Daily Fluctuations in Work Engagement: An Overview and Current Directions
Abstract
This article presents an overview of the literature on daily fluctuations in work engagement. Daily work engagement is a state of vigor, dedication, and absorption that is predictive of important organizational outcomes, including job performance. After briefly discussing enduring work engagement, the advantages of diary research are discussed, as well as the concept and measurement of daily work engagement. The research evidence shows that fluctuations in work engagement are a function of the changes in daily job and personal resources. Particularly on the days that employees have access to many resources, they are able to cope well with their daily job demands (e.g., work pressure, negative events), and likely interpret these demands as challenges. Furthermore, the literature review shows that on the days employees have sufficient levels of job control, they proactively try to optimize their work environment in order to stay engaged. This proactive behavior is called job crafting and predicts momentary and daily work engagement. An important additional finding is that daily engagement has a reciprocal relationship with daily recovery. On the days employees recover well, they feel more engaged; and engagement during the day is predictive of subsequent recovery. Finding the daily balance between engagement while at work and detachment while at home seems the key to enduring work engagement.
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People differ as to what resources are valued most and to the extent that demands are challenging or hindering.
“People then differ as to what resources are valued most and to the extent that demands are challenging or hindering (Bakker 2014).”
From Work engagement in health professions education (2017) · cites this paper as Bakker 2014
Demands may turn into challenges when resources are high, which leads to positive short-term effects on work engagement.
“In particular, demands may turn into challenges when resources are high (Petrou et al. 2012; Bakker 2014) which leads to positive short-term effects on work engagement.”
From Work engagement in health professions education (2017) · cites this paper as Bakker 2014
The questionnaire can be administered to assess a longer period of time, but if preferred also for daily measurements by adapting the wording of questions to reflect the period of time of interest.
“The questionnaire can be administered to assess a longer period of time, but if preferred also for daily measurements by adapting the wording of questions to reflect the period of time of interest (Bakker 2014).”
From Work engagement in health professions education (2017) · cites this paper as Bakker 2014
Cites
The job demands-resources model of burnout.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 · Cited by 13,643 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Job Demands‐Resources model: state of the art
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007) · Journal of Managerial Psychology · doi:10.1108/02683940710733115 · Cited by 12,996 · see citing works
Self-citationA Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1103572 · Cited by 3,422 · see citing works
Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership
Bass, B. M. (1999) · European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1080/135943299398410 · Cited by 3,254 · see citing works
Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology
Bakker, A. B., Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Taris, T. W. (2008) · Work & Stress · doi:10.1080/02678370802393649 · Cited by 2,496 · see citing works
Self-citationLepine, J. A., Podsakoff, N. P., & Lepine, M. A. (2005) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2005.18803921 · Cited by 2,438 · see citing works
Development and validation of the job crafting scale
Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2012) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.009 · Cited by 2,060 · see citing works
Self-citationCrafting a job on a daily basis: Contextual correlates and the link to work engagement
Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., Peeters, M. C. W., Schaufeli, W. B., & Hetland, J. (2012) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.1783 · Cited by 1,026 · see citing works
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Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward.
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017) · Journal of Occupational Health Psychology · doi:10.1037/ocp0000056 · Cited by 6,979 · see citing works
Self-citationJob Demands—Resources theory and self-regulation: New explanations and remedies for job burnout
Bakker, A. B., & de Vries, J. D. (2021) · Anxiety, Stress, & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2020.1797695 · Cited by 1,131 · see citing works
“This is an ongoing process: employee job strain is dependent on daily job demands and resources (Bakker, 2014), and thus management and leaders should continuously communicate their vision and provide direction and support (Breevaart et al.”
BackgroundBarnes, C. M., Lucianetti, L., Bhave, D. P., & Christian, M. S. (2015) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2013.1063 · Cited by 441 · see citing works
Engagement in digital interventions.
Nahum-Shani, I., Shaw, S. D., Carpenter, S. M., Murphy, S. A., & Yoon, C. (2022) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/amp0000983 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
The role of leisure crafting for emotional exhaustion in telework during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abdel Hadi, S., Bakker, A. B., & Häusser, J. A. (2021) · Anxiety, Stress, & Coping · doi:10.1080/10615806.2021.1903447 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Self-citationWork engagement in health professions education
van den Berg, J. W., Mastenbroek, N. J. J. M., Scheepers, R. A., & Jaarsma, A. D. C. (2017) · Medical Teacher · doi:10.1080/0142159x.2017.1359522 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
“As individuals with more personal resources are able to generate more job resources, we call on educators and students to continue to pay explicit attention to the development of personal resources. resources are valued most and to the extent that demands are challenging or hindering (Bakker 2014).”
- Authors
- Bakker, A. B.
- Affiliations
- Lingnan University (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Bakker, Arnold B.
- ORCID
- Bakker, Arnold B.
- Venue
- European Psychologist
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing Group
- Published
- 2014-01-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 227-236
- ISSN
- 1016-9040 (ISSN-L)
- 1878-531X
- OpenAlex
- W2156503083
- Cited by
- 232
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 55 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 27.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - Lingnan (Lingnan University) (submittedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Keywords
- job crafting, job control, job demands, job recovery, work-family balance, employee performance
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