New theoretical article on leadership and engagement
Construct proliferation in the leadership field raises questions concerning parsimony and whether we should focus on joint mechanisms of leadership styles, rather than the differences between them. In this theoretical research article, we propose that positive leadership styles translate into similar leader behaviors on the work floor that influence employee work engagement through a number […]
New article on organizational change and work engagement
This multi-wave, multi-source study focuses on the benefits of work engagement for employee adaptation to organizational change. The change entailed the implementation of a flexible office design in an engineering firm, which caused radical change for employees. The hypothesized process was that initial employee meaning-making will facilitate work engagement, which, in turn, predicts supervisor-rated adaptive […]
New article on heavy work investment
The academic literature has drawn a clear distinction between a positive form (i.e., work engagement) and a negative form (i.e., workaholism) of heavy work investment (HWI). Nevertheless, the weight of individual and situational factors contributing to their development was not thoroughly explored. This study aims to investigate simultaneously the role of person factors (i.e., obsessive–compulsive […]
New article on engaging leadership
The current study investigates the mediating role of job resources (JRs) (i.e. person-job fit, value congruence, alignment, job control, use of skills, participation in decision-making, coworker support and performance feedback) and basic psychological need satisfaction at work (i.e. autonomy, relatedness, competence and meaningfulness) in the relationship between engaging leadership (EL) (i.e. inspiring, strengthening, empowering and […]
New publication on burnout and engagement among dental hygienists
This paper investigates the prevalence of burnout and work engagement among Dutch young and more experienced dental hygienists and the work experience of young professional dental hygienists. In Study I, 400 participants completed the Dutch version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory online, whereas in Study II, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was distributed via […]
New publication on work engagement and corporate purpose
It is generally assumed that a corporate purpose aiming to benefit all stakeholders has a positive effect on employee motivation and engagement, but so far no empirical evidence is lacking. To examine this assumption, a corporate mission and vision matching the definition of a higher purpose were tested in two subsequent studies. The first study […]
New publication on job crafting
Interest in job crafting as a means to create more work meaning has led to the development of multiperspective conceptualizations of job crafting. Although useful comprehensive portraits of complex job crafting activities have emerged, these synthetic conceptualizations tend to overlap, and are even inconsistent with each other. This study aimed to clarify these blurred conceptualizations […]
New publication on engaging leadeship
Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, the current study hypothesized that basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, competence) mediate the relationship between engaging leadership (i.e., strengthening, connecting and empowering) and both positive and negative outcomes. An association between need satisfaction and positive results and an association between need frustration and adverse outcomes were expected. Data from two […]
New publication on mental energy
Looking back at the end of my academic career, it looks like mental energy is still a hot topic in today’s research and practice in occupational health psychology, as it was a couple of decades ago. This applies particularly to burnout (low mental energy), but also to work engagement (high mental energy), which was introduced […]
New publication on need satisfaction, work engagement and workaholism
Drawing on Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory, this study examines longitudinally how need satisfaction at work affects four forms of intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation and two types of heavy work investment (workaholism and work engagement). Using two wave data from 314 Dutch employees, structural equation modeling supported our expectations that high need satisfaction was […]