Supportive communication is a key element of social support, and active listening, or supervisors’ listening-centred communication, is a key feature of supportive leadership communication. Workplace social support refers to employees’ interaction and relationships with supervisors and co-workers. Social support is a job resource that has been found to be an important antecedent of work engagement. , previous research has consistently confirmed the positive relationship between various job resources, such as social support from supervisors, work engagement, and positive work-related outcomes (see also, e.g., ). Īccording to Bakker and Demerouti, Halbesleben, and Bakker et al. In addition, work engagement has been negatively associated with burnout.
Research findings also indicate that work engagement is a predictor of high job performance, client satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Several studies have provided empirical evidence that high levels of work engagement are positively associated with job satisfaction (e.g., ) and low turnover intention (e.g., ). Most scholars agree that work engagement is characterised by a high level of energy and strong identification with one’s work (see e.g., ). Work engagement is a positive, fulfilling, and emotional state of mind associated with work. Therefore, we suggest that organisations experiment in training their supervisors in active-empathetic listening as part of a broader strategy to increase employees’ engagement at work. We argue that supportive leadership which uses conscious and active listening-centred communication is highly significant for employees’ work engagement. Additionally, we show that active-empathetic listening does not affect all three dimensions of work engagement equally, with dedication being the most affected by supervisors’ active-empathetic listening. Using a national representative sample ( N = 548), the results show that supervisors’ active-empathetic listening has a significant positive relationship with employee work engagement. To bridge this gap, this study explores how supervisors’ active-empathetic listening is associated with employees’ work engagement. However, there is a knowledge gap in understanding one of the key features of social support-i.e., supervisors’ active-empathetic listening-and its relation to employees’ work engagement. Social support from supervisors is a job resource that has been found to be an important antecedent to work engagement.
0 kommentar(er)
