Building and sustaining work engagement – a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff

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Date
2017-06-15Abstract
This study evaluated whether a participatory action research intervention with nursing staff on acute
care older people National Health Service wards in the United Kingdom was effective for increasing
work engagement. Mediation analyses between job resources (social support, influence in decisionmaking),
job demands, work-related needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), and work engagement
explored the presumed psychological mechanisms underlying the intervention. A non-randomized,
matched control group, pretest, post-test design involved three intervention and five control
wards. A significant decrease in relatedness, and a borderline significant decrease in competence, was
observed in the intervention group compared to the control group, with no effect on work engagement
(N = 45). Work-related needs mediated between resources and work engagement, supporting the job
demands-resources model and self-determination theory as an underlying explanatory theory.
Intervention implementation was difficult, highlighting the need for participant and organizational
readiness for change, and strong management support. This is the first known study to apply participatory
techniques to increase work engagement in nursing staff and explore the underlying explanatory
psychological mechanisms, offering a novel means of taking work engagement research forward.
Crucially, it highlights the challenges involved in intervention research and the importance of including
evaluations of intervention implementation alongside statistical evaluations to avoid erroneous conclusions
Description
Work undertaken with the University of Sheffield Institute of Work Psychology The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Citation : Knight, C., Patterson, M., Dawson, J. and Brown, J. (2017) Building and sustaining work engagement – a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26 (5), pp. 634-649
Research Group : Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre
Research Institute : Institute of Health, Health Policy and Social Care
Peer Reviewed : Yes