Work Engagement Among Employees Facing Emotional Demands

This two-wave study examined work engagement as a function of personal resources and emotionally demanding conditions at work. We hypothesized that personal resources (self-efficacy and optimism) buffer the effect of emotional demands and emotion-rule dissonance on work engagement. Furthermore, we expected that emotional demands/dissonance boost the effect of personal resources on work engagement. One-hundred sixty-three employees, who provide service to customers, participated at both measurement times. Analyses supported (a) the buffering hypothesis, since emotional demands and dissonance related negatively to work engagement when self-efficacy – but not optimism – was low, and (b) the boosting hypothesis, since self-efficacy – but not optimism – related positively to engagement particularly when emotional demands and dissonance were high.