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Does meaningful work encompass support towards supervisory, worker and engagement relationship?

Umair Ahmed (Business Studies, Arab Open University, Bahrain Branch, Aali, Bahrain)
Irene Seok-Ching Yong (Centre for Internship Training and Academic Enrichment (CITrA), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
Munwar Hussain Pahi (PAF KIET, Karachi, Pakistan)
Sarfraz Ahmed Dakhan (Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, Pakistan)

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management

ISSN: 1741-0401

Article publication date: 23 June 2021

Issue publication date: 29 November 2022

633

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed at examining the influence of two important elements of social supports, namely supervisor support and coworker support, on work engagement among employees in the university setting. The study also further examined the mediating potentials of meaningful work on the relationships between the former and the latter.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample study comprised academic and managerial staff members from a public-sector university in Malaysia. Out of the 420 distributed questionnaires, 216 were received back from which 177 were found useable and hence were taken further for final data analysis. Statistical software of SPSS and Smart PLS 2.0 M3 were used to perform data analysis.

Findings

Supervisor support and coworker support were found to be significant predictors of work engagement. Further, meaningful work was found mediating these relationships.

Originality/value

The findings enrich literature of social support, work engagement, and meaningful work. The study is one of the foremost empirical works examining the mediating potential of meaningful work on the relationships between two social resources (supervisor support and coworker support) and work engagement. The issue of work engagement is evident in several mainstream work sectors alongside the education sector. Hence, the research findings are worthy to help understand work engagement issues and how to tackle it in the education setting.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Informed consent: The participants were informed about the purpose of our study and that they would be required to respond to our survey. Participants were also informed that they had a right to decline to participate in survey. They also had a right to withdraw from our survey at any time point. The participants were also informed that their personal data would be kept confidential hence this survey does not pose any potential harm to their reputation professionally or personally.

Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Citation

Ahmed, U., Yong, I.S.-C., Pahi, M.H. and Dakhan, S.A. (2022), "Does meaningful work encompass support towards supervisory, worker and engagement relationship?", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 71 No. 8, pp. 3704-3723. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-06-2020-0321

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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