Absorption as Outcome: Differential Mediation Pathways in the Engagement–Performance–Burnout Network

Employee engagement is conventionally treated as a unitary predictor of workplace outcomes, yet its three components — vigor, dedication, and absorption — may function through distinct pathways. This paper presents two studies testing the hypothesis that absorption operates as an outcome of temporal-affective composition rather than a predictor in the conventional engagement model. Study 1 uses confirmatory factor analysis across two independent samples and 10 country-level datasets (combined N = 14,521) to establish structural equivalence, finding R² values of .840 and .796 for a model in which absorption is positioned as the dependent variable. Study 2 employs meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) to test differential mediation: absorption mediates the path to task performance (β = .235, p < .001) while contributing nothing to burnout (β = -.003, p = .895). A three-way dissociation emerges: performance through absorption, burnout through vigor and dedication, satisfaction through dedication. These findings suggest that the UWES-17 may be measuring a composed output rather than a unitary input, with implications for how engagement instruments are scored and interpreted.