State work engagement and state affect: Similar yet distinct concepts

Positive Affect Predicts Turnover Intention Mediated by Online Work Engagement: A Perspective of R&D Professionals in the Information and Communication Technology Industry

Remote work has become the most popular approach during the COVID-19 lockdown; however, remote work engagement is an issue which creates challenges for human resource management. Some individuals engage in work no matter how difficult the job is, but some people's minds wander, no matter how simple the job is. To address this issue, this study drew on trait activation theory, which indicates that one's positive disposition may affect one's turnover intention mediated by work engagement, to formulate a research model to test the associations among R&D professionals. Questionnaires were distributed to R&D professionals working in China information and communication technology (ICT) through several Instant Message groups. In total, 386 valid questionnaires were collected for confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling to verify the research model. The study found that positive affect can positively predict three types of remote work engagement: the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement of R&D personnel. All three types of remote work engagement of R&D personnel can negatively predict their turnover intention. The results suggest that if human resource managers working in the ICT industry want to reduce the turnover intention rate of R&D workers under pressure from COVID-19, they should enhance workers' remote engagement by selecting R&D workers with a high level of positive affect.

Critical reflection, unlearning, and engagement

Although individual unlearning is believed to play a critical role in promoting higher-order learning, there has been little quantitative research on this process. This article aimed to investigate the antecedents and consequences of individual unlearning based on transformative learning theory. A survey was conducted among 301 employees working in various occupations and organizations in the United States. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that unlearning mediated the relationship between critical reflection and work engagement and that critical reflection mediated reflection and unlearning. This study contributes to the literature by quantitatively demonstrating the direct and indirect influences of critical reflection on work engagement through individual unlearning, which has been discussed only conceptually and qualitatively in the extant transformative learning literature.

Can Work Engagement Be a Resource for Reducing Workaholism's Undesirable Outcomes? A Multiple Mediating Model Including Moderated Mediation Analysis

This study aimed to explore a possible process explaining the relationship between workaholism and sleep disorders, including two mediators: work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, since a possible buffering role of work engagement was recently proposed against the detrimental effects of workaholism, the aim was to examine the moderating role of work engagement in the relationship between workaholism and several outcomes such as work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and sleep disorders. Two models were tested using conditional process analysis for testing direct and indirect effects on a sample of 395 employees: (1) a serial multiple mediation model, and (2) the same serial multiple mediation model including the moderating role of work engagement. Results showed a significant mediating effect of both work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, work engagement moderated the relationship between workaholism and work-family conflict and the relationship between workaholism and emotional exhaustion. This work contributes to the understanding of the process underlying the relationship between workaholism and sleep disorders and to the literature reporting the possible protective role of work engagement on the negative outcomes of workaholism. Practical implications are also discussed.

Validating Psychometric Questionnaires Using Experience-Sampling Data: The Case of Nightmare Distress

Nightmares are a comparatively frequent phenomenon. They are often accompanied by emotional distress and gain clinical relevance when recurrent. To assess how much distress nightmares cause the individual, the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire (NDQ, Belicki, 1992) is probably the most often used measure. However, its validity is still disputed. To analyze the validity of the proposed three NDQ subscales in more detail, we conducted an experience sampling study, gathering data either in real-time or short retrospective timeframes over the course of 22 days twice per day (N = 92 participants). The measurements were implemented via a mobile app using participants’ own smartphones. Besides the dream quality, we assessed concepts on a daily basis that past research found to be related to dreams. These included critical life events, alcohol consumption, eating behavior, and well-being. We found that only the subscales “general nightmare distress” and “impact on sleep” showed convergent as well as divergent validity. The validity of the subscale “impact on daily reality perception” is unclear. If at all, this subscale is rather indirectly associated with nightmare distress. Furthermore, all of the NDQ items did not differentiate between a bad dream and a nightmare, which suggests that the NDQ might rather be a measure of negative dreams in general and not nightmares in particular. Based on the present experience sampling design, we propose to advance the validation process by further possibilities, such as an item-level, person-level, and multi-level approach. This approach seems to be especially fruitful for concepts which are not very salient (e.g., laughter), can hardly be remembered retrospectively (e.g., dream content), or are potentially threatened by recall biases (e.g., alcohol consumption).