Date of Award

May 2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Member

Thomas Britt

Committee Member

Cynthia Pury

Committee Member

Patrick Rosopa

Committee Member

Robert Sinclair

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effects of savoring and both challenge and hindrance job demands on the longitudinal relationship between job resources and engagement and burnout, mediated by personal resources, represented by psychological capital (PsyCap). Building upon previous research (Xanthopoulou et al., 2007; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009), Time 1 job resources were positively related to Time 2 engagement and negatively related to Time 2 burnout through Time 1 personal resources. In addition, Time 1 savoring was found to significantly interact with Time 1 job resources to predict Time 2 burnout, whereby savoring magnified the negative relationship between Time 1 job resources and Time 2 burnout. However, the moderating effects of challenge and hindrance demands were not found in the smaller matched sample. In the larger Time 1 sample, challenge demands enhanced the positive relationship between job resources and engagement, as well as enhanced the negative relationship between personal resources and burnout. Hindrance demands also significantly interacted with personal resources and job resources to predict engagement. Finally, in the larger Time 1 sample, savoring again amplified the negative relationship between job resources and burnout. These findings first demonstrate that the presence of challenge and hindrance job demands may significantly affect employees’ work engagement and symptoms of burnout given the availability of job resources. Furthermore, savoring positive experiences may be beneficial to employees’ mental health by diminishing symptoms of burnout when more job resources are available.

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