TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable employability and work engagement
T2 - a three-wave study
AU - Gürbüz, Sait
AU - Bakker, Arnold B.
AU - Demerouti, Evangelia
AU - Brouwers, Evelien P.M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Gürbüz, Bakker, Demerouti and Brouwers.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - capability approach
KW - job satisfaction
KW - sustainable employability
KW - task performance
KW - work engagement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85164402389&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1188728
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1188728
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85164402389
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 14
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 1188728
ER -