Psychological Capital as a Driver for Engagement in Knowledge- Intensive Work

In response to a growing interest in maintaining sustainable competitive advantage in organizations by paying attention to the well-being of workers in a worklife which is experiencing fundamental transformations, this paper builds and tests a research model on the role of psychological capital in three different forms of engagement at work. Engagement at work has been identified as one of the most significant drivers of successful work performance. This paper takes a wider perspective on engagement at work, arguing that also organization engagement and social engagement together with work engagement are important factors for employee well-being and performance in contemporary work society. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 396 highly specialized knowledge workers through anonymous questionnaires. Research hypotheses were tested with linear models. Analysis results indicate that all three forms of engagement are affected by psychological capital which consists of self-efficacy, resilience, hope, and optimism, but the effect of its individual dimensions is not the same for different forms of engagement at work. It is argued that paying more attention to personal resources, such as the dimensions of psychological capital, it is possible to increase awareness of how these malleable resources can assist in building sustainable competitive advantage in organizations through worker well-being.