Daily within-person effects of job autonomy and work engagement on innovative behaviour: The cross-level moderating role of creative self-efficacy

Adopting a dynamic within-person perspective on employee innovation, the present study investigates the role of situational job autonomy and momentary work engagement as day-level correlates of innovative behaviour. Anticipating individual differences in the strength of these intraindividual associations, we propose dispositional creative self-efficacy (CSE) to serve as a cross-level moderating influence amplifying the day-specific predictive power of autonomy and work engagement for innovative behaviour. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses of the nested data from 123 employees surveyed over 5 consecutive work days suggest that both autonomy and work engagement positively predict self-reported innovative behaviour on a daily basis. Whereas the engagement–innovation link emerges as homogenous across persons, results indicate that the daily within-person effect of autonomy on innovative behaviour varies significantly as a function of CSE such that it is greater for individuals who hold higher rather than lower CSE beliefs. Implications for future research, limitations, and practical implications are discussed.     

The importance of emotional display rules for employee well-being: A multi-group comparison

‘Serving with a smile’ has generally been associated with negative effects for employee well-being. The present study investigated whether emotional display rules also relate to positive outcomes by distinguishing demands to suppress negative emotional response (negative display rules) from demands to express positive emotions (positive display rules). In line with the job demands-resources model, outcomes involved emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Participants were employees in three occupational groups in the human service profession: sales (N?=?480), healthcare (N?=?399), and education (N?=?220). The outcomes of a multi-group analysis in LISREL revealed for all three occupational groups that negative display rules were related to emotional exhaustion while positive display rules were associated with work engagement. Together, these findings suggest that ‘serving with a smile’ can enhance employee well-being, when the emphasis is on showing positive affects instead of suppressing negative affects.     

Job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: A longitudinal study

By utilizing a 2-year longitudinal design, the present study investigated the experience of work engagement and its antecedents among Finnish health care personnel (n = 409). The data were collected by questionnaires in 2003 (Time 1) and in 2005 (Time 2). The study showed that work engagement—especially vigor and dedication—was relatively frequently experienced among the participants, and its average level did not change across the follow-up period. In addition, the experience of work engagement turned out to be reasonably stable during the 2-year period. Job resources predicted work engagement better than job demands. Job control and organization-based self-esteem proved to be the best lagged predictors of the three dimensions of work engagement. However, only the positive effect of job control on dedication remained statistically significant after controlling for the baseline level of work engagement (Time 1).     

职业胜任力在工作要求-资源模型中的调节和中介作用

采用JD-R模型探讨了职业胜任力在工作要求-资源模型中的作用。结果表明:(1)职业胜任力弱化了工作要求和情感衰竭之间的正向关系;(2)职业胜任力正向影响工作投入;(3)职业胜任力在工作资源与工作投入之间起中介作用。本研究启示可通过提升员工的职业胜任力,促进员工的工作投入并缓解职业倦怠。     

Type A behavior and work situation: associations with burnout and work engagement

The aim of the present study was to investigate Type A behavior as well as perceived work situation, and associations with burnout and work engagement. The associations in focus were investigated through hierarchical regressions in a sample (N= 329) of Swedish Information Communication Technology consultants. The findings indicated that both work situation and Type A behavior was correlated with work engagement and burnout; however, no interactions between Type A behavior and work situation were elicited. The main conclusion was that the achievement striving aspect of Type A behavior appears as "non-toxic" and is related only to work engagement. However, the irritability/impatience aspect appears to be responsible for burnout complaints among Type A individuals, possibly through negative effects of the mood itself than through perceived stress at work.     

Flourishing students: A longitudinal study on positive emotions,personal resources,and study engagement

The aim of this two-wave questionnaire study with a 4-week interval among 391 Dutch university students was to test a gain cycle of positive emotions, personal resources, and study engagement. As a theoretical basis, this study drew on the broaden-and-build (B&B) theory and the conservation of resources (COR) theory. More specifically, it was hypothesized that the experience of positive emotions predicts students’ future personal resources and study engagement. Moreover, it was expected that there is a longitudinal relationship between personal resources and study engagement. Furthermore, we hypothesized that positive emotions, personal resources, and study engagement are reciprocally related. Results, obtained by means of structural equation modeling, confirmed both causal (except for the positive relationship between positive emotions and study engagement) and reciprocal hypotheses, thereby successfully integrating the B&B theory with the COR theory.     

Weekly work engagement and flourishing: The role of hindrance and challenge job demands

Two studies were conducted to examine how home healthcare nurses stay engaged in their work and maintain their psychological well-being. In Study 1, we hypothesized that nurses would perceive work pressure more as a hindrance demand than as a challenge demand, and that the reverse would be true for emotional demands. We approached 120 home healthcare nurses who filled in a survey. Results of a series of paired sample t-tests supported our hypotheses. In Study 2, we used the JD-R model to hypothesize that weekly job demands can either facilitate or undermine the positive impact of personal resources on work engagement and flourishing, depending on the nature of the job demand (hindrance vs. challenge). A sample of 63 nurses filled in a questionnaire at the end of the working week during three consecutive weeks (N = 3 × 63 = 189 occasions). Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that emotional job demands strengthened the effect of personal resources on weekly well-being, whereas work pressure undermined this effect. Taken together, the present findings challenge the idea that whether job demands act as hindrances or challenges is the same for all occupations and for all individuals.     

Work engagement and burnout: testing the robustness of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study focuses on work engagement and its negative antipode, burnout, as well as their antecedents and consequences. According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, two different processes have to be distinguished: a motivational process that links job resources with turnover intention through work engagement, and an energetic process that links job demands and health complaints via the mediating role of burnout. The robustness of the JD-R model was tested in a heterogeneous occupational sample (N = 846). Structural equation modeling analyses yielded a slightly modified model with only exhaustion being indicative of burnout and vigor, dedication along with absorption being indicative of engagement. The results provide evidence for the dipartite structure of the JD-R model. Multi-group analyses revealed the model to be invariant across age and gender. Although strengths of path coefficients and factor loadings differed among white- and blue-collar workers, the basic structure of the model was also confirmed among these subgroups. Therefore, the findings underscore the robustness of the JD-R model.     

Work engagement and workaholism: comparing the self-employed and salaried employees

This study among a Dutch convenience sample of self-employed individuals (n = 262) and salaried employees (n = 1900) tested to what extent workaholism and work engagement relate to self-reported work performance. After controlling for measurement inequivalence, results of structural equation modeling showed that the self-employed score higher on engagement and working excessively then employees, but not on working compulsively. In addition, work engagement related positively to task performance and innovativeness for both groups. However, engagement only related to contextual performance (performance beyond role requirements) for employees. Workaholism had positive and negative relationships with self-reported performance. Working excessively related positively to innovativeness for both groups, and to contextual performance for the self-employed. Working compulsively suppressed this positive relationship between excessive working and innovativeness in both groups, and between excessive working and contextual performance for the self-employed. In contrast to our expectations, working compulsively related positively to contextual performance for employees.     

Examining the relationship between emotion regulation deficits and borderline personality disorder features: A daily diary study

This study used a six-day daily diary methodology to precisely specify the nature of emotion regulation deficits associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. Three possibilities were explored: that BPD features are associated with (1) the overall underuse of emotion regulation strategies; (2) the overuse of dysfunctional and the underuse of functional strategies; and (3) the lower perceived effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. One hundred and fifty-four undergraduate participants completed self-report measures of BPD feature severity, and then reported their daily negative emotional intensity, whether or not they used various emotion regulation strategies, and whether or not the strategies that they used were effective across a six-day period. Higher BPD features were associated with (a) higher total frequency use of emotion regulation strategies; (b) higher frequency use of dysfunctional and functional emotion regulation strategies; and (c) less self-reported effectiveness of functional strategies. BPD features may be characterized by increased attempts to regulate emotions, without corresponding increases in perceived effectiveness.     

The value of job crafting for work engagement,task performance,and career satisfaction: longitudinal and quasi-experimental evidence

We examine how job crafting (i.e. seeking resources, seeking challenges, decreasing demands) increases the person-job fit of employees. In Study 1, we studied job crafting’s effects over time. 111 employees filled out a questionnaire at two time points with 6 months in between. We found that seeking resources behavior at Time 1 positively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. Decreasing demands at Time 1 negatively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. In Study 2, we tested a job crafting intervention using a quasi-experimental design (i.e., intervention group, N = 60, and a control group, N = 59). The intervention was successful, as participants in the intervention group increased seeking resources and decreasing demands behaviors. Furthermore, seeking resources behavior was the main driver of increased participants’ work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction.     

Job stressors, emotional exhaustion, and need for recovery: A multi-source study on the benefits of psychological detachment

This paper examines psychological detachment (i.e., mentally “switching off”) from work during non-work time as a partial mediator between job stressors and low work-home boundaries on the one hand and strain reactions (emotional exhaustion, need for recovery) on the other hand. Survey data were collected from a sample of protestant pastors (N = 136) and their spouses (N = 97). Analyses showed that high workload, emotional dissonance, and low spatial work-home boundaries were related to poor psychological detachment from work during non-work time. Poor psychological detachment in turn predicted high levels of emotional exhaustion and need for recovery. Psychological detachment was a partial mediator between job stressors and strain reactions. This study avoids same-source bias and demonstrates the importance of psychological detachment in the stressor–strain relationship.     

Resources Matter: Combined Influence of Job Demands and Job Control on Creative Process Engagement

Considerable research has been conducted on employee creativity, but it has generally focused on creative outcomes and rarely paid attention to employees’ engagement in creative processes, that is, creative process engagement. Further, job characteristics as antecedents are little understood. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the relationship between challenge-hindrance demands and creative process engagement at different levels of job control. In total, 572 questionnaires from China were used to test our proposed model through hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that when job control is high, the effect of challenge demands on creative process engagement is U-shaped, while that of hindrance demands is negative. When job control is low, both challenge and hindrance demands are not related to creative process engagement.