Individual and group‐level job resources and their relationships with individual work engagement

Abstract

Objectives: This study adds a multilevel perspective to the well-researched individual-level relationship between job resources and work engagement. In addition, we explored whether individual job resources cluster within work groups because of a shared psychosocial environment and investigated whether a resource-rich psychosocial work group environment is beneficial for employee engagement over and above the beneficial effect of individual job resources and independent of their variability within groups. Methods: Data of 1,219 employees nested in 103 work groups were obtained from a baseline employee survey of a large stress management intervention project implemented in six medium and large-sized organizations in diverse sectors. A variety of important job resources were assessed and grouped to an overall job resource factor with three subfactors (manager behavior, peer behavior, and task-related resources). Data were analyzed using multilevel random coefficient modeling. Results: The results indicated that job resources cluster within work groups and can be aggregated to a group-level job resources construct. However, a resource-rich environment, indicated by high group-level job resources, did not additionally benefit employee work engagement but on the contrary, was negatively related to it. Conclusions: On the basis of this unexpected result, replication studies are encouraged and suggestions for future studies on possible underlying within-group processes are discussed. The study supports the presumed value of integrating work group as a relevant psychosocial environment into the motivational process and indicates a need to further investigate emergent processes involved in aggregation procedures across levels.

Estresse Ocupacional Na Mídia Impressa: Uma Perspectiva De Christophe Dejours

“…As relações interprofissionais, entre os pares, contistuem-se em outros agravantes quando essas relações se tornam imprudentes, baseadas em fracos relacionamentos entre colegas, em especial quando há intimidação, violência e assédio, ou mesmo nos casos em que uma determinada ocupação, ao contrário, dá-se em um ambiente isolado e solitário. Os ambientes relacionais hostis tendem a ter mais problemas de saúde, mesmo que os recursos materiais sejam ideais (Dejours, 1992;Schyns e Van Veldhoven 2010;Füllemann et al, 2016). Os trechos a seguir são representativos dessa classificação:…”

Challenged by Great Expectations? Examining Cross-Level Moderations and Curvilinearity in the Public Sector Job Demands–Resources Model

“…Our findings also demonstrate a cross-level moderation of individual expected contributions and team-level developmental rewards. Not only does this observation illustrate that job demands and job resources can engage in moderating effects, but also that they can operate at different levels of analysis (Bakker & Demerouti, 2018;Füllemann et al, 2016;Schaufeli et al, 2014). This might be particularly relevant in public organizations, where the distribution of material and immaterial resources is rather more constrained and less tailored to the individual (Brewer & Walker, 2013).…”

“…To obtain team-level developmental rewards, we aggregated individual perceptions to the team level. The theoretical reason for aggregation is that job resources tend to nest at the team level, since team members share the structural, social, and other contextual resources that affect the distribution of such resources (Füllemann et al, 2016). The lecturers within a teaching team shared the same leader (i.e., program coordinator) and leaders play an important role in shaping job demands and job resources (Schaufeli, 2015).…”

“…Second, job characteristics can be located at different levels of analysis (Bakker, 2015; Schaufeli et al, 2014). Job resources are more likely to follow a nested structure because employees within the same organizational unit or segment share the same structural, social, and contextual factors that shape the distribution of resources (Füllemann et al, 2016). A multilevel structure of job resources fits the context of public organizations because possibilities for differential rewards are more constrained, formalized, and less individualized (Brewer & Walker, 2013).…”

“…First, contemporary studies suggest job resources could buffer the effects of job demands (Schaufeli et al, 2014). Moreover, job resources are considered to be more homogeneous between employees belonging to a similar organizational unit or segment (i.e., team or department) because those employees share contextual and structural factors that shape the distribution of such resources (Füllemann, Brauchli, Jenny, & Bauer, 2016). We argue this is particularly relevant in public organizations, where resources are more constrained and less individualized in their distribution (Brewer & Walker, 2013).…”