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We are today in the middle of the greatest economic catastrophe – the greatest catastrophe due almost entirely to economic causes – of the modern world…I see no reason to be in the slightest degree doubtful about the initiating causes of the slump….The leading characteristic was an extraordinary willingness to borrow money for the purposes of new real investment at very high rates of interest – rates of interest which were extravagantly high on pre-war standards, rates of interest which have never in the history of the world been earned, I should say, over a period of years over the average of enterprise as a whole. This was a phenomenon which was apparent not, indeed, over the whole world but over a very large part of it.– John Maynard Keynes (First of the Harris Foundation Lectures, 1931)

Our study examined whether work engagement follows a predictable pattern over the course of the work week and the role of personality traits in shaping this pattern.

We examined these questions with 131 employees from Canada and the United States who provided daily ratings of work engagement over the course of 10 work days.

Multilevel modeling revealed that employee engagement followed an inverted U-shaped curvilinear pattern from Monday to Friday, peaking midweek. Neuroticism moderated the change pattern of engagement across the work week, such that individuals with higher levels of neuroticism experienced lower and less stable levels of work engagement throughout the work week compared with individuals with lower levels of neuroticism. However, extroversion and conscientiousness did not moderate the change pattern of employee engagement.

These results provide insight into the entrainment of work to the work week and how this entrainment is further affected by the personality trait neuroticism.

Understanding the weekly pattern of work engagement will help leaders’ time work assignments, interventions, and training sessions to keep the levels of employee engagement high.

Our study revealed novel predictors of within-person engagement: weekly entrainment and neuroticism.

Discuss in detail the uses which might legitimately be made of the following passage by the writer of a profound study of economic life and thought in France at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. In answering the question make full use of your knowledge of (a) historical criticism; (b) French economic and general history.