Building towards engagement: An individual perspective

Abstract

Organizations are struggling to survive, so they are dependent on the productiveness and well-being of their employees. Nowadays, work engagement – the focal construct of this thesis – is one of the most established well-being constructs within organizational psychology. Work engagement is defined as a positive work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption. More insight into individual antecedents of work engagement and ways to enhance engagement by means of individual-level interventions is badly needed. Though, based on Broaden-and-Build theory, we do have quite some empirical knowledge on how individual antecedents such as positive emotions and personal resources relate to general well-being. In this thesis, we embrace this knowledge in order to develop theory on an individual perspective on engagement. The studies of this thesis confirmed that positive emotions and personal resources (i.e., hope, optimism, and self-efficacy) either directly or indirectly relate to work and study engagement over time. Next to these empirical notions, this thesis also had the objective to design and evaluate individual interventions to enhance engagement. We hypothesized that the variance in engagement that we could influence by means of self-initiated individual interventions was about forty per cent. In the current thesis, we tested three types of individual interventions, i.e., behavioral (i.e., acts of kindness), cognitive (i.e., thoughts of gratitude), and motivational (i.e., goal setting), to promote engagement. These types of interventions have already been investigated with regard to their effects on happiness, and we modified them for use in an academic and work-related context. We found that stimulating thoughts of gratitude resulted in higher levels of positive emotions among university students. Performing acts of kindness showed stronger effects because this also had a positive effect on study engagement. These results indicate that in an academic context, positive behavioral interventions (i.e., acts of kindness) work better and/or faster than cognitive interventions (i.e., thoughts of gratitude) in enhancing engagement. In addition, we tested the effects of an online intervention containing behavioral, cognitive, and motivational activities among employees. The intervention had a significant positive effect on positive emotions and self-efficacy. For work engagement, however, we only found a significant positive effect for those who scored low on baseline work engagement. This finding underlines that the positive activities that were initiated by the online intervention were more beneficial for those who were expected to gain from it the most. All in all, the individual perspective on the prediction and enhancement of engagement that was adopted in this thesis seems promising. Moreover, it is in line with the current trend of empowerment which holds every individual responsible for his or her own growth and (mental) health. Nevertheless, organizations (including universities) carry great responsibility for the well-being of their employees (and students) in creating a positive organizational climate. This context is, in our opinion, the prerequisite to enable individual employees to build towards higher levels of engagement.