Work engagement: a practical measure for workplace health promotion?

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether psychological job demands, personal control and social support affect the negative health measure of depression differently than the positive measure of work engagement and to investigate whether work engagement mediates the effects of job demands and resources on the level of depression. We discuss the implications of using engagement as an outcome measure in workplace health promotion. We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire study among a general working population in Norway (n = 605). In the multivariate analysis, high psychological job demands as well as high control and social support correlated significantly with high work engagement. High demands as well as low control and social support correlated significantly with high levels of depression. When we included engagement as an independent variable together with demands, control and social support in the multivariate analysis, the positive correlation between demands and depression remained as well as the significant correlations between the level of depression and control and social support became non-significant. This indicates that engagement mediates the effects of control and social support on the level of depression. Encouraging enterprises to improve engagement in addition to focusing on preventing diseases may be worthwhile in workplace health promotion. Promoting engagement may have more positive organizational effects than a more traditional disease prevention focus, because engagement is contagious and closely related to good work performance and motivation.

Do we all agree on how to measure work engagement? Factorial validity of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale as a standard measurement tool – A literature review

“…Work engagement, as opposed to burnout, is an emerging concept in contemporary occupational health science and promotion of work engagement may lead to greater improvement in work performance than the traditional sole focus on disease prevention [1]. The concept of employee engagement represents a new approach to occupational health in which researchers are not only interested in what the causes of work related diseases are but also why people stay healthy and flourishing in a workplace [2].…”

The Application of Salutogenesis to Work

“…A study among a general working population in Norway, Torp, Grimsmo, Hagen, Duran, and Gudbergsson (2013) first investigated whether psychological job demands, personal control, and social support affect the negative health measure of depression differently than the positive measure of work engagement. The study showed that high control and social support were associated with a low score on depression and a high score on engagement.…”

Is there a case for mental health promotion in the primary care setting? A systematic review

“…The effectiveness of MHP interventions has been well documented in school settings (Barry et al, 2013;Evans et al, 2005;Franze, 2004;Michaelsen-Gartner and Witteriede, 2009;Mishara and Ystgaard, 2006;Roberts et al, 2003;Weare and Nind, 2011), at the workplace (Czabala et al, 2011;Lerner et al, 2013;Mattke and Van Busum, 2013;Patel et al, 2013;Sun et al, 2013;Torp et al, 2013;Tsutsumi et al, 2009), and in community centers serving older adults (Chapin et al, 2013;Forsman et al, 2011;Ichida et al, 2013). This is in line with the results of a recent systematic review (Mcdaid and Park, 2011) and a report presenting different economic models for mental health promotion and prevention (Knapp et al, 2011).…”