Who are the most engaged at work? A meta‐analysis of personality and employee engagement

Young, Henry Robin; Glerum, David R.; Wang, Wei; Joseph, Dana L.

doi:10.1002/job.2303

Cited by 157 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…However, based on the results presented here, we cannot rule out that these effects are purely explained by dog size. Results of a meta-analysis suggest that employee personality plays a substantial role in determining work engagement, in particular; positive affectivity, proactivity, conscientiousness, and extraversion (90). Since we did not assess, or control for, the influence of personality it may be that individuals with these traits are over represented in the small dog owner group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking Dogs Into the Office: A Novel Strategy for Promoting Work Engagement, Commitment and Quality of Life

Hall

Mills

2019

Front. Vet. Sci.

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Despite growing interest in “take your dog to work” days and the wellbeing benefits associated with interactions with a friendly dog (e.g., animal-assisted activities), there has been little quantification of the benefits of this. We analyzed responses to work-related (work engagement, turnover intention, work-based friendship acuity, social media use, and work-related quality of life) and dog-related (pet dog attachment and dog general health) scales from 749 employees. The predominantly female sample was comprised of 243 employees who brought their dog to work (167 = “often” brought dog to work; 76 = “sometimes” brought dog to work), the remaining 506 did not bring their dog to work. Employees who “often” took their dog to work reported higher than average work engagement on all factors (vigor, dedication, absorption, total), with significant differences reported in comparison to those who “sometimes” (vigor and total) and “never” (vigor, dedication, absorption, total) took their dog to work. Turnover intention was also significantly lower and work-based friendship acuity higher in the group of employees who “often,” compared to “never,” took their dog to work. Benefits of bringing your dog to work were also observed in terms of work-related quality of life, with higher scores on general wellbeing, home-work interface, job career-satisfaction, control at work, working conditions, and overall work quality of life in those who “often” compared to “never” take their dog to work. Employees who “never” took their dog to work reported lower use of social media during break times. We also identified factors which may be important to consider in developing dogs-in-the-workplace policies; dog-demographics including weight (i.e., size), breed-type, and training may be important to consider in defining the ideal office dog and deserve further research. Given the need to improve employee wellbeing and satisfaction to promote effective business performance and economic gain, these results have important implications for office based businesses considering allowing dogs in the workplace.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking Dogs Into the Office: A Novel Strategy for Promoting Work Engagement, Commitment and Quality of Life

Hall

Mills

2019

Front. Vet. Sci.

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“…We identified seven but other moderators are likely, for example, personality. A recent meta-analysis found that positive affectivity, proactive personality, conscientiousness and extraversion were the strongest personality predictors of engagement (Young, Glerum, Wang & Joseph, 2018). Young et al (2018) argue that these personality traits enable individuals to manage their energy more effectively, meaning they are more able to invest energy in work and so experience increased engagement.…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent meta-analysis found that positive affectivity, proactive personality, conscientiousness and extraversion were the strongest personality predictors of engagement (Young, Glerum, Wang & Joseph, 2018). Young et al (2018) argue that these personality traits enable individuals to manage their energy more effectively, meaning they are more able to invest energy in work and so experience increased engagement. Proactive personality may be another moderator of engagement interventions, with proactive individuals tending to actively change their circumstances and environment to meet goals (Bateman & Crant, 1993).…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review

Knight

Patterson

Dawson

2019

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

129

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Work engagement is associated with important individual and organisational outcomes (e.g., employee health and well-being, performance). This narrative systematic review aims to synthesise the increasing number of work engagement interventions and inform future research by exploring: (1) the specific intervention foci, delivery methods and content of engagement interventions; (2) intervention effectiveness; and (3) underlying mediators and moderators. A systematic search for interventions employing a validated engagement measure revealed 40 studies. Five were personal resource building, twelve job resource building, three leadership training, eighteen health promotion, and two job and personal resource building. Twenty (50%) studies observed significant positive effects on work engagement, two (5%) had a negative effect, and eighteen (45%) had no effect. Job and personal resources, job demands and well-being were important mediators. Moderators included the specific intervention focus and delivery method, employee participation, manager support, and intervention level (top-down vs bottom-up). Bottom-up interventions, and job crafting and mindfulness interventions particularly, were most successful. Implementation difficulties were common, including poor response and attrition rates, and adverse factors (e.g. organisational restructuring, redundancy, economic downturn). We highlight implications for research and practice and stress the need to test underlying theories to build knowledge around how, why, and when interventions work. Effectiveness of work engagement interventions new, in-depth insights and knowledge around the characteristics of engagement interventions, how and why they work, and the difficulties faced during their implementation. We provide a more detailed synthesis of the specific intervention foci, delivery methods and content of interventions, their quality (a term we use here to refer to study design & associated factors such as sample sizes & type of control group), degree of successful implementation and effectiveness. These factors are, as yet, underexplored in the literature. This knowledge is important for guiding the efficient deployment of resources towards interventions appropriate for specific contexts and participants and which are most likely to yield positive results. This review responds to a call by Bailey, et al. (2015) to further knowledge around which engagement interventions are most effective and under which conditions. The literature clearly demonstrates the benefit of a qualitative exploration of how and why interventions work, which can allow, for instance, a more detailed exploration of study quality and degree of intervention implementation. Nielsen and Miraglia (2017) highlight how qualitative evaluations prevent erroneous conclusions from purely statistical evaluations, guide analysis of underlying mediators and moderators, and can investigate what kinds of intervention components work in different contexts, and why. For example, need satisfaction could be a mediator ...

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“…Thus, engagement has been characterised as a positive state of mind in the workplace, in which people are willing to invest a lot of effort in their tasks (vigor), feel inspired and enthusiastic (dedication), and be fully concentrated on what they are doing (absorption) (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004b). Regarding the antecedents of engagement, previous work has concluded that 48% of people's work engagement can be explained by personal traits (Young, Glerum, Wang, & Joseph, 2018), and the remaining causes can be explained by contextual factors such as job resources (Macey & Schneider, 2008). Nevertheless, unlike burnout, the relation between engagement and job demands is not as clear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

PhD supervisors and faculty members might help to avoid burnout as well as enhance engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among PhD students

Saavedra¹,

Ntontis²,

Kyprianides³

2019

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There has been increased interest in the wellbeing and mental health of postgraduate students in light of the recent portrayal of the academic career as overworked and isolated. Research points to PhD students as being particularly at risk, yet the factors that contribute to PhD students' compromised wellbeing are unclear. In this study (N = 392), we combine the social cure approach in social psychology with advances in organizational psychology to investigate potential predictors of work-related wellbeing and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among PhD students in the UK. In particular, we explore the relationships between social support, willingness to support others, clarity of role, group belonging, engagement, and burnout using structural equation modelling (SEM). Our results point to the importance of support provided by both the supervisor and faculty members in helping to avoid burnout and enhance engagement among students. We also found that students' identification with supervisors and faculty members together with clarity of role are positively associated with students' work-related well-being. Moreover, although particular processes differ for early vs. late stage PhD students, our findings suggest that support from faculty members is a key predictor of intentions to perform OCB. Thus, received support is positively related to performing OCB both directly and indirectly via a sense of identification with faculty members. We discuss the implications of our findings in relation to policies aiming at improving the well-being of PhD students.

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Who are the most engaged at work? A meta‐analysis of personality and employee engagement

Cited by 157 publications

References 115 publications

Taking Dogs Into the Office: A Novel Strategy for Promoting Work Engagement, Commitment and Quality of Life

Taking Dogs Into the Office: A Novel Strategy for Promoting Work Engagement, Commitment and Quality of Life

Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review

PhD supervisors and faculty members might help to avoid burnout as well as enhance engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among PhD students

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