. On the other hand, ICT use increases workload, leading to greater job exhaustion and reduced well-being. Additionally, autonomy was found to be negatively related to exhaustion, offering a secondary positive pathway to well-being. The study also examined the moderator role of employee age. Results showed that age amplifies the negative relationships between ICT use, workload, and well-being. Overall, the study highlights the complex interplay between ICT use at work and employee well-being.

While research has shown that having a “good” job significantly promotes formal volunteering, we have limited knowledge of how this paid work-to-volunteer work relationship may differ between men and women. Based on the gender-identification spillover theory, we hypothesize that because of the societal expectations that women should be caring, giving and communal, positive job traits such as authority and autonomy promote women’s volunteering more than men’s. Our analysis of data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States shows that women who exercise supervisory authority on the job volunteer significantly more hours than women who do not, whereas job authority makes no difference in the number of hours volunteered for men. Meanwhile, job autonomy promotes men’s volunteering, but not women’s. Implications of these and related findings for future research on gender and volunteering are discussed.

Work engagement is a scientifically consolidated variable, due to its fundamental role in business practice. To increase work engagement in companies, it is necessary to know which variables are antecedents and how they relate to each other. These variables include job autonomy, job crafting, and psychological capital. This research evaluates the relationships between job autonomy, job crafting, psychological capital, and work engagement. Specifically, based on the job demands and resources model and the conservation of resources theory, the study examines these relationships in a sample of 483 employees, through a serial mediation model. The results show that job crafting, and psychological capital mediates the relationship between job autonomy and work engagement. These results have practical implications for interventions to promote employee work engagement.