timms, presentation icap 16#2
TRANSCRIPT
Predicting work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological strain over
time: Organizational support, hindrance and work-
life balance
Carolyn Timms and Paula Brough
Griffith University
Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs)
• Include Flexi-time, Compressed working week, Telecommuting and Part-time work.
• These policies are often written into official company policy to demonstrate that the organisation is sensitive to employees’ needs
• However take-up of policies by employees depends on organisational culture: supporting or hindering.
Measures• Flexible work arrangements 4 items (Allen,2001) –
can be recoded to availability and use• 11 items from Dikkers et al. (2004)
– Organisational support (4 items)– Supervisor Support (4 items)
• From O’Driscoll (2000)
– Time expectations (4 items)– Negative career consequences (3 items)
Hindrance
Support
Dependent Variables
• Work Engagement 9 items (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003).
• Anxiety/Depression (4 items) from the GHQ (Goldberg, (1972)
• Turnover Intentions (3 items) from Brough and Frame (2004)
Hypotheses• H1. Hindering organisational culture will be adversely
associated with use of FWAs and the key variables of work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological strain.
• H2. Supportive organisational culture will demonstrate positive associations with use of FWAs and work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological strain.
A third Hypothesis
• First phase of the research took place before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the second took place after this event. It was associated with a downturn in employment, consumer confidence and job insecurity.
• H3. It is expected that employees will report lower work engagement, lower turnover intentions and more psychological strain over time.
Participants• 823 Australian respondents T1 and T2, investigated at
a 12 month interval.• 593 (72%) female and 230 (28%) male. • 351 (43%) single, 472 (57%) had dependents and/or
were married• 352 (43%) had university or college degree.• 613 (75%) worked full time and 210 worked part time • Mean tenure = 11 yrs (SD = 9.53)
Control variables
• Gender
• Age
• Marital status and/or dependents
• For longitudinal analyses equivalent T1 criterion variables were controlled
Time Expectations
Supervisor Support
Use of FWAs
Work Engagement
Cross-sectional findingswork engagement
Negative Career Consequences
ns
ns
.13
.16
ns
R2=.12Δ R2 =.07***
F(8, 786) = 14.89, p < .001
Organisational Support
Supervisor Support
Organisational Support
Time Demands
Supervisor Support
Work Engagement T2
Longitudinal findingswork engagement
Negative Career Consequences
ns
-.17
R2=.47Δ R2 =.03***
F(9, 785) = 77.60, p<.001
Organisational Support
Work Engagement T1
Use of FWAs.63
nsns
.63
-.17
ns
Work Engagement T1
Use of FWAs
Time Expectations
Supervisor Support
Turnover intentions T2
Longitudinal findingsTurnover Intentions
Negative Career Consequences
.12
ns
R2=.31Δ R2 =.02***
F(9, 779) = 39.91, p<.001
Organisational Support
Turnover intentions T1
Use of FWAs.63
nsns
.63
.12
ns
Turnover intentions T1
Time Expectations
Time Expectations
Supervisor Support
Anxiety/DepressionT2
Longitudinal findingsAnxiety/Depression
Negative Career Consequences
ns
.08
R2=.26Δ R2 =.03***
F(9, 778) = 30.94, p<.001
Organisational Support
Anxiety/ Depression T1
Use of FWAs.42
nsns
.42
.08
ns
Anxiety/ Depression T1
Use of FWAs
Findings:
At T2 respondents reported:
• Higher levels of work engagement
• More awareness of availability of FWAs
• Reduced use of FWAs.
Findings
• Turnover intentions T2 were associated with being single and organisational time expectations.
• Psychological Strain T2 -biggest predictor was psychological strain at T1, and using FWAs at time 1.
• Work engagement T2 was predicted by being married and/or having children at Time 1.
-non-use of FWAs at Time 1 was a significant predictor of work engagement at Time 2
Implications: organisational• This research demonstrates that formal and informal
processes work together. • Employees need psychological safety to make use of
company policies• Employers need to think through how judgments are
made about employees’ commitment to the organisation• Supervisory personnel need to be educated as to the
efficacious nature of FWAs in allowing talented personnel to continue working in the face of complex personal circumstances.
Implications: Theoretical
This research was conducted during difficult economic times when it was expected that work engagement would decline. However work engagement rose during the course of the research.
• Organisations might more conscious of communicating strategies during tough economic times – this would contribute to work engagement.
Conclusions• FWAs are often provided in order to accommodate
conflicting needs of employees:• However, it is also tacitly understood by workers that the
actual use of the FWAs will undermine their ability to progress their career and could influence their job security
• It is therefore suggested that individual employees might be obliged to use FWAs as a ‘trade-off’ in full knowledge that this will be damaging to their career prospects
• It follows that this would well be deleterious to their engagement with their work
Thank you!