Work engagement among managers and professionals in Egypt

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine potential antecedents and consequences of work engagement in a sample of male and female managers and professionals employed in various organizations and industries in Egypt.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 242 respondents, a 48 percent response rate, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Engagement was assessed by three scales developed by Schaufeli et al.; vigor, dedication, and absorption. Antecedents included personal demographic and work situation characteristics as well as measures of need for achievement and workaholic behaviors; consequences included measures of work satisfaction and psychological well‐being.FindingsThe following results are observed. First, both need for achievement and one workaholic job behavior are found to predict all three engagement measures. Second, engagement, particularly dedication, predict various work outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, intent to quit). Third, engagement, again, particularly dedication, predicted various psychological well‐being outcomes but less strongly than these predicted work outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsQuestions of causality cannot be addressed since data were collected at only one‐point in time. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the effects of work life experiences on engagement.Practical implicationsOrganizations can increase levels of work engagement by creating supportive work experiences (e.g. control, rewards, and recognition) consistent with effective human resource management (HRM) practices. But caution must be exercised before employing North American practices in the Egyptian context.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the understanding of work engagement among managers and professionals and HRM more broadly in a large Muslim country.

Linking organizational trust with employee engagement: the role of psychological empowerment

“…Despite the fact that engagement has been linked to a wide range of positive job outcomes, fewer studies have been carried out on antecedents of engagement such as authentic leadership (e.g., Roux 2010), need for achievement (e.g., Burke & El-Kot, 2010), efficacy beliefs (e.g., Llorens, Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2007), organizational justice (e.g., Inoue et al, 2010), and organizational tenure (e.g., Burke, Koyuncu, Jing, & Fiksenbaum, 2009). Limited studies have focused on the contributing roles of organizational related variables, such as climate for trust, and personal variables, such as psychological empowerment on employee engagement, even when trust on the organization and empowerment have been found to be vital in many positive job attitudes (Fedor & Werther, 1996;Fukuyama, 1995;Shockley-Zalabak, Ellis, & Cesaria, 1999).…”

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“…However, according to gender role theory, when work conflicts with family, such a conflict is unlikely to cause males to change their attitude towards work (Grandey, Cordeiro, & Crouter, 2005;Baral & Bhargava, 2010). Males tend to feel less guilty conscious than females since the conflict they experience does not harm their social identity much, as a result of which their perception of WFC is different from that of females (Burke & El-Kot, 2010;Hassan, Dollard, & Winefield, 2010). Hence, the below stated hypothesis has been proposed within the scope of gender theory.…”

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