Job Resources as Antecedents of Engagement at Work: Evidence From a Long‐Term Care Setting

• Published date: 01 June 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21189
• Date: 01 June 2014
• Author: Daria Sarti

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 25, no. 2, Summer 2014 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21189 213

Job Resources as Antecedents

of Engagement at Work: Evidence

From a Long-Term Care Setting

Daria Sarti

How to improve employees’ work engagement currently represents one of

the most important areas of concern for organizations. Within the broader

research fi eld on work engagement and its antecedents, this study analyzes

one specifi c aspect: the role of job resources in determining employees’

engagement at work. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was

performed, along with a basic descriptive analysis, to examine a sample

of 167 caregivers (registered nurses, nurse managers, home helpers,

nurse’s aides, and certifi ed nursing assistants) in nine long-term care

(LTC) facilities in Italy. The results suggest that work engagement among

caregivers in the LTC sector is signifi cantly infl uenced by job resources. In

particular, greater learning opportunities have direct effects on increasing

work engagement among health-care service employees. Furthermore,

coworker support and supervisor support also play a statistically signifi cant

positive role in stimulating work engagement.

Key Words: work engagement, job resources, caregivers, long-term care

sector, learning opportunities, coworker support, supervisor support

Introduction

The long-term care (LTC) sector is recognized as an important part of the

socio-health system and has strong development potential. This sector has

undergone rapid growth in recent years in the member countries of the

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In addi-

tion, further increases in the demand for LTC services are expected over the

next decade (Simonazzi, 2009).

214 Sarti

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

The increase in the number of people living in long-term care institutions,

together with pressing fiscal constraints, is causing additional tensions

in the nursing workforce (Kovner, Jones, Zhan, Gergen, & Basu, 2002), a

group that is already suffering high levels of job stress, fatigue, and burnout.

Furthermore, most of these organizational settings are currently experiencing

diffi culties in recruiting and retaining a well-suited, qualifi ed nursing staff

(Al-Hussami, 2008; Kloster, Høie, & Skår, 2007). This sector is moreover

undergoing radical changes due to the increasing level of competition

(Salamon & Dewees, 2002), the rationalization and disinvestments made

by the welfare state organizations in many countries, and growing concern

over service quality and the need for a balanced trade-off between quality and

effi ciency in health care (Navarro-Espigares & Hernandez Torres, 2011).

Health care organizations provide a complex service. The human

component in providing such service is represented by both the specific

caregiving skills and the relational attitudes of the personnel, which makes

the quality of service highly dependent on the quality and intensity of work

and on the attitudes and behaviors of the caregivers. Within this sector in

particular, individual performance at work is perceived as being strongly

linked to the intrinsic and relational aspects of job satisfaction and workforce

characteristics such as altruism and selfl essness. For this type of workforce,

traditional economic incentives could very well be ineffective (Mauno,

Kinnunen, & Ruokolainen, 2007).

Multiple factors have been shown to affect caregivers’ attitudes and

behaviors toward their organization. Among these factors, empirical

analyses have been conducted that examine the importance of job resources

as determinants of work engagement (Salanova, Agut, & Peirò, 2005;

Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009). Job resources are

considered to be job-specifi c features that enable individuals to achieve the

objectives of their role and reduce the psychological impact arising from job

demands (e.g., emotional and physical workload).

Previous studies in various settings have analyzed job resources and

shown them to have a considerable infl uence on employees’ work engagement

(e.g., Bakker, Hakanen, Demerouti, & Xanthopoulou, 2007; Schaufeli &

Bakker, 2004; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009). However, only a few studies have

investigated this relationship with regard to nurses, and these have been

limited to a small number of job resources (Mauno et al., 2007; Othman &

Mohd Nasurdin, 2013).

Furthermore, interesting differences have been revealed between LTC and

other settings, such as acute care. In LTC organizations, current practice is to

provide care that is evidence based and specialized for individual needs. Work

schedules are fl exible and less busy as compared to other health care settings

such as general hospitals. Furthermore, people working in nursing homes

have been found to perceive fewer work stressors than those operating in acute

care settings (Barba, Hu, & Efi rd, 2012). Previous studies have demonstrated