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The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources
INTRODUCTION: The working environment of social workers has become an important concern in research. Whereas studies typically focus on negative aspects of these environments, this study investigates the possibility of creating a positive environment by examining whether and how high-quality leader-...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8803589/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35128097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08793 |
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author | Wagner, Bettina Koob, Clemens |
author_facet | Wagner, Bettina Koob, Clemens |
author_sort | Wagner, Bettina |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: The working environment of social workers has become an important concern in research. Whereas studies typically focus on negative aspects of these environments, this study investigates the possibility of creating a positive environment by examining whether and how high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships are related to social workers' work engagement. It is hypothesized that particularly relevant job resources mediate the relation between LMX and social workers’ work engagement. METHOD: To identify those job resources that are particularly important to social workers, a qualitative preparatory study was first conducted with social workers and social work executives. Based on that, study data were collected by administering an online survey among social workers. Both parts of the study were realized at twenty different advice centers for pregnancy issues of a leading social organization in Germany. The dataset for statistical analyses comprised 43 social workers in total. Regression analysis with parallel mediation was used to test the hypothesized relationships. RESULTS: Social workers in high-quality LMX relationships operate in working environments with more abundant social and structural job resources: they experience the team atmosphere more positively and have greater work control. Further, it was found that experiencing a positive team atmosphere was associated with higher work engagement, with team atmosphere fully mediating the relationship between LMX and work engagement. Notably, high-quality LMX relationships do not seem to promote work engagement directly. DISCUSSION: The study underscores the relevance of high-quality LMX relationships in fostering a resourceful work environment. This, in turn, contributes significantly to a high level of work engagement. Organizations and managers in social work should therefore strengthen managerial relationships and create resourceful environments. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8803589 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Elsevier |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-88035892022-02-04 The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources Wagner, Bettina Koob, Clemens Heliyon Research Article INTRODUCTION: The working environment of social workers has become an important concern in research. Whereas studies typically focus on negative aspects of these environments, this study investigates the possibility of creating a positive environment by examining whether and how high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships are related to social workers' work engagement. It is hypothesized that particularly relevant job resources mediate the relation between LMX and social workers’ work engagement. METHOD: To identify those job resources that are particularly important to social workers, a qualitative preparatory study was first conducted with social workers and social work executives. Based on that, study data were collected by administering an online survey among social workers. Both parts of the study were realized at twenty different advice centers for pregnancy issues of a leading social organization in Germany. The dataset for statistical analyses comprised 43 social workers in total. Regression analysis with parallel mediation was used to test the hypothesized relationships. RESULTS: Social workers in high-quality LMX relationships operate in working environments with more abundant social and structural job resources: they experience the team atmosphere more positively and have greater work control. Further, it was found that experiencing a positive team atmosphere was associated with higher work engagement, with team atmosphere fully mediating the relationship between LMX and work engagement. Notably, high-quality LMX relationships do not seem to promote work engagement directly. DISCUSSION: The study underscores the relevance of high-quality LMX relationships in fostering a resourceful work environment. This, in turn, contributes significantly to a high level of work engagement. Organizations and managers in social work should therefore strengthen managerial relationships and create resourceful environments. Elsevier 2022-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8803589/ /pubmed/35128097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08793 Text en © 2022 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Research Article Wagner, Bettina Koob, Clemens The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title | The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title_full | The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title_fullStr | The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title_full_unstemmed | The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title_short | The relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: A mediation analysis of job resources |
title_sort | relationship between leader-member exchange and work engagement in social work: a mediation analysis of job resources |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8803589/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35128097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08793 |
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