Transformational leadership and work engagement: Exploring the mediating role of structural empowerment

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of structural empowerment in the positive relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Based on self-reported questionnaires from 240 employees working in the tourism sector in Galicia (northwest of Spain), the findings reveal that the linkage between transformational leadership and work engagement is partially mediated by structural empowerment. These results imply that transformational leaders foster work engagement by enabling access to information, opportunities, support and adequate resources. This empirical study is one of the first to examine the role of structural empowerment as a mediator between transformational leadership and work engagement and may serve as a reference for promoting work engagement in service organizations. A number of contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

Training perceptions,engagement, and performance: comparing work engagement and personal role engagement

The purpose of this study was to compare two engagement constructs (work engagement and personal role engagement) with regard to their relationship with training perceptions and work role performance behaviours. It was hypothesised that personal role engagement would show incremental validity above that of work engagement at predicting work role performance behaviours and be a stronger mediator of the relationships between training perceptions and such behaviours. Questionnaire data were gathered from 304 full-time working adults in the UK. As predicted, personal role engagement was found to explain additional variance above that of work engagement for task proficiency, task adaptability, and task proactivity behaviours. Moreover, personal role engagement was a stronger mediator of the relationship between training perceptions and task proficiency as well as between training perceptions and task adaptability. Both work engagement and personal role engagement mediated the relationship between training perceptions and task proactivity to a similar degree. The findings suggest that personal role engagement has better practical utility to the human resource development domain than work engagement and indicates that future research may benefit from adopting the personal role engagement construct.     

The energizing nature of work engagement: Toward a new need-based theory of work motivation

We present theory suggesting that experiences at work that meet employees’ expectations of need fulfillment drive work engagement. Employees have needs (e.g., a desire to be authentic) and they also have expectations for how their job or their organization will fulfill them. We argue that experiences at work that confirm employees’ need fulfillment expectations yield a positive emotional state that is energizing, and that this energy is manifested in employees’ behaviors at work. Our theorizing draws on a review of the work engagement literature, in which we identify three core characteristics of work engagement: (a) a positive emotional state that (b) yields a feeling of energy and (c) leads to positive work-oriented behaviors. These key themes provide the foundation for further theorizing suggesting that interactions at work confirm or disconfirm employees’ need fulfillment expectations, leading to different levels of engagement. We extend our theorizing to argue that confirmation, or disconfirmation, of different need expectations will yield emotional experience of varying magnitudes, with confirmation of approach-oriented need expectations exerting stronger effects than the confirmation of avoidance-oriented need expectations. We close with a review suggesting that organizational contextual features influence the expression of these needs, sustaining or undermining the positive emotional experiences that fuel work engagement.     

The effects of JDC model on burnout and work engagement: A multiple interaction analysis

This study investigated the moderating effects of functional social support (emotional and instrumental support) on the relationship of job demand control with burnout and work engagement. In total, 297 frontline employees from a hotpot restaurant franchise in China were surveyed. The results indicated emotional support, such as caring and inspiration, mitigated the adverse effects of high demand/low control on burnout and work engagement. Instrumental support, such as giving suggestions and solving problems, only mitigated the adverse effects of burnout. Further, the high demand/low control/low emotional support work condition was the most unfavourable for work engagement and burnout; while high demand/low control/low instrumental support was the most unfavourable condition for burnout. The theoretical and managerial implications of this research have been provided to gain a deeper insight into functional social support in the job demand control model.     

Ethical leadership and employee success: Examining the roles of psychological empowerment and emotional exhaustion

The current study aims to advance ethical leadership theory and research in two ways. First, we propose that psychological empowerment is a comprehensive motivational mechanism linking ethical leadership with employee current in-role success and future success potential. Second, we propose that employee emotional exhaustion is a disruptive psychological state that dampens the empowering effects of ethical leaders. Findings from two field studies illustrate that emotional exhaustion impairs the motivational efforts of ethical leaders by attenuating the direct effects on psychological empowerment and the indirect effects on employees' current success and success potential. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Pregnancy, work and women's well-being: A review

Pregnancy is potentially a stressful period for working women for ergonomic, psychological and organizational reasons, yet the well-being of women is seldom the focus of research on working during pregnancy. This paper reviews the literature on women's experience of being pregnant at work. It concludes that, while working conditions are usually not well suited to pregnant women, the majority of women encounter only minor difficulties and regard working in a positive way. However, for a minority of women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women who are most at risk from work-related stress at other times. The literature suggests that working during pregnancy has still to be accepted and accommodated by employers and colleagues.     

The relationship between presenteeism and job satisfaction: A mediated moderation model using work engagement and perceived organizational support

Research on presenteeism has largely focused on its prevalence, determinants and consequences on the health of both employees and organizations. To date, few studies have examined the influence of presenteeism on workers’ attitudinal and motivational responses. Based on the Effort–Recovery Theory, this study evaluates the mediating effect of work engagement in the relationship between presenteeism and job satisfaction. Building on previous work, this study also proposes to consider perceived organizational support as a moderator of the work engagement–job satisfaction relationship. Presented in the form of a mediated moderation model, the results of bootstrapped regression analyses show three main results. First, presenteeism is negatively associated with work engagement and job satisfaction. Secondly, work engagement is one of the factors through which presenteeism influences job satisfaction. Thirdly, perceived organizational support moderates the association between work engagement and job satisfaction so that, at a low level of work engagement, feeling supported by the organization makes a difference on job satisfaction. Overall, this research is part of the limited number of studies that have focused on the interplay existing between presenteeism and its consequences in terms of job attitudes.     

The impact of perceived organizational support on work meaningfulness,engagement, and perceived stress in France

This paper aims to show the strategic role of Perceived Organizational Support (POS) in developing positive work attitudes, thereby reducing stress in the workplace. We have conducted an empirical study to understand more about if and how work meaningfulness influence perceived stress and whether work engagement has a mediating effect between these two constructs. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and Social Exchange Theory (SET), we hypothesize that POS has both direct and indirect relationships with these variables: meaningfulness, work engagement, and perceived stress. We tested these hypotheses through path analyses on a sample of 1111 employees in France. The results support our hypotheses on a) the negative association between meaningfulness and perceived stress, b) the mediating role of engagement, and c) the direct and indirect effects of POS. The strongest moderating effect of POS is observed on the relationship between meaningfulness and engagement. Our findings have theoretical implications by showing, for example, that POS enhances positive outcomes more than it diminishes negative ones. The results also have practical implications for managers and organizations as they reinforce the interplay of intrinsic motivators (meaningfulness) as an individual process as well as extrinsic motivators (POS) in the realm of an organization's responsibility and interest in strengthening employee engagement and reducing stress at work.     

Pregnancy,work and women's well-being: A review

Abstract

Pregnancy is potentially a stressful period for working women for ergonomic, psychological and organizational reasons, yet the well-being of women is seldom the focus of research on working during pregnancy. This paper reviews the literature on women's experience of being pregnant at work. It concludes that, while working conditions are usually not well suited to pregnant women, the majority of women encounter only minor difficulties and regard working in a positive way. However, for a minority of women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women working during pregnancy adversely affects their well-being. These are likely to be women who are most at risk from work-related stress at other times. The literature suggests that working during pregnancy has still to be accepted and accommodated by employers and colleagues.     

The relationship of work stressors, coping and social support to psychological symptoms among female secretarial employees

A conceptual framework is advanced that assumes that psychological symptoms emerge within multiple contexts, such as the workplace, and are influenced by the interplay of individual and situational risk and protective factors over time. This framework was utilized to examine the impact of work and work-family role stressors, coping, and work-related social support on psychological symptoms among 239 female, secretarial employees in the USA, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal structural equation models. Work stressors and avoidance coping were viewed as risk factors, and active coping and social support as protective factors. Work stressors contributed substantially to increased symptoms, primarily through a direct pathway in the cross-sectional model, but also indirectly to both Time 1 and Time 2 symptoms (4 months later) via pathways through active and avoidance coping. In both models, avoidance coping also predicted increased symptoms. Avoidance coping also served to partially mediate the relationship between work stressors and symptoms in the cross-sectional model, but not in the longitudinal model. Active coping was related to fewer psychological symptoms in both models, thereby reducing the negative effect of work stressors on symptoms. Likewise, work-related social support served an indirect protective function by contributing to lower levels of reported work stressors and greater use of active coping. Work stressors but not active coping mediated the relationship between social support and symptoms. Implications for future research and workplace interventions are discussed.     

High-involvement work practices and employee engagement

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between high involvement work practices (HIWPs) and employee engagement. HIWPs consist of four main attributes: (a) power – employees have the power to make decisions and/or to participate in decision-making; (b) information – information is shared among employees; (c) reward – employees are rewarded for their good performance; and (d) knowledge – employees are provided with the necessary training to do their work. This paper investigates the connections between engagement and each of these practices, and proposes a conceptual model that links these relationships. It starts by providing a brief overview of HIWPs, followed by a discussion on the connections between HIWPs and engagement, and a conclusion and discussion of implications for practice and research.     

Day-level fluctuations in stress and engagement in response to workplace incivility: A diary study

Previous research into workplace incivility, or rude and discourteous behaviour, has focused on between-person relationships. This study extends this research by using a diary design to examine the effect of experiences of incivility at work on two outcomes, stress and engagement, at a within-person level. Two potential moderators of the incivility-outcome association were also examined: the job resource of perceived supervisor support and the personal resource of core self-evaluation. Diary survey data were collected eight times over a four-week period from 130 security employees both in the field and at the corporate offices of a security firm in Australia. Data was analysed with multilevel modelling. Participants were found to have higher levels of stress on the days when they experienced more incivility, but high supervisor support reduced this effect. However, a negative relationship between incivility and daily engagement was only significant for those with low core self-evaluation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of workplace incivility.     

变革型领导、组织公民行为与心理授权关系研究

探讨变革型领导行为对下属的组织公民行为产生影响的作用机制,即变革型领导是否会通过心理授权的中介作用对下属的组织公民行为产生影响.采用结构方程模型的方法分析了变革型领导行为、组织公民行为以及心理授权的不同维度之间的关系,研究的样本包括高科技组织中282名员工以及他们所对应的领导者.研究结果表明,变革型领导行为通过心理授权作为中介变量对下属员工的组织公民行为具有显著的影响作用;心理授权中的意义性和自我效能两个维度在变革型领导与组织公民行为之间起到中介作用;关系导向和任务导向的变革型领导对心理授权和组织公民行为的不同维度产生影响作用的路径是不同的.     

The psychological benefits of exercise in work settings: A review, critique, and dispositional model

Evidence on the psychological effects of exercise on employees is considered. Studies which examined the effect of company-sponsored exercise programmes as well as those examining the more general effect of exercise in work settings are reviewed. It is concluded that the evidence for psychological benefits is equivocal. Due to methodological problems, it is difficult to determine whether exercise is responsible for the positive effects reported. Four personality characteristics which may be responsible for both exercise and psychological reactions to work are considered, and a model is then presented. It was concluded that future studies examining the impact of exercise should consider this dispositional model.     

The XX factor: Female managers and innovation in a cross-country setting

Our understanding of the link between women managers and firm-level innovation remains incomplete. Building on recent research on gender and leadership styles, we argue that there is a positive association between women managers and firm innovation. We highlight the selection process of women managers as an important underlying mechanism and discuss institutional and environmental contingencies as factors that influence this association. Specifically, we theorize and garner empirical support for the idea that in countries with legislation that promotes legally-mandated gender quotas, underqualified women may be selected for management positions, whereas in countries with voluntary gender quotas (or quotas are entirely absent), women are predominantly selected on the basis of their qualifications. The association between women and innovation is strengthened (weakened) in the latter (former) case. We also argue that this positive relationship is stronger under conditions of environmental complexity, which typically characterize innovation activities. These predictions are supported on the basis of data from the Management, Organization and Innovation (MOI) survey which covers manufacturing firms in twelve countries.     

Burnout and work organization in hospital wards: A cross-validation study

The relationship between nurses' work organization in hospital wards and the level of burnout experienced by them was analysed in two independent and highly comparable samples of nurses. The hypothesis that the greater the number of nurses who are responsible for, or are having contact with, one patient during one work shift, the higher their experienced level of burnout will be, was partially confirmed in one of the two samples. We have attributed the contradictory results to differences in the management of nurses' work organization, and warned against fashionable ideas concerning the ideal type of nurses' work organization in hospital wards.     

Share,like, twitter,and connect: Ecological momentary assessment to examine the relationship between non-work social media use at work and work engagement

Non-work social media use at work has seen a dramatic increase in the last decade and is commonly deemed counterproductive work behaviour. However, we examined whether it may also serve as a micro-break and improve work engagement. We used ecological momentary assessment across 1 working day with up to 10 hourly measurements in 334 white-collar workers to measure non-work social media use and work engagement, resulting in 2235 hourly measurements. Multilevel modelling demonstrated that non-work social media use was associated with lower levels of work engagement between persons. Within persons, non-work social media use was also associated with lower concurrent work engagement. However, non-work social media use was related to higher levels of work engagement 1 hour later. While more extensive non-work social media use at work was generally associated with lower work engagement, our advanced study design revealed that the longer employees used social media for non-work purposes during 1 working hour, the more work engaged they were in the subsequent working hour, suggesting that employees turn to social media when energy levels are low and/or when they (temporarily) lose interest in their work. This behaviour may serve as a break, which in turn increases work engagement later during the day.     

Supervisory coaching and performance feedback as mediators of the relationships between leadership styles,work engagement,and turnover intention

Human resource development (HRD) is key to organizational success. With some HRD roles devolving to leaders in recent years, a gap in understanding is now evident in how leaders’ leadership styles shape development-oriented behaviours that may effectively assist them in fulfilling their HRD roles, and the corresponding effects that this has on employee work engagement and turnover intention. This study compared the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employee attitudes (i.e. work engagement and turnover intention) through leaders’ behaviours (i.e. supervisory coaching and performance feedback). This study used a multilevel approach (i.e. matching leaders to multiple subordinates) with 500 employees, nested in 65 workgroups from private organizations in Malaysia. As hypothesized, we found a link between transformational (but not transactional) leadership and higher levels of supervisory coaching and performance feedback, and that these job resources mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Furthermore, we found that work engagement mediates the relationships of both supervisory coaching and performance feedback to turnover intention. Overall, the study results reveal one way in which Asian leaders can effectively facilitate some aspects of HRD through development-focused behaviours which serve as job resources to boost work engagement and reduce turnover intention.     

Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment: the moderating effect of organizational learning culture

This paper examines the influence of psychological empowerment on organizational commitment and the moderating effect of organizational learning culture on the relationship. The results suggest that psychological empowerment, organizational learning culture, and demographic variables had a significant impact on organizational commitment for employees in the public sector of Korea. Employees showed higher organizational commitment when they perceived high psychological empowerment and a high organizational learning culture. In addition, the moderating effect of organizational learning culture on the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment was found to be significant. Among the demographic variables, only educational level turned out to be significant. Finally, implications, limitations and research recommendations are discussed.     

A cross-validation of a structural equation model of accidents: organizational and psychological variables as predictors of work safety

A study to establish a structural equation model of accidents is presented. The eight variables included in the model were those associated with accidents in previous research. The reliability of questionnaires to measure those variables and a structural equation model relating them are provided. The model explaining the occurrence of accidents was cross-validated through three Spanish samples (n=123; 182; 124).The model presented a good fit to data in two samples, while a third had unclear fit indices. Therefore, most relationships among variables did not vary among these three samples. The role of the safety variables in the model is discussed. The discussion is also focused on risk measurement difficulties commonly reported in the literature. Finally, some suggestions for future safety research with structural equation modelling techniques are provided.