A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate and its relationship with extra‐role performance behaviors

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2037
• Author: Itzhak Harpaz,Liat Eldor
• Published date: 01 February 2016
• Date: 01 February 2016

A process model of employee engagement: The

learning climate and its relationship with extra-role

performance behaviors

LIAT ELDOR

1

*AND ITZHAK HARPAZ

2

1

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.,

2

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel,

Summary Employee engagement has recently been introduced as a concept advantageous to organizations. However,

little is known about the value of employee engagement in explaining work performance behaviors compared

with similar concepts. The learning climate, defined as the organization’s beneficial activities in helping

employees create, acquire, and transfer knowledge, has also been proposed as an antecedent of employee

engagement. Using data from a sample of 625 employees and their supervisors in various occupations and

organizations throughout Israel, we investigated employee engagement as a key mechanism for explaining

the relationship between perceptions of the organization’s learning climate and employees’proactivity,

knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity. We also tested whether employee engagement explained the

relationship more thoroughly than similar concepts such as job satisfaction and job involvement. Multilevel

regression analyses supported our hypotheses that employee engagement mediates the relationship between

the perceived learning climate and these extra-role behaviors. Moreover, engagement provides a more

thorough explanation than job satisfaction or job involvement for these relationships. The implications for

organizational theory, research, and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: employee engagement; the employee–organization relationship; discriminant validity; organizational

climate; proactivity

Introduction

The changing nature of work and the dynamic reality of organizations have challenged the traditional view of

employees’performance. Given that competitiveness, rapid innovation, and continuous change have come to

dominate the current market, the focus has shifted from employees’proficiency to their ability to adapt to new

organizational challenges (Griffin, Neal & Parker, 2007). The constantly changing environment and fast-paced

nature of modern work are also challenging the classical view of the employee–organization relationship,

particularly regarding the level of activity expected from employees (Frese, 2008) and the need to achieve more

with less (Masson, Royal, Agnew, & Fine, 2008). As a result, the concept of employee engagement, characterized

by high energy and deep dedication, has been introduced into the literature as a potentially optimal means of

redefining the employee–organization relationship (e.g., Bakker, Albrecht & Leiter, 2011; Vigoda-Gadot, Eldor &

Schohat, 2013).

Clearly, the apparent desirability of engaged employees in their work should lead scholars to try to determine the

mutually beneficial resources that reinforce employees’engagement (Macey & Schneider, 2008). Accordingly, this

study focuses on the learning climate in the workplace as a resource that enhances employees’engagement. We

focus on this organizational resource because it has been associated with two emerging organizational phenomena:

*Correspondence to: Liat Eldor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. E-mail: leldor@wharton.

upenn.edu

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 09 October 2014

Revised 24 May 2015, Accepted 29 May 2015

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 213–235 (2016)

Published online 18 September 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2037

Research Article

the growing importance for employees of having ongoing learning opportunities in their workplace and the growing

trend of self-molded careers (Baruch, 2006; Ng, Eby, Sorensen & Feldman, 2005). Moreover, the literature

increasingly views the learning climate as a key element in providing organizations with an advantage and as a

currency for employees’effectiveness (e.g., Ellinger & Cseh, 2007; Marsick, 2009). Still, to the best of our

knowledge, insufficient attention has been paid to the link between the perceived learning climate and employee

engagement. This omission is quite surprising considering that personal fulfillment is the essence of the concept

of engagement (Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma & Bakker, 2002).

Furthermore, although scholars have argued that engagement as a motivational concept leads to a high level of

employee effectiveness, very little is known about how employee engagement is associated with desirable and

extra-role behaviors such as proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity (Bakker & Xanthopoulou,

2013; Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010; Macey & Schneider, 2008; Rothbard & Patil, 2010). Determining the

relationship between these factors is essential in providing organizations with a competitive edge and helping them

retain good employees (Griffin et al., 2007).

Accordingly, this study investigates whether employee engagement mediates the relationships between the

perceived learning climate and behaviors such as proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity.

Moreover, given the somewhat limited conclusions about the added value of the employee engagement concept

compared with similar concepts about the employee–organization relationship in predicting performance (e.g.,

Newman, Joseph & Hulin, 2010), this study also investigates the mediating role of engagement compared with

similar concepts such as job satisfaction and job involvement in these relationships.

Theoretical Conceptualization and Hypotheses

Employee engagement

Kahn (1990) originally defined employee engagement as “the simultaneous employment and expression of a

person’s preferred self in task behaviors that promote connections to work, personal presence (physical, cognitive,

and emotional) and active full performances”(p. 700). Drawing from Kahn’s engagement conceptual framework,

Macey and Schneider (2008) offer a theoretical taxonomy of employee engagement, proposing engagement as an

aggregate, multidimensional construct embracing three different types of engagement: trait,state, and behavioral.

Each of these types of engagement builds on the preceding one, eventually leading to complete engagement. In this

study, employee engagement is treated as a motivational concept in line with the approach of Schaufeli et al. (2002).

Accordingly, employee engagement is defined as “…a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is

characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption”(p. 74). Vigor refers to high levels of energy and willingness

to invest effort in one’s work. Dedication means being deeply involved in one’s work and experiencing a sense

of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge. The third component, absorption, involves full

concentration on one’s work, to the point of experiencing time as passing quickly and difficulty in detaching oneself

from work (Schaufeli et al., 2002). In sum, employee engagement is an active, motivational, fulfilling concept that

reflects the simultaneous expression of multiple investments of physical, affective, and cognitive resources in work.

We argue that focusing on employee engagement may be advantageous for organizations and also beneficial to

employees in terms of personal flourishing and growth. Figure 1 illustrates one approach to the study of employee

engagement.

At the heart of the model lies the assumption that employee engagement has an immediate effect on extra-role

performance such as proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity. The model also examines employee

engagement as a mediator in the relationship between the perceived learning climate and these extra-role behaviors.

The rationale for this process model rests on several resource theories such as the job demands and resources model

(Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001), the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001, 2003), and

214 L. ELDOR AND I. HARPAZ

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 213–235 (2016)

DOI: 10.1002/job