Daily Work Engagement Research Articles

Daily playful work design: A trait activation perspective

We introduce the concept of daily playful work design (PWD) and test the factorial validity of a new instrument to assess PWD. Using trait activation theory, we hypothesize that employees who are more open to experiences and playful will be more engaged and creative in their work on the days they playfully design their work activities. We tested the factorial validity of the instrument and our hypotheses in a sample of 88 employees who answered questionnaires during five consecutive workdays (N = 391 observations). The multilevel analyses yielded evidence for the psychometric quality of the PWD instrument and generally supported the hypotheses. The traits openness and playfulness moderated the relationship of daily PWD behaviors with daily work engagement and creativity.

Antecedents and consequences of perceived autonomy support in elite sport: A diary study linking coaches’ off-job recovery and athletes’ performance satisfaction

ObjectivesTo prevent poor health and well-being resulting from the high demands of coaching in elite sport, coaches need to recover during time away from work. This can benefit coaches’ own work experiences as well as their interpersonal behaviour towards athletes. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to investigate within-person associations between elite coaches’ off-job recovery (i.e., physical, cognitive, and emotional detachment from work), physical fatigue, positive affect, work engagement, and perceived autonomy support. The second aim was to investigate within-person associations between elite athletes’ daily perceptions of autonomy support, athlete engagement, and performance satisfaction. DesignA one-week daily diary study was conducted. MethodThirty-one elite coaches (30 males, 1 female) and 96 elite athletes (67 males, 29 females) completed online daily surveys across eight consecutive days. ResultsMultilevel structural equation modelling showed that coaches’ daily off-job physical detachment was negatively related to physical fatigue the next morning, whereas daily off-job emotional detachment was positively related to positive affect the next morning. Physical fatigue and positive affect were positively and negatively related to daily work engagement, respectively, which in turn was positively related to athletes’ perceptions of autonomy support. For athletes, daily athlete engagement fully mediated the relation between daily perceived autonomy support and daily performance satisfaction. ConclusionsThis study shows that off-job recovery, in terms of physical and emotional detachment from work, is not only important for elite coaches’ health, well-being, and work engagement but also benefits elite athletes’ daily sport experiences.

Employee experiences of HRM through daily affective events and their effects on perceived event‐signalled HRM system strength, expectancy perceptions, and daily work engagement

AbstractThe importance of events to individual experiences and behaviour within organisational research is increasingly acknowledged. This research examines whether daily positive and negative affective HRM events signal employee perceptions of HRM system strength, which are expected to relate to daily work engagement via clear performance–reward expectancies. Employees completed a daily diary over ten working days and reported positive and negative daily HR events as they arose. Positive HR events associated with higher perceived event‐signalled HRM system strength compared with negative HR events, and expectancy perceptions partially mediated the effects of perceived HRM system strength on daily work engagement. The study's novel contributions include documenting the common occurrence of affective HRM events, identifying such events as an important antecedent to perceived event‐signalled HRM system strength, and extending understanding of the daily consequences of perceived HRM system strength by showing how their effects on daily work engagement are mediated by expectancies.

The curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement: The role of psychological capital and sleep.

The curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement: The role of psychological capital and sleep.

Daily job crafting and momentary work engagement: A self-determination and self-regulation perspective

The present study investigates the possible mechanisms involved in the link between daily job crafting and daily work engagement. Using self-determination theory, we hypothesize that daily job crafting is positively related to daily work engagement through momentary need satisfaction and momentary engagement. Additionally, using self-regulation theory, we predict that daily job crafting is negatively related to daily work engagement, through momentary energy depletion and (reduced) momentary work engagement. Participants from various occupational sectors (N = 66) responded to a daily diary questionnaire (N = 261) as well as momentary, task-related items (N = 1539) using a day reconstruction method at the end of each of four working days. The results of multilevel modeling were generally supportive of the hypotheses. We conclude that daily job crafting can have both positive and negative implications for daily work engagement, and discuss the practical implications of our findings.

Playful work design: A diary study on its correlates in white collar workers

The present study addresses playful work design as the consistent initiative of employees to integrate game-like elements into their day-to-day work in order to reach theirimposed work-related goals. We adapted a short measure for daily playful work design and followed 55 white-collar workers over 5 consecutive working days. We hypothesized that playful work design would be predicted by contextual factors and an individual factor (i.e. job autonomy, manager support for fun and growth need strength). Furthermore, we predicted that, across days, playful work design would relate positively with work engagement and positive affect and negatively with negative affect. Additionally, we tested for the moderation of growth need strength in the relationship between work engagement and playful work design. Results indicated that playful work design was not predicted by job either job autonomy, manager support for fun or growth need strength. We found that playful work design was related positively to work engagement and positive affect, but not related to negative affect. Moreover, growth need strength didn’t moderate the relationship between daily playful work design and daily work engagement. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings for the work design literature.

Playful work design: A diary study on its correlates in white collar workers

The present study addresses playful work design as the consistent initiative of employees to integrate game-like elements into their day-to-day work in order to reach theirimposed work-related goals. We adapted a short measure for daily playful work design and followed 55 white-collar workers over 5 consecutive working days. We hypothesized that playful work design would be predicted by contextual factors and an individual factor (i.e. job autonomy, manager support for fun and growth need strength). Furthermore, we predicted that, across days, playful work design would relate positively with work engagement and positive affect and negatively with negative affect. Additionally, we tested for the moderation of growth need strength in the relationship between work engagement and playful work design. Results indicated that playful work design was not predicted by job either job autonomy, manager support for fun or growth need strength. We found that playful work design was related positively to work engagement and positive affect, but not related to negative affect. Moreover, growth need strength didn’t moderate the relationship between daily playful work design and daily work engagement. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings for the work design literature.

Positive interaction between work and home, and psychological availability on women’s work engagement: A “shortitudinal” study

Orientation: Women’s work engagement is affected by how well they balance their work and personal life, and their level of confidence in their capability at work.Research purpose: Determine whether women’s daily psychological availability mediates daily positive work-home interaction and daily positive home-work interaction on daily work engagement.Motivation for the study: Research into negative work–home and home–work interaction is in abundance. Limited studies focus on the positive effects on women’s experiences at work (i.e. work engagement). Little is known about women’s psychological availability and how it affects their work. Furthermore, little research provides us insights into the day-level experiences of women at work.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative, shortitudinal design was used. Data analyses accounted for multilevel structure in the data (within-person vs. between-person differences). Female employees (n = 60) from various industries in Gauteng, completed electronic diaries in the form of a survey for 10 consecutive working days.Main findings: Daily psychological availability mediates between daily positive work-home interaction and daily work engagement. Daily positive home-work interaction did not predict daily work engagement, but had a significant effect on daily psychological availability.Practical/managerial implications: Examining systems and structures that promote opportunities for women to become more psychologically available at work impacts their sustainable retention.Contribution/value-add: This study found significant relationships between day-level uses of personal resources and spillover effects of home-work and work-home on day-level work engagement. The study further contributes to the literature on positive work–home and home–work interaction.

Working with a SmileA Diary Study on Daily Emotion Regulation, Well-being and Work Engagement

In this diary study, we examined intra-individual relationships between daily emotion regulation strategies (surface acting and deep acting) in customer interactions and in coworker interactions with daily emotional exhaustion and work engagement. In addition, we explored different mediators (daily emotional dissonance in customer and coworker interactions, daily rewarding relationships with customers and coworkers, and daily self-regulatory resources) in these relationships. In total, 82 employees from a furniture store responded to a general survey and five daily surveys over the course of one working week. Hierarchical linear modeling (N = 380 days) showed that both daily emotion regulation in customer interactions and in coworker interactions were related to daily emotional exhaustion and daily work engagement. Mediator hypotheses were partly confirmed showing differential relationships for predictor and outcome variables. Our results emphasize that with regard to employee well-being, we should not only consider emotional labor in customer interactions as an important predictor but also emotional labor in other interpersonal interactions, such as interactions with coworkers.

Work-family Conflict, Work Engagement and Satisfaction: A Diary Study of Solicitors in the UK

By extending the existing literature on work engagement and the work-family interface, the present study aims to uncover the potential impact of family- interference-with-work (FIW) on work engagement and how this, in turn, affects an individual’s job and family satisfaction from the perspective of role scarcity theory. It is further hypothesised, based on a culture-specific view, that ethnicity (South Asian vs white British) plays a role as a boundary condition to explain those associations. To empirically test the moderated mediation effects, we adopted an experience-sampling method with a sample of 215 solicitors in the private sector in the U.K. and conducted two daily surveys over five working days. The findings of a Bayesian multilevel structural equation model indeed suggest that daily work engagement is negatively related to daily FIW, and that work engagement mediates the relationship between daily FIW and job satisfaction, but not between daily FIW and family satisfaction. Also, there was an interactive effect between ethnicity and work engagement, which was found to moderate the indirect effect of FIW on family satisfaction through work engagement, but not on job satisfaction. The implications of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.

Why do employees have better family lives when they are highly engaged at work?

Past research on the effects of work engagement on the family has demonstrated contrasting effects, with some suggesting that work engagement is beneficial for family life whereas others suggesting that it may be detrimental. In this research, using a sample of 125 employees who responded to daily surveys both at work and at home for 2 consecutive weeks, the authors present a multilevel examination of the relationships of work engagement to family outcomes aimed at elucidating such work-family effects. Their findings revealed that employees' daily work engagement experiences related positively, within individuals, to work-family interpersonal capitalization, which in turn, related positively to daily family satisfaction and to daily work-family balance. The findings also indicate that both the relationship between daily work engagement and work-family interpersonal capitalization and the indirect effects of daily work engagement on the family outcomes were stronger for employees with higher intrinsic motivation than for those with lower intrinsic motivation. The authors discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings and offer directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Linking daily ethical leadership to followers’ daily behaviour: the roles of daily work engagement and previous abusive supervision

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to advance literature on ethical leadership towards its day-level application. Daily ethical leadership is defined as ethical leadership behaviours a leader exhibits on a given day. Beneficial effects of daily ethical leadership on daily helping behaviour and daily counterproductive work behaviour via daily work engagement were examined. Furthermore, yesterday’s abusive supervision was postulated to moderate the impact of today’s ethical leadership on work engagement indicating moderated mediation. The relationship between daily ethical leadership and daily work engagement should be stronger when previous abusive supervision was high. This model was tested using an experience sampling methodology spread over 5 working days. The sample consisted of 241 employees from different organizations. Results supported the beneficial indirect impact of daily ethical leadership on daily helping through strengthening daily work engagement. The indirect effect was non-significant for daily counterproductive work behaviour. Consistent with theoretical assumptions, both indirect effects were strongest with high previous abusive supervision and diminished when previous abusive supervision was low. Implications for leadership research and managerial practice are discussed.

Rested, friendly, and engaged: The role of daily positive collegial interactions at work

Summary This diary study examined within-person effects of positive work and off-work experiences on daily work engagement. Assessing the gain cycle assumption of conservation of resources theory, we investigated the relationship of nighttime recovery experiences and subsequent resources including elevated sleep quality and morning positive affect; the relationship of morning positive affect with positive collegial interactions and subsequent work engagement; and the relationship of work engagement with nighttime recovery experiences. Sixty-nine employees completed 3 daily questionnaires over 5 consecutive working days. Multilevel analyses revealed that sleep quality positively predicted morning positive affect, which in turn predicted work engagement directly and also indirectly through having positive interactions with colleagues. Work engagement positively predicted nighttime recovery experiences, whereas nighttime recovery experiences were not related to sleep quality or morning positive affect the next day. Overall, on days after a good night's sleep, individuals feel more positive, bring this positivity to their workplace, reach out to their workplace colleagues, and are in turn more likely to be engaged in their work. Additionally, on days when individuals experience higher levels of positive collegial interactions at work and in turn higher work engagement, they are likely to enjoy better recovery experiences.

Climate congruence: How espoused psychosocial safety climate and enacted managerial support affect emotional exhaustion and work engagement

The alignment between espoused (saying) and enacted (doing) psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate for worker psychological health) is important to consider in relation to health and work outcomes. This diary study explored the interplay (moderation and mediation processes) between espoused PSC (organizational level PSC) and daily enacted PSC (operationalized in the specific domain of managerial support) and their relationships to worker psychological health (i.e., daily emotional exhaustion) and motivation (i.e., daily work engagement). In all, 545 diary data points were collected within five consecutive days from 109 secondary school teachers across 23 schools in Selangor, Malaysia. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) in a three-level model, we found espoused PSC was positively related to daily enacted managerial support. For work engagement, espoused PSC was related to work engagement through enacted managerial support. For emotional exhaustion, enacted managerial support moderated the negative relationship between espoused PSC and daily emotional exhaustion. The expected (beneficial) effects of espoused PSC were evident when high levels aligned with high levels of enacted managerial support within schools. In this case, PSC acts as a safety signal — when high espoused PSC is coupled with repeated, unequivocal and stable support (enacted managerial support), employees may feel safe to take action in their environment to protect themselves from emotional exhaustion. These findings offer new insights regarding how managers can build PSC, by valuing employee psychological health, and translating PSC into action (integrity in saying and doing), to increase psychological health and work engagement.

Take a break! Benefits of sleep and short breaks for daily work engagement

ABSTRACTThe current study investigates the benefits of a good night’s sleep and short work breaks for employees’ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employees’ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they indicated higher work engagement during the day. Moreover, taking self-initiated short breaks from work in the afternoon boosted daily work engagement, whereas taking short breaks in the morning failed to predict daily work engagement. Taking short breaks did not compensate for impaired sleep with regard to daily work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that recovery before and during work can foster employees’ daily work engagement.

The buffering role of sportsmanship on the effects of daily negative events

ABSTRACTAffective events theory (AET) argues that everyday negative events are likely to lower both daily work engagement and momentary positive affect. These problems can then persist on subsequent days. However, AET also argues that individual strategies can diminish the ill effects of negative events. We explicitly focused on good sportsmanship or abstaining from unnecessary complaints and criticism as a possible moderator of the effects of daily negative work events on daily work engagement and positive affect. We tested this possibility with a 3-day diary study among 112 employees. As expected, we found that daily negative events lowered daily engagement and momentary positive affect for two consecutive days. However, this effect only held on days that people exhibited low sportsmanship. For days that people exhibited high sportsmanship, there were no significant effects. Creating a resource rich work environment that enhances individuals’ sportsmanship behaviour can help to minimize the unfavourable impact of daily negative events.

Linking football team performance to fans' work engagement and job performance: Test of a spillover model

The weekly performance of one's favourite football team is a crucial affective event. However, little is known about the potential spillover effects that such events may have on fans' work‐related attitudes and behaviours. Using a 4‐week diary study among 41 public sector employees (N = 164 observations), who were also football fans, we investigated the association of satisfaction with football team performance with work engagement and job performance. On the basis of affective events theory, we hypothesized that satisfaction with the team's Sunday performance would spill over to work engagement and job performance on Monday, through its relation with employees' positive and negative affects on Monday morning. Furthermore, we expected that fans' identification with their team would moderate the relationship between satisfaction with team performance and affect. Multilevel analyses showed that negative (but not positive) affect mediated the relationship between satisfaction with football team performance and work engagement, which, in turn, related to job performance. Identification with the team did not moderate the satisfaction with football team performance–affect relationship. The findings illustrate the pivotal role of football fans' reactions in determining their affect, attitudes, and behaviours also in the work domain.Practitioner points Negative events in the sports domain are likely to spill over to work and have unfavourable effects on employees' daily work engagement and performance. Thus, organizations need to pay attention to how leisure time activities determine work‐related well‐being and job behaviours. Employees, who are football fans, should make sure to reattach to work on Monday morning in order to prevent negative football events from affecting their work in an unfavourable manner. Managers should recognize employees' negative affect resulting from dissatisfaction with the performance of their favourite football team and demonstrate transformational and supportive behaviours to reduce negative work outcomes.

Suicide Prevention for Local Public and Volunteer Relief Workers in Disaster-Affected Areas

Local workforces play a critical role in disaster relief and reconstruction. However, the mental health of local relief workers might be affected by disasters, threatening the sustainability of local workforces. In this study, we tried to address this concern by investigating the well-being of local relief workers and its association with suicidal ideation. A retrospective study was conducted. Surveys were designed to collect data from a purposive sample of local disaster relief workers who survived a disaster. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses. The study sample was from a population of local relief workers in the worst quake-hit regions in China in 2008. The respondents were local relief workers from a town in these regions. All of the 83 local relief workers were invited 11 months after the earthquake, and 70 joined the study, resulting in a response rate of 84.3%. The dependent variable was postdisaster suicidal ideation. The independent variables were bereavement, depression and posttraumatic stress, daily work hours, job burnout, work-family conflict, and work engagement. Approximately 21.4% of participants reported suicidal ideation after the earthquake in comparison with 7.1% before the earthquake. One potential risk factor was an interaction effect of job burnout and work-family conflict (odds ratio [OR] = 3.738; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.086-12.868). Potential protective factors included daily work hours (OR = 0.317; 95% CI, 0.106-0.952) and work engagement (OR = 0.297; 95% CI, 0.091-0.969). Findings suggest that for local relief workers who are also disaster survivors, meaningful engagement such as participation in disaster relief could be salutary to their mental health, but overwork and interference with personal life could be harmful and increase the risk of suicidal ideation. Discretion is needed in managing local workforces, particularly with long work hours and work-family balance.

Work Engagement and Research Output Among Female and Male Scientists

Abstract. Women have a minority position within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and, consequently, are likely to face more adversities at work. This diary study takes a look at a facilitating factor for women’s research performance within academia: daily work engagement. We examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between two behaviors (i.e., daily networking and time control) and daily work engagement, as well as its effect on the relationship between daily work engagement and performance measures (i.e., number of publications). Results suggest that daily networking and time control cultivate men’s work engagement, but daily work engagement is beneficial for the number of publications of women. The findings highlight the importance of work engagement in facilitating the performance of women in minority positions.

Skill utilization and well-being: a cross-level story of day-to-day fluctuations and personal intrinsic values

ABSTRACTThe opportunity to use one's skills at work is an important prerequisite for employee well-being. Drawing on self-determination and person-environment fit theory, this diary study aims to add to our understanding of this important phenomenon in two ways. Firstly, we examine the associations of within-subject daily variations in skill utilization with well-being. Secondly, we model work value orientation as a between-subject factor that moderates this within-subject relationship. Specifically, we advocate that daily skill utilization is more beneficial (in terms of more daily work engagement and less daily emotional exhaustion) for employees holding predominantly intrinsic (i.e. self-development, community contribution) as opposed to extrinsic (i.e. financial success, status) values. Results of multilevel modelling using diary data from 99 service workers over five working days, supported the assumption that daily skill utilization was positively related to daily work engagement, particularly among employees holding a predominantly intrinsic work value orientation. Contrary to our expectations, daily skill utilization was unrelated to daily exhaustion, both for employees holding high and low intrinsic values. The discussion highlights the importance of, and employees’ receptiveness to, variations in beneficial working conditions.