Key questions regarding work engagement

TLDR

Work engagement is defined as a positive, energetic, and dedicated state, with antecedents including individual traits, job characteristics, and social context, and its measurement distinguishes enduring from state engagement, highlighting management’s role in fostering an engagement climate. The authors propose ten key questions to guide future research and outline a research agenda for work engagement. The study constructs a research agenda by formulating ten key questions that delineate methodological and theoretical approaches to investigating engagement. Engaged employees sustain engagement through job crafting, while the article also addresses potential dark sides, health implications, and organizational interventions to boost engagement.

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of work engagement and summarizes research on its most important antecedents. The authors formulate 10 key questions and shape a research agenda for engagement. In addition to the conceptual development and measurement of enduring work engagement, the authors discuss the importance of state work engagement. Further, they argue that the social context is crucial and may set the stage for a climate for engagement with an important role for management. Engaged employees conserve their own engagement through a process of job crafting. After discussing possible dark sides of engagement and the relationship between engagement and health, the article closes with a discussion of organizational interventions to increase work engagement.