Abstract
Work engagement continues to capture attention amongst academics and practitioners alike and is perceived to be a mechanism by which it is possible to achieve desirable outcomes for both employees and organisations. However, the role that religiosity plays in enhancing work engagement is often neglected in the existing literature; something the current research aims to address. The current study contributes to this important gap by demonstrating the role that religiosity plays in facilitating work engagement. Theoretically underpinned by job demands-resources theory, the main aim of the current study is to examine the role of religiosity on work engagement, and in doing so examine the effect of training and development and supervisor support in enhancing engagement levels. It also investigates the association between work engagement and the outcome variables namely affective commitment and turnover intention. In addition, this thesis aims to investigate the moderating role of workload on the association between the independent variables (i.e. religiosity, training and development, and supervisor support), and work engagement. A related aim is to examine work engagement as a mediator on the relationship between the predictors and the outcomes.Drawing on a sample of 383 employees from the telecom sector in Jordan, the findings of the present study show that the three antecedents have a strong influence in enhancing work engagement, and that work engagement in turn, has a positive influence on affective commitment and also plays a role in reducing turnover intention. Additionally, work engagement mediated the association between the predictors (religiosity, training and development, and supervisor support), and the outcomes i.e. affective commitment and turnover intention. Furthermore, the present thesis shows that the categorisation of job demands into challenge and hindrance demands is not as straightforward as proposed, and instead it relies on the professional sector, this is because workload undermined the association between religiosity and work engagement. However, workload did not moderate the association between training and development and work engagement, or the association between supervisor support and work engagement. The results contribute to the work engagement literature and suggest that both HR practitioners and line managers can recognise religiosity as an important personal resource to enhance engagement at work and employee wellbeing.
| Date of Award | 6 Aug 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Shelley Harrington (Main Supervisor) & Stephen Swailes (Main Supervisor) |