UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE School of Management FOSTERING WORK ENGAGEMENT THROUGH DEDICATION: CASE RAMBOLL Management and Organization Master’s thesis May 2014 Supervisor: Arja Ropo Valtteri Kuntsi ABSTRACT University of Tampere School of Management, Management and Organization Author: KUNTSI, VALTTERI Title: Fostering work engagement through dedication: Case Ramboll Master’s thesis: 164 pages, 5 appendix pages Date: May 2014 Keywords: work engagement, dedication, job resources, personal resources, occupational well-being The present case study had two main objectives: the first objective was to determine what the prerequisites of work engagement are among the case company’s consultants and the second objective was to determine how the supervisors of these consultants foster work engagement through their actions. The case company was Ramboll Finland Ltd. which is a part of an international corporation called Ramboll Group. The company offers engineering, design, and consultancy services relating to buildings, transport, environment, energy, oil, gas, and management consulting. Work engagement can be defined as a positive and fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption. In this study, dedication was presumed to be the prerequisite of vigor and absorption and thus the main component of work engagement. A dedicated employee is strongly involved in his or her work and experiences a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five consultants and five supervisors working in the case company’s office in Tampere. The case company’s job satisfaction inquiry from the year 2012 was also utilized as an additional source of information. The research data were analyzed via content analysis and approached from a fact point of view. The findings of the study indicate that the case company’s consultants are dedicated and thus engaged in their work. The dedication enhancing themes among the consultants are appreciation, supervisor’s work support, social relationships and cooperation, supervisor’s genuine interest and caring, innovative activities and thoughts, success, trust, content and quantity of tasks, consultant’s personal characteristics, supervisor’s own example, significance of tasks, challenging work, and employer. Altogether the findings are in line with previous work engagement studies and hence supported by them. In order to utilize the findings of this study, the case company should next disseminate them to all of its supervisors in Finland so that they are able to incorporate them into their actions. Although challenges and resources seem to be in good balance at the company, it is important that the supervisors try to identify those challenges that are disabling rather than enabling and buffer their subordinates from these job demands. Additionally, the supervisors should take care that no one ends up being “over-engaged” or “over-dedicated” because it may lead to an imbalance between professional and private life and thus cause detrimental consequences to the individual and company. Taking the different needs and personalities of the consultants into account along with the limited resources supervisors have at their command, this study finds that fostering work engagement through dedication is an ongoing process which requires constant balancing from the case company’s supervisors. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 7 1.1 Introduction to the topic .............................................................................................. 7 1.2 Objectives and research questions ............................................................................ 10 1.3 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 11 1.4 Research process ....................................................................................................... 13 1.5 Structure of the study ................................................................................................ 15 2 WORK ENGAGEMENT AS PART OF OCCUPATIONAL WELL-BEING .......... 16 2.1 Occupational well-being ........................................................................................... 16 2.2 Positive psychology and antecedents of work engagement ...................................... 20 2.3 Conceptualization of work engagement .................................................................... 25 2.3.1 Work engagement – a positive form of work-related subjective well-being . 25 2.3.2 Job demands-resources model ....................................................................... 32 2.3.3 Measurement of work engagement ................................................................ 38 2.4 Prerequisites of work engagement ............................................................................ 39 2.4.1 Work engagement enhancing factors ............................................................. 40 2.4.2 The role of management ................................................................................ 48 2.4.3 Interventions .................................................................................................. 50 2.5 Individual and organizational outcomes of work engagement ................................. 54 2.6 Dark sides of work engagement ................................................................................ 58 2.7 Theoretical framework .............................................................................................. 61 3 EXECUTION OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 65 3.1 Selection of the interviewees .................................................................................... 65 3.2 Implementation of the interviews .............................................................................. 67 3.3 Job satisfaction inquiry ............................................................................................. 70 3.4 Content analysis as the data analysis method ........................................................... 71 4 WORK ENGAGEMENT IN THE CASE COMPANY: WHAT MAKES A DEDICATED EMPLOYEE? ......................................................................................... 75 4.1 Significance ............................................................................................................... 76 4.1.1 Prerequisites of experiencing work-related significance ............................... 76 4.1.2 Supervisor’s influence on experiencing significance .................................... 80 4.1.3 Reasons for the diminution of experienced significance ............................... 85 4.1.4 Changes in experiencing significance during career ..................................... 88 4.2 Enthusiasm ................................................................................................................ 88 4.2.1 Prerequisites of experiencing work-related enthusiasm ................................ 90 4.2.2 Supervisor’s influence on experiencing enthusiasm ...................................... 95 4.2.3 Reasons for the diminution of experienced enthusiasm .............................. 100 4.2.4 Changes in experiencing enthusiasm during career ..................................... 104 4.3 Pride ........................................................................................................................ 104 4.3.1 Prerequisites of experiencing work-related pride ........................................ 105 4.3.2 Supervisor’s influence on experiencing pride ............................................. 109 4.3.3 Reasons for the diminution of experienced pride ........................................ 114 4.3.4 Changes in experiencing pride during career .............................................. 117 4.4 Challenge ................................................................................................................. 117 4.4.1 Challenges at work....................................................................................... 118 4.4.2 Challenges balancing resources and actions ................................................ 123 4.4.3 Changes in the level of work-related challenges during career ................... 129 4.5 Research results ....................................................................................................... 130 4.5.1 Summary ...................................................................................................... 130 4.5.2 Dialogue between previous research and the present study ........................ 133 4.5.3 What can be done better? ............................................................................. 136 5 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 139 5.1 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 139 5.2 Contributions and suggestions for future research .................................................. 143 5.3 Evaluation and limitations of the study ................................................................... 146 5.4 Further measures ..................................................................................................... 149