Job autonomy and employee strengths use: The roles of work engagement and job insecurity

Abstract

Employee strengths use has been found to be beneficial to employee and the employer organization. Yet, we have little knowledge on the antecedents to employee strengths use. Especially, there is a dearth of research investigating work characteristics and employee strengths use relationship. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study sought to investigate the relationship of job autonomy as a type of work characteristic with employee strengths use and the mediational effect of work engagement as well as the moderating effect of job insecurity on the relationship. A three-wave research design, spaced by a four-week interval, was utilized to collect data. A convenience sample of 218 employees working in diverse Chinese companies was applied to test our hypotheses. Results showed that job autonomy is positively related to employee strengths use, work engagement acts as a mediator in the link between job autonomy and employee strengths use. In addition, job insecurity was found to lessen the direct relationship of job autonomy with work engagement and the indirect relationship of job autonomy with employee strengths use via work engagement. This study advances the theory and research on employee strengths use.