Sustainable employability and work engagement: a three-wave study

Sait Gürbüz; Arnold B. Bakker; Evangelia Demerouti; Evelien P.M. Brouwers

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1188728

Sustainable employability and work engagement: a three-wave study

Sait Gürbüz (Corresponding author)
, Arnold B. Bakker
, Evangelia Demerouti
, Evelien P.M. Brouwers

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

99 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Introduction: The recent concept of sustainable employability (SE), which refers to being able and enabled to achieve valuable work goals, has lately attracted substantial attention in many developed countries. Although limited cross-sectional studies found that SE in the form of capability set was positively associated with work outcomes, why and through which mechanism SE is related to crucial work outcomes remains still unexplored. Therefore, the present three-wave study aimed to (1) investigate the SE-work outcomes linkage over time, and (2) uncover the psychological pathway between SE and two work outcomes (i.e., task performance and job satisfaction) by proposing work engagement as a mediator.

Methods: To test the mediation process, we approached CentERdata to collect data among a representative sample of 287 Dutch workers. We used a three-wave design with approximately a 2-month time lag.

Results: The results of bootstrap-based path modeling indicated that SE was a significant predictor of task performance but not job satisfaction over time. Work engagement mediated the relationships between SE and (a) task performance and (b) job satisfaction.

Discussion: These findings suggest that organizations may foster workers’ task performance and job satisfaction by configuring a work context that fosters SE–allowing workers to be able and be enabled to achieve important work goals.

Original language	English
Article number	1188728
Number of pages	12
Journal	Frontiers in Psychology
Volume	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1188728
Publication status	Published - 16 Jun 2023

Funding

We thank utilize the LISS panel data in the present research, which were gathered by CentERdata (Tilburg University), supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. For their financial assistance, we also thank the Tilburg University and Tilburg University Fund.

Funders
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Tilburg University

Keywords

capability approach
job satisfaction
sustainable employability
task performance
work engagement

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title = "Sustainable employability and work engagement: a three-wave study",

abstract = "Introduction: The recent concept of sustainable employability (SE), which refers to being able and enabled to achieve valuable work goals, has lately attracted substantial attention in many developed countries. Although limited cross-sectional studies found that SE in the form of capability set was positively associated with work outcomes, why and through which mechanism SE is related to crucial work outcomes remains still unexplored. Therefore, the present three-wave study aimed to (1) investigate the SE-work outcomes linkage over time, and (2) uncover the psychological pathway between SE and two work outcomes (i.e., task performance and job satisfaction) by proposing work engagement as a mediator. Methods: To test the mediation process, we approached CentERdata to collect data among a representative sample of 287 Dutch workers. We used a three-wave design with approximately a 2-month time lag. Results: The results of bootstrap-based path modeling indicated that SE was a significant predictor of task performance but not job satisfaction over time. Work engagement mediated the relationships between SE and (a) task performance and (b) job satisfaction. Discussion: These findings suggest that organizations may foster workers{\textquoteright} task performance and job satisfaction by configuring a work context that fosters SE–allowing workers to be able and be enabled to achieve important work goals.",

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Sustainable employability and work engagement: a three-wave study

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