What matters for work engagement? A diary study on resources and the benefits of selective optimization with compensation for state work engagement

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

This diary study addresses the benefits of employees' daily use of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) for state work engagement. We hypothesized that day-level SOC not only directly fosters work engagement but that SOC also reveals its beneficial effects for work engagement in interaction with both external and internal resources. Specifically, we proposed SOC substitutes for job control, role clarity, and state of being recovered, thus helping employees manage low daily levels of these resources. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 138 employees who completed two daily surveys over a total of 545 workdays. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that SOC benefits work engagement in both proposed ways. First, day-level SOC was positively related to state work engagement. Additionally, day-level role clarity and state of being recovered predicted state work engagement, but day-level job control did not. Second, SOC benefitted state work engagement by offsetting low levels of role clarity and being recovered, and by boosting job control in their respective relationships with work engagement. The results suggest that by using SOC at work, employees can actively enhance their own work engagement on a given workday. This knowledge provides promising starting points for the development of interventions.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Organizational Behavior
Volume39
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)26-38
Number of pages13
ISSN0894-3796
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2018
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • diary study, resources, selective optimization with compensation, work engagement
  • Business psychology

DOI

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Astrid Neumann

Publications

  1. Peer Evaluation Can Reliably Measure Local Knowledge
  2. Imitation and interindividual differences
  3. Resource Allocation in Startup Teams: Exploring Entrepreneurial Coping with Radical Uncertainty during the Corona Pandemic
  4. Experimental Setup of Dieless Drawing Process for Magnesium Wire
  5. Fallarbeit als Angebot – fallbasiertes Lernen als Nutzung
  6. Eine strukturelle Version der Theorie der Statusinkonsistenz
  7. Best Practise: Management-Informationssysteme (MIS) im Krankenhaus
  8. Wir müssen reden. Roundtablegespräch zur documenta 12
  9. Pathways to Implementation: Evidence on How Participation in Environmental Governance Impacts on Environmental Outcomes
  10. Differences in isoprenoid-mediated energy dissipation pathways between coastal and interior Douglas-fir seedlings in response to drought
  11. Emotion Regulation of Car Drivers by the Physical and Psychological Parameters of Music
  12. Examining long-term impacts of a training programme to improve quality of IEP goals
  13. Anthropogenic factors overrule local abiotic variables in determining non-native plant invasions in mountains
  14. Observer Strategies for Virtual Sensing of Embroidered Metal-Polymer Heater Structure
  15. Does sustainable intensification offer a pathway to improved food security for aquatic agricultural system-dependent communities?
  16. Multiply metallated organic intermediates: a tris(lithiomethyl)-cyclohexane and a hexalithiotrimethyl-cyclohexanetriolate.
  17. Lautheitskonstanz oder Range-Effekt?
  18. Characteristics, emerging needs, and challenges of transdisciplinary sustainability science
  19. Comparing eye movements during mathematical word problem solving in Chinese and German
  20. Media of Trust
  21. §50 Windenergie auf See