Is too much work engagement detrimental? Linear or curvilinear effects on mental health and job performance

Abstract

Most studies report a positive relationship of work engagement with health and job performance, but, occasionally, a “dark side of engagement” has also been uncovered. The current study examined two hypotheses: whether work engagement has (1) a U-shaped curvilinear relation with psychological distress and (2) an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relation with job performance (i.e., in-role performance and creative behavior). A two-wave longitudinal Internet survey with a time lag of seven months was conducted among 1,967 Japanese employees. To test our hypotheses, we used a two-wave panel design and examined the lagged and concurrent relations between work engagement and both outcomes. The results confirmed that work engagement had a curvilinear relation with psychological distress concurrently; a favorable effect was found initially, but this disappeared at intermediate levels of work engagement, and, at higher levels, an adverse effect became prominent. In addition, work engagement had a curvilinear relation with in-role performance both concurrently and longitudinally; the higher the levels of work engagement, the stronger the favorable effects on in-role performance. However, contrary to our expectations, work engagement had a linear relation with psychological distress longitudinally and with creative behavior both concurrently and longitudinally. Hence, our results suggest that work engagement plays a different role in health enhancement compared to performance enhancement. Leveling-off and adverse effects of high work engagement were observed for psychological distress in the short and not in a long run. In contrast, no leveling-off effect of high work engagement was observed for job performance. Thus, except for the short-term effect on psychological distress, no dark side of work engagement was observed for psychological distress and job performance.

Does Organizational Cronyism Lead to Lower Employee Performance? Examining the Mediating Role of Employee Engagement and Moderating Role of Islamic Work Ethics

“…Work engagement helps employees in successfully managing stress-related work environments ( Shimazu et al, 2018 ). An extensive literature demonstrates a positive relationship between employee work engagement and desirable job outcomes, e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee performance ( Özer et al, 2017 ; Joplin et al, 2019 ).…”

Trabalho e Bem-Estar: Evidências da Relação entre Burnout e Satisfação de Vida

“…As pesquisas recentes em Psicologia Positiva tratam de modo diferente o construto do trabalho. Ao invés de associá-lo a um conjunto de fatores com consequências negativas unívocas, são avaliados em conjunto os fatores de proteção à saúde dos trabalhadores, cujos consequentes principais são o bem-estar laboral e, em sua dimensão cognitiva, a satisfação de vida (Alasandri et al, 2018;Efrom, Vazquez, & Hutz, 2019;Lorente, Salanova, Martínez, & Vera 2014;Shimazu, Schaufeli, Kubota, & Kawakami, 2018;Vazquez, Pianezolla, & Hutz, 2018). Nessa perspectiva, como será demonstrando no referencial teórico do presente artigo, o trabalho não é definido por seus desfechos, sejam eles negativos (riscos de danos ou sofrimento) ou positivos (bem-estar ou prazer).…”

Factors contributing to psychological distress in the working population, with a special reference to gender difference - a population-based study

“…The only gender difference was found in sometimes ignoring family when wholly absorbed in one's work, which was associated with psychological distress only in women. This suggests that an engaging job may cause psychological distress via work-to-family con ict among women [84]. Di culty in concentrating on work because of domestic issues showed the strongest association with psychological distress, but it could also imply that the participants were experiencing distressing family-related challenges at the time.…”