Organizational Dynamics (2017) 46, 67—75

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Strategic and proactive approaches to work

engagement
Arnold B. Bakker

In a highly competitive business world where the rate of ees engage in daily proactive behaviors such as job crafting
change has been accelerating, organizations increasingly and strengths use.
rely on the strengths and talents of their employees. Modern
organizations that want to stay competitive need engaged WORK ENGAGEMENT FROM THE
employees –— individuals who have high levels of energy,
PERSPECTIVE OF JD—R THEORY
dedication, and absorption. Engaged employees have an
abundance of “resources” which they can invest in their
work. They are enthusiastic about their work, immersed in Work engagement is a mental state in which a person per-
their work activities, and persistent when confronted with forming a work activity is fully immersed in the activity,
challenges and hindrances. Meta-analytic studies that distill feeling full of energy and enthusiasm about the work.
the average effect found in hundreds of studies have shown According to William Kahn, who coined the term engagement
that work engagement is a crucial predictor of job and in 1990, engagement refers to the simultaneous employment
organizational performance. Moreover, research of the past and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self’ in task beha-
decade has provided strong evidence for the notion that viors that promote connections to work and to others. By
engagement leads to key organizational outcomes, including being authentically involved, employees increase their per-
creativity and innovation, client satisfaction, positive finan- sonal presence (physical, cognitive, and emotional engage-
cial results, and reduced sickness absenteeism. ment), which leads to active and full performance. This
In this paper, I discuss strategic (top-down) and proactive original conceptualization emphasizes that engaged workers
(bottom-up) approaches to work engagement. Organizations put a lot of effort into their work because they strongly
that follow a top-down approach may implement strategic identify with it. In the academic literature, work engage-
human resource management (HRM) systems to facilitate ment is most often defined and measured as a positive,
employee work engagement, or make their leaders aware of fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterized
the importance of providing job resources to their employ- by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Vigor refers to high
ees. Organizations may also facilitate their employees in levels of energy and mental resilience while working, and the
proactively mobilizing resources themselves. I will discuss ability to invest considerable effort in one’s work. Dedica-
four possible bottom-up approaches to work engagement, tion indicates that one is strongly involved in one’s work, and
namely (a) self-management, (b) job crafting, (c) strengths experiences a sense of meaningfulness, enthusiasm, and
use, and (d) mobilizing ego resources. Whereas strategic inspiration. Absorption refers to being fully concentrated
HRM initiatives and transformational leadership are and happily engrossed in work, whereby time passes
expected to have an important structural impact on quickly. Work engagement can be reliably measured with
employee work engagement through an enriched work envir- the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale that I developed with
onment, employees may also influence their own levels of Wilmar Schaufeli.
work engagement by being proactive –— from day to day. I will Research of the past two decades has confirmed Kahn’s
argue that employee work engagement is most likely in original idea that employee engagement is a function of the
organizations with a clear HR strategy, in which leaders ebbs and flows of work. Specifically, studies show that work
provide resources to their employees, and in which employ- engagement fluctuates from day to day, and even from

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.002
0090-2616/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
68 A.B. Bakker

performance episode to performance episode. Whereas the demands (called “hindrance demands”; e.g., role ambiguity,
specific drivers of engagement vary as a function of the type conflicts, bureaucratic procedures) develop high levels of
of work, occupational sector, and organization, research exhaustion, and may end up in a vicious loss cycle. In this loss
shows that work engagement peaks when employees are cycle, exhaustion is the cause of undesirable behaviors that
confronted with positive events and daily interesting job undermine effective functioning (see bottom of Fig. 1). In
demands –— particularly when they simultaneously have JD—R theory, self-undermining refers to behaviors such as
access to sufficient job resources. Thus, complex work tasks, creating stress, conflicts, and misunderstanding, which add
demanding customers, and a high time pressure may act as to the already high job demands. It is only through the
challenges when employees receive sufficient social support provision or proactive mobilization of resources that employ-
from their colleagues, have decision latitude, and can use a ees can get out of this negative, loss cycle. In the next
variety of their skills while at work. Over the years, we have section, I will discuss the top-down and bottom-up
defined job resources as the physical, social, psychological, approaches that can be used to increase work engagement.
or organizational aspects of the job that are functional in
achieving work goals. Due to their motivational potential,
job resources satisfy psychological needs, and help employ- TOP-DOWN APPROACHES TO WORK
ees to deal with job demands and meet work targets. ENGAGEMENT
According to our Job Demands—Resources (JD—R) theory,
work engagement is a function of the job demands and Most modern organizations recognize that employees are
resources provided by the organization. More specifically, increasingly looking for job roles that include opportunities
engagement is an intermediate factor (also called “media- for challenge, growth, and engagement. The hundreds of
tor” or “throughput”) in a causal process in which job leaders, managers and consultants with whom I have dis-
demands and resources (or their combination) are the pre- cussed this topic in master classes, conferences, workshops
dictors, and job/organizational performance is the out- and executive development programs over the last twenty
come. However, JD—R theory also acknowledges that years are well aware of the fact that their respective orga-
employees may be proactive and take the initiative to nizations need to provide an interesting and challenging
personally change their own work environment. This proac- work environment with sufficient resources. To attract
tive behavior is called “job crafting”, and may take the form and retain high-caliber, engaged, and productive employees,
of increasing one’s challenges at work and increasing one’s organizations need to provide work contexts that offer a
job resources. Through job crafting, employees can start a good fit between employees’ role expectations and their
gain cycle of feeling well and doing well (see top of Fig. 1). work environment. Scholars in the domain of human
Engaged employees have access to an abundance of job resource management have argued that organizations can
resources. Since engaged employees are motivated to stay increase employee work engagement by selecting the can-
engaged, they employ job crafting behaviors –— proactively didates who are best suited to the job and fit with the
mobilizing their own job resources. In contrast, employees organization’s culture. Simon Albrecht and his colleagues
who are often confronted with high and negative job maintain that engagement needs to be explicitly embedded

Figure 1 Strategic and Proactive Approaches to Work Engagement Integrated in the Job Demands—Resources (JD—R) Model (Bakker
& Demerouti, 2014)
Strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement 69

within an integrated system of human resource management employees’ standards and values, and persuades them to
policies, practices, and procedures. achieve organizational goals that go beyond their individual
interests. Transformational leadership has been linked to
Strategic Human Resource Management many motivational outcomes in employees including empow-
erment, autonomous motivation, self-efficacy, and self-con-
Albrecht and his colleagues describe how four key engage- cordance. Leaders who inspire their followers and give
ment-related human resource (HR) practices (employee individual attention to them build trust and create a positive
selection, socialization, performance management, and team climate. Recent research has also indicated that trans-
learning and development) influence the organizational cli- formational leadership and a high-quality relationship
mate and the job demands and resources experienced by between leader and followers may influence followers’
employees in their work roles, and indirectly influence work job characteristics, and in this way have an indirect impact
engagement, as well as behavioral and performance out- on employee attitudes, performance, and psychological
comes. health.
Research has indeed shown that HRM systems can influ- In our own research, we follow a situational and beha-
ence organizational climate and that organizational climate, vioral approach. Leadership behaviors fluctuate from day to
in turn, can influence employees’ opinions regarding job day, depending on the situation. This implies that leaders
demands and resources, as well as their work engagement. may have an impact on daily levels of employee work
Thus, when employees perceive a psychological climate in engagement. Kimberley Breevaart and her colleagues found
their organization signaling that management is supportive evidence for this contention in a series of studies. In one
of the employees, they report more job resources and unique study, they followed Norwegian naval cadets over the
endurable job demands –— and such a climate results in course of 34 days. As part of their leadership training, the
higher levels of work engagement. There is strong and cadets traveled from Northern Europe to North America by
growing evidence showing that high performance HR prac- sail ship. We were interested in the daily impact of trans-
tices are related to employee engagement, productivity, formational leadership on follower work engagement. The
growth, innovation, survival, and firm-level performance. results showed that transformational leaders had a positive
A recent meta-analysis showed that HRM systems influenced influence on their followers’ daily work engagement because
firm financial outcomes directly and indirectly through these leaders created abundant job resources for followers
human capital, employee motivation, voluntary turnover, (daily social support and autonomy). Followers could use
and operational outcomes. Key HRM practices included per- these resources to deal with the daily job challenges (e.g.,
formance development, training, and development. Other hurricanes, complex exercises at sea).
high performance HR practices are selective staffing, gen- Research in more conventional (blue and white collar)
eral skills training, and ongoing appraisals. Such HR practices organizations has confirmed that transformational and ser-
create an abundance of job resources that fuel employee vant leadership is related to work engagement through
work engagement. Important performance management increased job resources (e.g., job control, recognition,
activities that influence engagement are: (1) setting perfor- rewards). In a follow-up study, Breevaart and her colleagues
mance and development goals; (2) providing ongoing feed- found that followers reported more job resources (auton-
back and recognition; (3) managing employee development; omy, feedback, opportunities for growth) when their leader
(4) conducting appraisals; and (5) creating a climate of trust showed more transformational leadership behaviors, and
and empowerment. this contributed to followers’ engagement and job perfor-
In a qualitative review of the effectiveness of top-down mance. Expanding these findings, researchers at the Uni-
interventions in various European countries, Michiel Kompier versity of Quebec, Canada have shown that transformational
and his colleagues from Radboud University in The Nether- leadership results in fewer job demands (cognitive, emo-
lands showed that interventions were successful in Sweden, tional and physical demands) and more job resources (e.g.,
Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands. In these coun- participation in decision-making, job recognition and quality
tries, the working conditions (workload, work pressure) of relationships), and indirectly contributes to employee
improved, and the jobs became more enriched. Improve- work attitudes and job performance.
ments in job resources such as skill discretion, decision Drawing on JD—R theory, Amanda Biggs and her collea-
authority, communication, and social support were impor- gues evaluated the effectiveness of an organizational inter-
tant reasons for increased levels of job satisfaction, reduced vention that enhanced organizational resources via a
levels of job stress, and reduced company-registered sick- leadership-development program in Australia. They col-
ness absenteeism. Although the interventions also included lected repeated-measures data of job characteristics, atti-
person-level interventions (e.g., training), the positive out- tudes, and outcomes 4 months before and 7 months after the
comes were largely the result of the top-down interventions. intervention. Results indicated a positive effect of the lea-
dership-development intervention on job characteristics
and well-being for the subordinates of the leaders who
Daily Leadership participated in the intervention compared to a control
group. Further analyses indicated that the leadership-devel-
Another important top-down approach to employee work opment intervention had a positive effect on followers’
engagement is transformational and empowering leader- perceptions of work-culture support and strategic align-
ship. A transformational leadership style refers to leader ment. This, in turn, had a positive effect on followers’
behaviors (such as individual consideration, inspirational job satisfaction and work engagement. This research demon-
motivation, and intellectual stimulation) that transform strates that organizational interventions aiming to enhance
70 A.B. Bakker

upstream organizational resources (via leadership develop- strengths use, and (d) mobilizing ego resources (for defini-
ment) improve the psychosocial working environment for tions and examples, see Table 1). In addition, I will argue
employees, and have an indirect impact on employee work that detachment from work during off-job time is important
engagement. as well.

Self-management
BOTTOM-UP APPROACHES TO WORK
ENGAGEMENT Thirty-five years ago, Charles Manz and Henry Sims argued
that when supervisors are not around, employees can use
Although structural, top-down interventions and transfor- self-management to increase self-motivation and facilitate
mational leadership are very important for employee work job performance. Employees who monitor and manage their
engagement, employees are not passive actors in organiza- own behaviors take over managerial functions such as mon-
tional day-to-day life. In contrast, employees can take the itoring their performance and taking corrective actions, and
initiative to proactively modify their own job characteris- they seek their own resources. Instead of being externally
tics, experiences, and well-being. According to JD—R theory, controlled by the supervisor, employees exert control over
employees can use job crafting or other “job engineering” the self, by the self.
techniques to optimize their job demands and resources. In Self-management strategies consist of self-observation,
addition, our research suggests that employees may use their self-goal setting, self-cueing, self-reward, and self-punish-
character strengths at work (their strong points, talents, and ment. Self-observation means that individuals are aware of
natural skills) in order to optimize their personal resources. why and when they show certain behaviors. This awareness
Since job resources (e.g., performance feedback, support, may lead employees to change their behavior to increase
skill variety) and personal resources (e.g., self-efficacy, their effectiveness. Self-goal setting refers to the use of
optimism) can be utilized to deal with high job demands, specific, challenging, and attainable goals in order to
applying these bottom-up techniques facilitates work improve one’s performance. Research by Frayne and Latham
engagement and job performance (see Fig. 1). has convincingly shown that goal setting is an effective
In the next section, I discuss four bottom-up approaches strategy. Self-cueing refers to using reminders that help
that employees can use in order to increase their work focusing on what needs to be accomplished. Finally, employ-
engagement: (a) self-management, (b) job crafting, (c) ees can use self-reward and self-punishment to reinforce

Table 1 Examples of Bottom-up Strategies to Increase Work Engagement

Strategy Definition Examples

Self-management Employees manage their own behaviors by setting Setting specific goals regarding what you
personal standards, evaluating their performance in want to get done on a workday
terms of these standards, and by self-administrating
consequences based on their self-evaluations.
Self-management strategies consist of self- Rewarding yourself after work-related goals
observation, self-goal setting, self-cueing, self- have been reached
reward, and self-punishment.
Job crafting Employees change their job tasks, relationships at Asking for feedback, starting a new and
work (with colleagues, clients, providers), or the exciting project at work
meaning of their job.
Job crafting refers to the self-initiated changes that Reducing the heavy workload by sharing some
employees make in their own job demands and job of the work with colleagues, starting a new
resources to attain and optimize their personal training
(work) goals.
Strengths use Employees use their innate qualities or strengths Using social competence strength to deal
instead of their weaknesses. with a complaining customer
Strengths refer to a natural capacity for behaving, Using kindness strength to solve a conflict
thinking, or feeling in a way that allows optimal between two colleagues at work
functioning and performance in the pursuit of valued
outcomes.
Mobilizing ego resources Employees proactively mobilize their own, volatile Talking to enthusiastic colleagues, visiting a
energetic, affective, and cognitive resources (i.e. museum,
their “ego-resources”) in order to improve their own
well-being and performance.
Mobilizing ego resources is a particular form of Going to bed early, meditating, or walking in
proactivity, because this behavior is specifically the park
aimed at improving one’s own physical and
psychological state.
Strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement 71

desirable behaviors (e.g., treating yourself with something more job and personal resources, higher levels of work
you like), and to discourage undesirable behaviors (e.g., engagement, and improved performance. This means that
being tough on yourself). job crafting is an effective bottom-up strategy to improve
In a recent diary study among maternity nurses, we found work engagement because it increases the fit between the
that the use of self-management strategies was predictive of person and the organization. In addition, job crafting
work engagement, through the job resources of feedback, increases the meaning of work –— an important motive to
skill variety, and opportunities for growth. On the days proactively start with job crafting in the first place.
employees used self-observation, self-set goals, and self-
cueing, they mobilized more job resources that helped them Strengths Use
to be more engaged on these days. In another study, we
showed that weekly self-management is an important pre- Character strengths refer to a natural capacity for behaving,
dictor of supervisor-ratings of performance, through thinking, or feeling in a way that allows optimal functioning
employee work engagement. Specifically, we found that and performance in the pursuit of valued outcomes. Exam-
self-leadership facilitated supervisor-ratings of performance ples of character strengths are creativity, bravery, empathy
through work engagement, and this was particularly the case and gratitude –— all positive individual characteristics,
in the weeks employees had a low need for leadership –— for traits, and abilities. Individual strengths facilitate social
example, because of a low workload or high personal skills. functioning and performance because when individuals pos-
In contrast, during the weeks employees experienced a high sess certain strengths, they are better able to deal with
need for leadership — for example because they faced environmental challenges. Moreover, the use of character
complex work problems — transformational leadership strengths has predictive value for well-being and life satis-
(but not self-leadership) had an important positive impact faction.
on engagement and performance. When employees utilize their strengths during work-
related activities, they can be authentic and are more likely
to reach their goals. Research conducted in a community in
Job Crafting England showed that strengths use was related to increases
in self-esteem, positive affect, and vitality, and decreases in
According to role theory, employees with the same jobs perceived stress three and six months later. A recent nation-
perform a slightly different set of tasks because they enact ally representative sample of more than 5000 New Zealand
their roles in different ways. Take for example the work of an workers showed that workers who reported high strengths
employee who is responsible for the maintenance and repair use were no less than 18 times more likely to be flourishing
of the local hospital buildings. In addition to structural than those who reported low strengths use. Scholars have
building inspections and general maintenance including lawn also developed strengths use interventions. In one interven-
mowing and window washing, the maintenance worker may tion, young employees were asked to identify their signature
troubleshoot or repair mechanical equipment. Dependent on strengths, visualize and describe themselves at their perso-
his abilities, he may also solve basic electrical, heating and nal best, and use their strengths in new ways. Results showed
cooling problems, or instead contact the appropriate expert. that the experimental group reported a higher use of their
Also, dependent on his needs or personality, he may decide strengths at the end of the study than the control group.
to talk regularly with the nurses and doctors, just to have a Moreover, increases in the use of strengths were related to
chat, or to be informed. Every job has some latitude to shape increases in harmonious passion and well-being.
and customize job tasks and work settings. Amy Wrzes- In another study among unemployed job seekers, the
niewski and Jane Dutton have defined job crafting as the impact of strengths-based (vs. conventional) career counsel-
physical and cognitive changes individuals make in their task ing was investigated as carried out by vocational counseling
or relational boundaries. Physical changes refer to changes psychologists. At the three-month follow-up, the interven-
in the form, scope or number of job tasks or relationships at tion group had a higher rate of employment than the con-
work, whereas cognitive changes refer to changing how one ventional career counseling group. Finally, in a weekly
perceives the job. The maintenance worker may, for exam- follow-up study among engineers, our own team found that
ple, increase the meaningfulness of his job by reframing the weekly strengths use facilitated self-efficacy, work engage-
perception of the job as an activity that positively impacts ment, and proactive work behaviors. Taken together, these
doctors, nurses, as well as patients. findings show that strengths use can be encouraged in work
Using JD—R theory, we have argued and shown that job settings. When people are doing what they do naturally best,
crafting can take the form of proactively increasing job they thrive in their work.
resources, increasing challenge job demands, or reducing
hindrance job demands. In a series of studies, we found that
teachers, tax officers, administrators, general practitioners, Mobilizing Ego Resources
consultants, recruiters, chemical plant operators, nurses,
and recruiters spontaneously modify their jobs. These job According to Sharon Parker, proactivity refers to self-
crafting behaviors may take the form of improving job initiated behaviors that aim to change and improve the
demands and resources and are positively related to work situation or oneself. In a new line of research, my colleagues
engagement, job satisfaction, and other-ratings of in-role and I have focused on what people proactively do to change
job performance. Moreover, recent scientific evaluations of themselves. We found that individuals can proactively mobi-
job crafting interventions in The Netherlands have shown lize their own volatile energetic, affective, and cognitive
that employees can learn to craft their jobs, resulting in resources (“ego-resources”) in order to improve their own
72 A.B. Bakker

well-being and performance. Because ego resources are detachment and relaxation. These findings show that recov-
characterized by their fluctuating and volatile nature, they ery occurs when employees engage in off-job activities that
can be replenished or gained through various behavioral allow for relaxation and psychological detachment.
strategies. Examples are visiting a museum, going to bed Sonnentag and her colleagues also examined the positive
early, talking to enthusiastic colleagues, meditation, and impact of feeling refreshed and replenished in the morning
walking in the park. Such self-initiated activities may either on work engagement throughout the day, and between work
replenish depleted ego resources (cf. recovery activities), or engagement during the day and subsequent recovery levels
lead to the attainment of new ego resources (through mas- at the end of the workday. Job stressors such as situational
tery of a skill or attaining new knowledge). constraints and job demands weaken these relations because
We have also found that mobilizing ego resources is stressors distract attention from job tasks, interrupt the
positively related to self-insight and proactive behavior. work process, and consume energy resources. Employees
Additionally, our findings show that there is a strong link working in a variety of industries (production, administra-
between mobilizing ego resources on the one hand and well- tion, banking, insurance) in Germany filled out a diary during
being (cognitive liveliness, vitality, work engagement) on the one workweek, twice per day. The results showed that
other. Employees who regularly mobilize their ego resources morning recovery levels had a positive impact on work
also perform better on their work-related tasks. Moreover, engagement during the workday, and work engagement
we argued that mobilizing ego resources has predictive value predicted reduced need for recovery at the end of the
for creativity. In an empirical test, we followed employees workday. As expected, situational constraints attenuated
from various backgrounds for five weeks and asked them these relations, but job demands did not. Apparently, situa-
every Friday to report the frequency of mobilizing ego tional constraints consume so much of the available energy
resources, their work engagement, and creative perfor- that employees find it hard to maintain a high level of work
mance. The results showed that employees increased their engagement, and thus need to replenish their energy
levels of engagement and creativity in the weeks they resources. Taken together, these studies imply that daily
mobilized their ego resources. Goal orientation turned out psychological detachment from work while at home is impor-
to qualify these effects. When employees had a learning goal tant for daily engagement at work. On the days employees
orientation (a desire to develop mastery through learning, recover well, they feel engaged, and engagement during the
seeking challenges, and acquiring new skills), the impact of day is predictive of subsequent recovery.
mobilizing ego resources on work engagement and creativity
was high. In contrast, when employees had a desire to avoid
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
displays of incompetence that could lead to negative judg-
ments (failure), mobilizing ego resources was unrelated to
Over the past 20 years, our team has successfully applied the
engagement and creativity.
JD—R model in hundreds of organizations. These applications
Taken together, these findings suggest that employees
include large-scale assessments, organization-, team- and
can mobilize their own ego resources, and that these ego
individual-level feedback reports, JD—R workshops, semi-
resources fuel short-term work engagement and perfor-
nars, master classes, training, and organization-, team-, and
mance. Our research shows that people may engage in a
individual interventions. JD—R theory has profited tremen-
variety of activities during work or non-work time to mobi-
dously from these practical applications, because interac-
lize their ego resources. Therefore, this strategy seems to
tions with employees, executives and managers lead to new
have considerable potential for fostering work engagement.
insights and new hypotheses, and have helped to guarantee
Time for Detachment the validity of the JD—R model and theory.
There are many ways in which the top-down and bottom-
up approaches to work engagement discussed in this article
Although the research evidence clearly shows that work
can be applied in organizational practice.
engagement is associated with positive outcomes for indi-
vidual employees and organizations as a whole, employees
also need time for temporarily disengaging or psychologi- Top down approaches
cally detaching from work. In a series of quantitative daily Strategic HRM can make a huge difference in employee
diary studies, Sabine Sonnentag has shown that recovery engagement because a structural approach of work engage-
during the evening stimulates engagement and positive ment implies that facilitating factors are integrated into the
affect during the next workday. Moreover, her research recruitment of new employees, and in the design of all jobs.
reveals that recovery in the evening during leisure time is A strategic HR approach can entail, for example, a personnel
positively related to next day work engagement, next day selection procedure in which candidates are assessed
proactive behavior (personal initiative, pursuit of learning), regarding their personality. Those scoring high on extrover-
and next day performance. sion, proactivity, emotional stability, and conscientiousness
Our own research team examined specific off-job activ- are more likely to be engaged in their work, and thus could
ities in the evening that enable recovery from work, and be selected –— of course also dependent on their skills,
contribute to feeling vigorous during the next morning. experience and education. In addition, strategic HR can
We found that social, low-effort, and physical leisure activ- focus on person-job and person-organization fit. HR strate-
ities increase next morning vigor through enhanced psycho- gists should design optimal working environments for
logical detachment and relaxation. In contrast, high-duty employees, with affordable job demands and sufficient
off-job activities, namely work and household tasks, reduce job resources. To find out about the quality of the job
vigor because these activities undermine psychological demands and resources, HR can use standardized assessment
Strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement 73

tools to collect information about work pressure, emotional the specific job demands and job resources, the two cate-
demands, cognitive demands. HR can also use group inter- gories of job characteristics that are described in the JD—R
views to identify the job demands that are specific to a Model. The job crafting process begins with awareness of the
certain sector or business. HR should also collect information current working situation and the freedom that employees
about the availability of job resources, such as social sup- have to make those adjustments. Employees learn what job
port, performance feedback, opportunities for develop- demands and job resources they need to adjust or create.
ment, and skill variety. Since employees are often the Specifically, the job crafting training increases participants’
experts about their work environment, data collection work engagement through two different routes: (i) through
should start with employees. In addition, independent raters promoting the self-directed behavior, and (ii) through the
who are trained in work and organizational psychology can strengthening of their personal resources. The training com-
make observations of the prevailing job demands and bines learning about what job crafting is, and what happens
resources. Using these two sources of information, HR can when employees craft their jobs. Employees try to achieve
find out which demands and resources need attention in self-set job crafting goals (e.g., increasing the social support
terms of job enrichment, and they can then propose proce- network, starting a new challenging project, asking for
dures for optimizing the environment to senior management. feedback) for a period of several weeks, and reflect on
Furthermore, organizations should use socialization tac- the experiences of their job crafting actions after they have
tics and practices for newcomers so as to reduce uncertainty been completed. In this way, employees are encouraged to
and provide information. More importantly, organizations integrate job crafting in their daily work by learning to
should nourish and build on the positive energy and excite- choose and to execute small job crafting actions. Similar
ment of newcomers and engage them in their new job and training approaches can be used to teach self-management,
organization. This can be done by capitalizing on newco- strengths use, and mobilizing ego resources.
mers’ talents and strengths. In addition to optimizing the fit Second, organizations can create an organizational cli-
between person and environment through personnel selec- mate in which the various bottom-up approaches are facili-
tion, job redesign, and socialization, organizations can use a tated. Organizations may give their employees job autonomy
structural approach to performance management, and so that they have decision latitude regarding how to execute
learning and development. This can include setting monthly their tasks and with whom –— which relates to task and
performance and development goals, and using new tech- relational crafting. Autonomy may facilitate certain self-
nology (e.g., tablets, smartphones) to provide instant feed- management and job crafting behaviors, such as expanding
back and recognition. It is important to manage employee one’s range of tasks or specialization in certain aspects of
development by offering the opportunity for training and work. Job autonomy may also facilitate mobilizing ego
education. Top management should create a climate of trust resources, because when people have time and method
and empowerment by regularly signaling to the employees control, it may be easier to have micro breaks, engage in
that work engagement is an important phenomenon that is meditation during work, participate in sports and exercise
embraced by all layers in the organization. activities during office hours, or take a walk to discuss work-
Leaders play a crucial role when it comes to employee related issues with colleagues. Further, when organizations
work engagement. Transformational leaders use individual communicate through their vision, norms, and daily prac-
consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual sti- tices that there is a psychosocial safety climate or a climate
mulation to motivate their employees and to transfer their for engagement, employees know that they can self-set
own enthusiasm to employees. Servant leaders are genuinely goals, that it is OK to make mistakes, and that there are
concerned with serving their followers and do so by providing many ways in which targets can be reached (i.e. through self-
sufficient job resources and challenges. It is self-evident that management). In organizations with a climate for engage-
HR and management should team up to select leaders who ment, the employees know that there are sufficient
show empathy and who are goal-oriented. In addition, HR resources available to be engaged, and to take on challen-
should offer training in which leaders from the various layers ging projects. Also, in engaged organizations, employees are
in the organization learn how to assess job demands and allowed to use their personal strengths, and leaders support
resources, and to provide the resources employees need to their followers in doing so. Thus, organizations can facilitate
become engaged. Crucial for the success of such an approach bottom-up approaches that help employees tailor their jobs
is the transfer of training to practice. One way to do this is to and use their strengths and ego resources to become and stay
encourage a personal leadership plan, smartphone apps, and engaged.
the use of a personal coach.

Bottom-up approaches CONCLUSION

I have discussed four possible bottom-up approaches to work
engagement, namely (a) self-management, (b) job crafting, Modern organizations that want to stay competitive need
(c) strengths use, and (d) mobilizing ego resources. Organi- engaged employees –— individuals who are full with energy
zations may facilitate these proactive behaviors in several and enthusiasm. Organizations can facilitate work engage-
ways. First, each of the individual approaches to work ment through top-down and bottom-up approaches. Top-
engagement can be taught. For example, a job crafting down approaches include strategic HR initiatives as well
training program may increase employee awareness regard- as transformational leadership interventions. Bottom-up
ing the ways in which they can adapt their job to their own approaches to work engagement include various individual
needs and preferences so that they experience more engage- proactive strategies employees can use themselves, includ-
ment and meaning in their work. The adjustments refer to ing self-management, job crafting, strengths use, and
74 A.B. Bakker

mobilizing ego resources. These strategic and proactive resources. They also help to increase personal resources,
approaches alone or in combination foster employee work such as optimism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. I hope that
engagement because they help optimize the work environ- this article will help executives, managers, and employees to
ment in terms of affordable job demands and sufficient job create sustainable work engagement in their organizations.
Strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement 75

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Arnold B. Bakker is a Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Center of Excellence for Positive
Organizational Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is also a distinguished Visiting
Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Adjunct Professor at Lingnan University, Hong
Kong. Bakker is interested in positive organizational phenomena, including work engagement, JD-R theory, job
crafting, creativity, and job performance. He has published more than 400 journal articles, book chapters, and
books, and has been included in Thomson Reuters’ 2015 list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”.
Bakker is editor of “Current issues in Work and Organizational Psychology” (Psychology Press), and “Advances in
Positive Organizational Psychology” (Emerald). More information: www.arnoldbakker.com or www.
profarnoldbakker.com. Tel. +31 10 408 8853; email: [email protected] (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Center
of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology, Woudestein Campus, Mandeville Building T13-47, P.O. Box
1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.