scholarly journals Meaningful Work, Job Resources, and Employee Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4045
Author(s):  
Simon L. Albrecht ◽  
Camille R. Green ◽  
Andrew Marty

Meaningful work and employee engagement have been the subject of increasing interest in organizational research and practice over recent years. Both constructs have been shown to influence important organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, wellbeing, and performance. Only a limited amount of empirical research has focused on understanding the relationship within existing theoretical frameworks. For this study, meaningful work is proposed as a critical psychological state within the job demands-resources (JD-R) model that can therefore, in part, explain the relationship between job resources and employee engagement. Survey data collected from 1415 employees working in a range of organizations, across a number of industries, were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). In support of expectations, job variety, development opportunities, and autonomy, each had a significant and positive direct association with meaningful work. These job resources also had a significant and positive indirect effect on employee engagement via meaningful work. Although job variety, development opportunities, autonomy, and feedback had significant positive direct associations with engagement, contrary to expectations, supervisor support had a negative association with engagement. The final model explained a sizable proportion of variance in both meaningful work (49%) and employee engagement (65%). Relative weights analyses showed that job variety was the strongest job resource predictor of meaningful work, and that meaningful work was more strongly associated with employee engagement than the job resources. Overall, the results show that meaningful work plays an important role in enhancing employee engagement and that providing employees with skill and task variety is important to achieving that goal. Practical implications, study limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.

2021 ◽  
pp. 097226292199986
Author(s):  
Robinson James

Research on engagement has gained considerable attention in recent years as it is a strong predictor of a range of positive individual and organizational outcomes. There is a question of why the level of the engagement is different from employee to employee in an organization, though they are provided with the same resources. This study aims to investigate the influence of fit perception on engagement and the role of the employee’s psychological condition (work meaningfulness) on this relationship. This study mainly employed a survey research strategy, and data were primarily garnered from a questionnaire. This study was conducted among 145 respondents from the public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Partial least-square structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the generated data. In this study, the researcher has conceptualized fit perception as a higher order construct comprising Person Job fit and Person Organization fit. The study revealed that fit perception positively influences employee engagement, and this relationship is mediated by work meaningfulness. This study contributes to the literature by deepening the understanding of the fit perception and engagement relationship by introducing work meaningfulness as a mediator variable. By highlighting how engagement is influenced by fit perception and work meaningfulness, this study facilitates practitioners to build and maintain an engaged workforce. Further contributions of this study, the avenue for future research, and study limitations are presented in detail at the end of this article.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alima Aktar ◽  
Faizuniah Pangil

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between HRM practices and employee engagement. Although employee engagement has got a great attention among the industry practitioners in recent times, it requires more considerations particularly in the academic literature. Based on the norms of social exchange theory (SET), this study has developed the framework to examine the role of perceived organizational support (POS) on HRM practices-employee engagement linkage. Survey data has been collected from employees who are working in different private commercial banks in Bangladesh. This study has used a sample of 376 employees using cluster sampling technique. To analyze the data, this study has employed SmartPLS 3.0 version software. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that HRM practices namely career advancement, job security and performance were significantly and positively related to employee engagement. The results also showed that POS can moderate the relationship between HRM practices and employee engagement. It suggests that in the presence of POS, relatively low level of employees’ perceptions regarding job related resources will exert a high level of employees’ behavioral outcomes such as engagement. The implications and suggestions for future research have also been discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Kabiru Maitama Kura ◽  
Mohamed Alkashami

Employee voice which refers to the collective bargaining of employees in an organization, is gaining much attention and importance. Studies are linking the role and relationship between employee voice with many important individual and organizational outcomes. To understand its current state and influence, the present study tested employee voice and its influence on employee engagement and business performance. Following the relationship hypothesized model, the current study applied structural equation modeling using Smart PLS 3 and found a significant relationship between employee voice and business performance. In addition, the study also found significant influence of employee voice on employee engagement and business performance. The study also found that employee engagement was mediating the relationship between employee voice and business performance. The results confirm that employees who have the freedom and opportunity to share their ideas, opinions, and input in decision-making are likely to show high engagement, which contributes to increasing business performance. The study results offer important findings based on which implications are drawn for theory and practice for businesses aspiring to increase performance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zinta S. Byrne ◽  
Theodore L. Hayes ◽  
Kyla J. Holcombe

To determine the consistency of the practice-oriented Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey–Employee Engagement Index (FEVS-EEI) with growing academic consensus around engagement as a motivational state, we examined the fit of the FEVS-EEI within two major theoretical frameworks relative to an academically derived engagement scale. Using a government sample ( n = 241,465), we first examined the factor structure of the FEVS-EEI (Leaders Lead, Intrinsic Work Experience, Supervisors). Using a second field sample ( n = 206), our results from dominance and relative weights analyses showed that only one factor of the instrument significantly predicted worker engagement as assessed using a scale validated for measuring engagement and not antecedents of engagement. With the same field sample, we used structural equation modeling to examine the fit of the practice-oriented FEVS-EEI to science-oriented theoretical frameworks of engagement and found the FEVS-EEI acts like an indicator of job resources, which itself is a predictor of engagement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Albrecht ◽  
Emil Breidahl ◽  
Andrew Marty

Purpose The majority of job demands-resources (JD-R) research has focused on identifying the job demands, job resources, and personal resources that influence engagement. The purpose of this paper is to assess the significance of proposed associations between organizationally focused resources, organizational engagement climate, and engagement. Design/methodology/approach The authors tested a model proposing that six specific organizational resources would have positive associations with organizational engagement climate, and positive direct and indirect associations with job resources and employee engagement. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted on cross-sectional survey data provided by 1,578 employees working in a range of different organizations. Findings The CFA and SEM analyses yielded good fit to the data. As proposed, all six organizational resources were positively associated with organizational engagement climate. Four were positively associated with job resources, and two were positively associated with engagement. Organizational engagement climate was positively associated with job resources and employee engagement. Significant indirect relationships were also observed. Research limitations/implications Despite self-reported data and a cross-sectional design, tests of common method variance did not suggest substantive method effects. Overall, the results contribute new insights about what may influence engagement, and highlight the importance of organizational engagement climate as a motivational construct. Practical implications The research offers up potentially useful measures of six organizational resources and a measure of organizational engagement climate that can complement and broaden the current focus on job-level diagnostics. As such, targeted management action and survey feedback processes can be used to identify processes to build sustainable organizational engagement capability. Originality/value No previous research has identified a comprehensive set of organizational resources, operationalized organizational engagement climate, or examined their relationships within a JD-R context. The results suggest that the JD-R can perhaps usefully be extended to include more organizationally focused constructs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Simon L. Albrecht ◽  
Andy Bocks ◽  
Jack Dalton ◽  
Anthea Lorigan ◽  
Alec Smith

As organizations continue to respond to the existential challenge that is climate change, the extent to which employees engage in environmental sustainability is critical to that response. This study introduces new measures of pro-environmental employee engagement, pro-environmental job resources and pro-environmental meaningful work. Based on engagement theory, a model is tested that shows how perceived corporate environmental responsibility, pro-environmental job resources (supervisor support, involvement, information) and pro-environmental meaningful work (a personal resource) influence pro-environmental employee engagement. Online self-report survey data were collected through convenience sampling from 285 full-time and part-time employees (aged 18–89 years) working across a range of occupations and organizations in Australia. Data were analyzed using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). In support of the proposed model, CFA and SEM results generally yielded a good fit to the data. Eight of nine proposed direct effects involving corporate environmental responsibility, pro-environmental job resources (modelled as a higher-order construct), pro-environmental meaningful work, and pro-environmental engagement, were significant. All proposed indirect effects within a re-specified model were significant. The final model explained 51% of the variance in pro-environmental job resources; 20% in pro-environmental meaningful work; and 71% in pro-environmental employee engagement. Overall, the results indicate that perceived organizational, job and personal resources play a motivational role in enhancing pro-environmental employee engagement. The study contributes a theory-based model and new measures of employee pro-environmental resources and engagement. The model can be applied to help organizations assess and develop interventions to address the critically important issue of environmental sustainability. Future research directions and study limitations are discussed.


Author(s):  
Jens K. Roehrich ◽  
Beverly B. Tyler ◽  
Jas Kalra ◽  
Brian Squire

Contracts are a formal mode of governing interorganizational relationships. They specify the terms and conditions of the agreement between two parties, interpret and adapt the relevant legal and industrial norms, serve as framing devices, and establish the rules and norms underpinning the relationship. The objective of this chapter is to synthesize the extant literature on interorganizational contracting to guide future research and practice. This chapter focuses on the three phases of contracting: (1) designing the contracting portfolio; (2) negotiating initial contracts; and (3) managing the relationship using contracts. The chapter explores the key decisions in each phase and the criteria involved in making these decisions. In doing so, it draws on existing research and theoretical frameworks that have contributed to the development of the contracting literature. The chapter also identifies some important and interesting directions for future contracting research and offers suggestions regarding how selected theoretical lenses might guide these endeavors. The principal conclusion is that while the existing research has primarily focused on the structural issues guiding contracting design, a more processual, social, and behavioral focus is required in future developments of the contracting literature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 446-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilmar B. Schaufeli

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to integrate leadership into the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. Based on self-determination theory, it was argued that engaging leaders who inspire, strengthen, and connect their followers would reduce employee’s levels of burnout and increase their levels of work engagement. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted among a representative sample of the Dutch workforce (n=1,213) and the research model was tested using structural equation modeling. Findings – It appeared that leadership only had an indirect effect on burnout and engagement – via job demands and job resources – but not a direct effect. Moreover, leadership also had a direct relationship with organizational outcomes such as employability, performance, and commitment. Research limitations/implications – The study used a cross-sectional design and all variables were based on self-reports. Hence, results should be replicated in a longitudinal study and using more objective measures (e.g. for work performance). Practical implications – Since engaged leaders, who inspire, strengthen, and connect their followers, provide a work context in which employees thrive, organizations are well advised to promote engaging leadership. Social implications – Leadership seems to be a crucial factor which has an indirect impact – via job demands and job resources – on employee well-being. Originality/value – The study demonstrates that engaging leadership can be integrated into the JD-R framework.


2021 ◽  
pp. 009385482110361
Author(s):  
Ivan Y. Sun ◽  
Yuning Wu ◽  
Smart E. Otu ◽  
Gilbert C. Aro ◽  
Ikechukwu Charles Akor ◽  
...  

Organizational commitment is an imperative aspect of occupational attitudes as it signals employees’ willingness to stay with their organization and effectively achieve collective goals. Although recent studies have assessed factors influencing police officers’ organizational commitment, very little is known about the antecedents of police commitment in African countries. Based on a survey of Nigerian police officers, the study assesses the linkage between organizational justice and organizational commitment directly and indirectly through organizational trust and job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment is principally indirect through the mediating mechanisms of supervisory trustworthiness and job satisfaction. Officers who express greater organizational justice report higher trust in their management and supervisors and, subsequently, stronger job satisfaction, leading to higher organizational commitment. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097226292110225
Author(s):  
Ritu Srivastava ◽  
Diptiman Banerji ◽  
Priyanka Nema ◽  
Shubham Choudhary

Value creation, customer engagement and employee engagement have emerged as important organizational outcomes for continued success. At the turn of the new decade, it is imperative to identify new research directions for these outcomes to improve the marketing effectiveness of organizations while keeping people at the centre of this pursuit. The present study is propelled by this motivation. The study started with the exploration of the relationship of customer and employee engagement in value creation, while limiting the scope to services. The extant literature has not studied the three together. The second phase of the study dwelled on identifying common links among the three to develop a conceptual model that brought the concepts of customer engagement, employee engagement and value creation together. Perceived risk was identified as the underlying phenomenon that connected all three to be part of a social system. A conceptual framework has been proposed for connecting perceived risk to customer engagement and employee engagement that would create value in service organizations. The study identifies future research directions for theory building and practice.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document