Rested, friendly, and engaged: The role of daily positive collegial interactions at work

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2197
• Author: Gordon W. Cheung,Helena D. Cooper‐Thomas,Eva Garrosa,Ana I. Sanz‐Vergel,Eugenia McGrath
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Rested, friendly, and engaged: The role of daily positive collegial

interactions at work

Eugenia McGrath

1

|Helena D. Cooper‐Thomas

2

|Eva Garrosa

3

|

Ana I. Sanz‐Vergel

4

|Gordon W. Cheung

5

1

School of Psychology, The University of

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

2

Management Department, Auckland

University of Technology, Auckland, New

Zealand

3

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid,

Spain

4

Norwich Business School, University of East

Anglia, Norwich, U.K.

5

Department of Management and

International Business, The University of

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Correspondence

Eugenia McGrath, School of Psychology, The

University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019,

Auckland 1142, New Zealand.

Email: e.mcgrath@auckland.ac.nz

Summary

This diary study examined within‐person effects of positive work and off‐work experiences on

daily work engagement. Assessing the gain cycle assumption of conservation of resources theory,

we investigated the relationship of nighttime recovery experiences and subsequent resources

including elevated sleep quality and morning positive affect; the relationship of morning positive

affect with positive collegial interactions and subsequent work engagement; and the relationship

of work engagement with nighttime recovery experiences. Sixty‐nine employees completed 3

daily questionnaires over 5 consecutive working days. Multilevel analyses revealed that sleep

quality positively predicted morning positive affect, which in turn predicted work engagement

directly and also indirectly through having positive interactions with colleagues. Work engage-

ment positively predicted nighttime recovery experiences, whereas nighttime recovery

experiences were not related to sleep quality or morning positive affect the next day. Overall,

on days after a good night's sleep, individuals feel more positive, bring this positivity to their

workplace, reach out to their workplace colleagues, and are in turn more likely to be engaged

in their work. Additionally, on days when individuals experience higher levels of positive collegial

interactions at work and in turn higher work engagement, they are likely to enjoy better recovery

experiences.

KEYWORDS

recovery, resources, sleep, work engagement,work relationships

1|INTRODUCTION

In today's volatile economic environment, organizations seek a

competitive advantage via employees, and work engagement is cen-

tral to this. Defined as “a positive, fulfilling work‐related state of

mind”(p. 74), engaged employees are energetic and resilient in the

face of work‐related obstacles; are enthusiastic about their work;

and fully concentrate on their work (Schaufeli, Salanova, González‐

Romá, & Bakker, 2002). Engagement has been linked to improved

customer satisfaction and financial returns at the organizational level,

and job performance and well‐being at the employee level (Hakanen

& Schaufeli, 2012; Salanova, Agut, & Peiró, 2005; Xanthopoulou,

Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009b).

Due to the benefits of engagement, research has focused on iden-

tifying factors that foster engagement (Garrosa, Moreno‐Jiménez,

Rodríguez‐Muñoz, & Rodríguez‐Carvajal, 2011). Recovery experiences

(i.e., activities that enable people to feel re‐energized) are a potential

resource predicting engagement and—although there is an established

reciprocal relationship between recovery and engagement (Sonnentag,

2003; Sonnentag, Mojza, Demerouti, & Bakker, 2012)—the role of

recovery experiences as antecedents and consequences of engage-

ment is yet to be examined. We address this gap by proposing an inter-

personal mechanism explaining this relationship. To do so, on the basis

of conservation of resources (COR; Hobfoll, 1989, 2002) and broaden‐

and‐build (B&B) theories (Fredrickson, 2004), we first identify the con-

ditions leading to positive interactions (i.e., previous night's recovery

experiences, sleep quality, and morning positive affect [PA]) and then

analyze whether PA may increase willingness to approach others. This

in turn generates energizing resources, increasing work engagement

levels reported in the evening. We close the cycle by analyzing the

mediating effect of engagement on the relationship between positive

interactions with colleagues and recovery experiences after work.

This study contributes to extant research in four ways. First,

drawing on COR (Hobfoll, 1989, 2002) and B&B theories (Fredrickson,

Received: 17 October 2014 Revised: 30 January 2017 Accepted: 20 March 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2197

J Organ Behav. 2017;38:1213–1226. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 1213