Three essays on social resources and work engagement : examining the role of gratitude and promotion focus

• Main Author: Verma, Kapil
• Other Authors: Yu Kang Yang, Trevor
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management::Organizational behavior
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105867; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47882
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The motivational effect of social job resources is well established. Yet we know little about the causal mechanisms or the boundary conditions of the association between these resources and work engagement. In this dissertation, I integrate the social exchange theory with research on discrete emotions to investigate why and for whom social resources have a positive influence on work engagement. In the first essay, I present a qualitative review of the work engagement literature. Through the review, I identify the important gaps that need to be addressed to improve our understanding of the ways in which organizations can improve engagement levels. At the end of this essay, I present a framework that can help us better understand the emotional mechanisms and the boundary conditions of the relationship between job resources and work engagement. In the second essay, I study the association between a key social resource, the social aspect of justice i.e. interactional justice, and work engagement. Using the social exchange theory, I posit that interactional justice impacts work engagement via the emotion of gratitude, and this mediated relationship is significant only for low promotion focus individuals. The hypothesized model of relationships is tested in a two-wave study by recruiting 241 full-time working professionals. Results show that after controlling for work engagement at time 1, interactional justice has indirect effects on work engagement at time 2 via gratitude. Moreover, these mediation effects remain significant even when testing for simultaneous mediation by gratitude and LMX. Results of the moderated-mediation hypothesis indicate that the indirect effects of interactional justice via gratitude were significant only for low promotion focus individuals. In the third essay, I provide a robust test of the effects of social resources, as I examine the relationships between social support at work and task interdependence, and state work engagement. I hypothesize that state gratitude is the emotional mechanism through which these resources affect daily engagement levels, and trait promotion focus can moderate these mediated relationships. A dairy study conducted over five consecutive working days with two measurement occasions per day (N = 116 employees) provides support for most of the hypotheses. Results indicate that at the within-individual level, previous day’s social support at work affects current day’s work engagement via current day’s morning’s gratitude. Task interdependence also predicts work engagement through state gratitude, and this mediated relationship is significant only for employees with low promotion focus. These results provide fresh insights on why and for whom social job resources have a positive influence on work engagement.