Today.Az » Weird / Interesting » Work engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity: They're a virtuous cycle
21 July 2011 [19:51] - Today.Az
Engaged workers -- those who approach their work with energy, dedication, and focus -- are more open to new information, more productive, and more willing to go the extra mile. Moreover, engaged workers take the initiative to change their work environments in order to stay engaged.
What do we know about the inner workings of work engagement, and how
can employers enhance it to improve job performance? In a new article to
be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science ,
a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Arnold B.
Bakker creates a model of work engagement based on the best current
research.
Work engagement depends on two kinds of resources, says Bakker, a
psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Job
resources include social support, feedback, and opportunities for
autonomy, variety, and growth. Such resources are good for the worker --
they satisfy basic human needs -- and good for the workplace, because
when job resources are rich, work gets done more quickly and with better
results. The process, moreover, is cyclical. Working better is more
rewarding for the worker, which in turn increases her engagement and
effectiveness.
Interestingly, engagement -- and high-quality performance -- is
greatest when the demands of the job are highest. This principle applies
even to what we think of as low-level jobs, such as those at a
fast-food restaurant.
Employees' own personal resources -- such as self-esteem and optimism
-- also contribute to work engagement. Not only do workers with
abundant personal resources approach their jobs with more enthusiasm and
joy; they also tend to be in better health, allowing them to focus and
work hard. They tend as well to create more of all these goodies for
themselves through "job-crafting," seeking ways to make their
responsibilities "fit" their talents and interests and to increase
challenge. Again, the process is an upward spiral. Job crafters gain
admiration from other workers, thus transferring their attitudes to
them. Those more productive attitudes increase the other workers'
engagement and with it, their own productivity and personal reward.
Of course, says Bakker, work engagement differs from person to
person, which helps account for the fact that some are leaders and
others are followers. For each person, engagement also ebbs and flows
from day to day, even hour to hour.
Indeed, no one should expect to feel, or be expected to exhibit, peak
engagement every second of the workday. Sometimes work is tedious;
employees need to be able to tolerate that. Nor should they be held to
impossible standards. Down time, says Bakker, is not only a mark of
sympathetic management. It helps renew workers, keeping them happy,
productive -- and engaged. /Science Daily/
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