Do personal resources and strengths use increase work engagement? The effects of a training intervention.

This study uses a quasi-experimental research design to investigate whether a personal resources intervention combined with strengths use can increase work engagement. Following job demands–resources theory, we argue that when employees strengthen their beliefs regarding how much control they have over their environment (i.e., increase their personal resources) and use their character strengths, they will be more engaged at work. The intervention focused specifically on impacting assertiveness, self-efficacy, and resilience. We hypothesized that the intervention would increase work engagement through an increase in personal resources. Participants were all enrolled for a personal resources training and were assigned to training intervention groups (n = 54) or waiting-list control groups (n = 48). Results of multivariate analyses of variance supported our hypotheses that the intervention increased personal resources, strengths use, and work engagement. In addition, process analyses using a bootstrapping procedure showed that in the intervention group (not in the control group), the intervention had a positive impact on changes in work engagement through changes in self-efficacy and resilience. We discuss the implications of these findings for job demands–resources theory, as well as the practical implications.