Bottom-Up Interventions Effective in Promoting Work Engagement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Promoting work engagement is of interest to organizations across sectors due to the associated positive outcomes. This interest warrants research on the evidence of work engagement interventions. Intervention research increasingly advocates a bottom-up approach, highlighting the role of employees themselves. These workplace interventions often encourage employees to identify, develop, and make use of workplace resources. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the effectiveness and potential underlying mechanisms of these bottom-up, resource-developing interventions.Method: Systematic searches were conducted in the online databases Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Ultimate, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. Publication year range was 2000–2020. Eligibility criteria were defined using PICOS. To be eligible for the systematic review, the intervention study identified had to aim at promoting working individuals’ work engagement by developing workplace resources from bottom-up. Work engagement had to be measured using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The systematic review included one-, two-, or multiple-armed – randomized or non-randomized – intervention studies with various study designs. Further, a meta-analysis was conducted on a sub-set of the studies included in the systematic review. To be eligible for the meta-analysis, the studies had to be two- or multiple-armed and provide the information necessary to compute effect sizes.Results: Thirty-one studies were included in the systematic review. The majority reported that overall work engagement increased as an effect of the intervention. The evidence regarding the sub-components of work engagement was scattered. Potential underlying mechanisms explored were intervention foci, approach, and format. Dimensions of satisfaction and performance were identified as secondary outcomes. Participant experiences were generally described as positive in most of the studies applying mixed methods. The meta-analysis showed a small but promising intervention effect on work engagement (24 studies, SMD: −0.22, 95% CI: −0.34 to −0.11, with I2=53%, indicating moderate inconsistency in the evidence).Conclusion: The synthesized evidence suggests that bottom-up, resource-developing interventions are effective in the promotion of work engagement. The meta-analysis suggests that focusing on strengths use or mobilizing ego resources and adopting a universal approach increase intervention effectiveness.

The psychological conditions for employee engagement in organizational change: Test of a change engagement model

“…Meta-analytic evidence has shown that both top-down and bottom-up, resource-developing interventions are effective in developing work engagement (Björk et al, 2021). Similar intervention strategies are likely to be effective in developing change-engagement.…”

“…Bottom-up "change crafting" interventions, paralleling job crafting intervention designs, might involve participants identifying their own realistic and meaningful goals, breaking down key goals into manageable sub-goals, identifying and evaluating multiple pathways to achieve goals and sub-goals, identifying resources needed to achieve the goals, and the sharing of participant experiences (Luthans et al, 2006). Such intervention designs might be applied to help employees enhance change-related job resources, such as change information, change involvement, supervisor support for change, and co-worker support for change (Albrecht et al, 2020;Björk et al, 2021).…”

The impact of engaging leadership on employee engagement and team effectiveness: A longitudinal, multi-level study on the mediating role of personal- and team resources

“…Multiple studies suggest that work engagement, which is defined as a positive, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption [ 1 ], is related to extremely positive outcomes, particularly in terms of employees’ well-being and job performance (for a narrative overview see [ 2 ]; for a meta-analysis see [ 3 ]).…”

Work engagement of psychiatric nurses: a scoping review protocol

“…Elucidating the underlying mechanisms of effective interventions is an essential topic among work engagement researchers. 20 Thus, it is imperative to identify potentially modifiable factors that stimulate work engagement.…”

“…Overall, however, the relationships between effectiveness and type of work engagement intervention strategy varied. Elucidating the underlying mechanisms of effective interventions is an essential topic among work engagement researchers 20. Thus, it is imperative to identify potentially modifiable factors that stimulate work engagement.…”