Dedicated and engaged employees! What does it take to sustain work engagement in the everyday work life? A Qualitative study of a Finnish company
Oksanen, Johanna (2019)
Oksanen, Johanna
2019
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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121326599
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121326599
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this inductive qualitative research is to investigate what work engagement means in the everyday, what it takes, and what may come in its way in the everyday struggles and challenges. By displaying the available knowledge in comparison with nine selected employees’ opinions, this explorative research approach aims to identify the key job resources and job demands which work as indicators of work engagement in their daily job. The researcher applies a semi-structured interview analysis to retrieve rich data and capture the opinions of a small group of selected individuals that work for the company. The background knowledge and definitions of what work engagement exactly means are explained in detail as part of the theoretical framework. The history of the research of work engagement and the different definitions of it help to build a better understanding for the method, as well as the use of secondary data, which is extracted from peer-reviewed articles and scientific journals and other credible studies on the topic.
The results of the study suggest that work engagement increases by having a possibility for flexible work, mutual trust, social support, possibilities for personal development and by helping others. The hindering factors involve time pressure, distractions, negativity, and work-life imbalance. The study suggests that, once employees are able to make autonomous decisions, receive enough support, and have opportunities for personal development, they are more likely to reciprocate and perform their work with higher levels of engagement. The finding that job resources seem to nurture work engagement across time aligns well with theories that acknowledge job and personal resources or core self-evaluations as crucial determinants of employee well-being (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001). The empirical evidence of the negative relationship between the identified job demands and work engagement at hand is in line with those theories that job stress is caused by high job demands (e.g. work overload and time pressure) and low job control, i.e., the imbalance between job demands and control (Demerouti et. al, 2001).
The results of the study suggest that work engagement increases by having a possibility for flexible work, mutual trust, social support, possibilities for personal development and by helping others. The hindering factors involve time pressure, distractions, negativity, and work-life imbalance. The study suggests that, once employees are able to make autonomous decisions, receive enough support, and have opportunities for personal development, they are more likely to reciprocate and perform their work with higher levels of engagement. The finding that job resources seem to nurture work engagement across time aligns well with theories that acknowledge job and personal resources or core self-evaluations as crucial determinants of employee well-being (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001). The empirical evidence of the negative relationship between the identified job demands and work engagement at hand is in line with those theories that job stress is caused by high job demands (e.g. work overload and time pressure) and low job control, i.e., the imbalance between job demands and control (Demerouti et. al, 2001).