The curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement: The role of psychological capital and sleep.

Abstract

The present study focuses on the fluctuation in work engagement by examining the relationship between daily time pressure and daily work engagement. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study also tests whether psychological capital and sleep moderate the influence of time pressure on work engagement. We conducted a diary study to gather 67 participants' data over 10 consecutive work days (502 daily measurement points), including their daily time pressure, work engagement, and sleep quality. Our results indicate that there is a curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement in the form of an inverted U-shape. If it was lower than the optimal level, daily time pressure as a challenging stressor positively predicted daily work engagement. Substantial time pressure impaired daily work engagement. In addition, the curvilinear relationship between daily time pressure and work engagement was attenuated as a function of increasing psychological capital or chronic sleep quality. Specifically, compared with low psychological capital or chronic sleep quality, excessive time pressure could also positively predict daily work engagement if psychological capital or chronic sleep quality was high. In addition, this study provided preliminary evidence that daily sleep quality may not be enough to buffer the curvilinear relation. Implications for research on daily work engagement and intervention programs are discussed.

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The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in the Organizational Climate and Work Engagement Relationship

“…al., 2007). Work engagement is related to employees' sense of well-being, a perfect state that allows them to experience positive emotions while at their workplace (Sheng et al, 2017). As a factor promoting employees' well-being, work engagement will be achieved if employees have adequate psychological resources, which will reduce the negative pressures of high job demands (Schaufeli, 2017).…”

“…Resilience is a capacity to rebound from failure, whereas optimism is a positive attribution of current and future conditions (Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017). Previous research by Sheng et al (2017) identified psychological capital as a psychological resource that has a significant impact on work engagement, and other studies have supported this conclusion with findings that high levels of psychological capital among employees engenders a more positive job performance. On the other hand, low levels of psychological capital will contribute to a negative job performance (Avey, Reichard, Luthans & Mhatre, 2011).…”

“…Job demand resources theory identifies two main factors affecting work engagement, namely job demands and job resources (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). Job demands consume job resources, including physical (e.g., career opportunities, work, role clarity, performance feedback, work environment and autonomy) and psychological resources (e.g., self-efficacy, self-esteem and optimism) (Sheng, Wang, Hong, Zhu & Zhang, 2017).…”

Relationship Between Psychological Empowerment and the Retention Intention of Kindergarten Teachers: A Chain Intermediary Effect Analysis

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