work engagement, low cynicism, and excellent performance. Job resources may play either an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivational role. The interaction between job demands and job resources is important for the development of job strain and motivation as well. According to the JD-R model, job resources may buffer the effect of job demands on job strain, including burnout. Which specific job resources buffer the effect of different job demands, depends on the particular work environment. Thus, different types of job demands and job resources may interact in predicting job strain. Good examples of job resources that have the potential of buffering job demands are performance feedback and social support (e.g.,). Job resources particularly influence motivation or work engagement when job demands are high. This assumption is based on the premises of the conservation of resources (COR) theory. According to this theory, people are motivated to obtain, retain and protect their resources, because they are valuable. Hobfoll () argues that resource gain acquires its saliency in the context of resource loss. This implies that job resources gain their motivational potential particularly when employees are confronted with high job demands. For example, when employees are faced with high emotional demands, the social support of colleagues might become more visible and more instrumental. Evidence Evidence for the dual process: a number of studies have supported the dual pathways to employee well being proposed by the JD-R model. It has been shown that the model can predict important organizational outcomes (e.g. Taken together, research findings support the JD-R model's claim that job demands and job resources initiate two different psychological processes, which eventually affect important organizational outcomes (see also,). When both job demands and resources are high, high strain and motivation is to be expected. When both are low, absence of strain and motivation is to be expected. Consequently, the high demands-low resources condition should result in high strain and low motivation while the low demands-high resources condition should have as a consequence low strain and high motivation. Evidence for the buffer effect of job resources: some support has been obtained for the proposed interaction between job demands and job resources in their relationship with employee well being (see,). However, most published studies on the model did either not examine or not report such interactions, whereas the practical relevance of this interaction – if present – is usually small. In a large-scale study, it