Doctoral Dissertation

A Study of the Antecedents of Work Engagement（Summary）

WIDDY MUHAMMAD SABAR WIBAWA

Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation
Hiroshima University

September 2021

Work engagement has become a critical discussion in human resource management(HRM) field of research. It is realized as the crucial factor for the success and competitivenessof organizations. Therefore, it is fruitful to examine what factors drive employees’ engagement
to make organizations achieve those goals.
This dissertation investigates the antecedents of work engagement based on the job
demands and resources (JD-R) theory with its expanded version, by incorporating personal
resources as a boundary condition and leadership as an antecedent of job demands andresources. Based on the literature, this study addressed three potential gaps. All those threegaps are the basis of my three independent research that discussed in the chapter 2, 3, and 4.
This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces and integrates allstudies, including the background, purposes of the study, the foundation of the theory, theresearch questions, and the brief introduction of each independent research.
Chapter 2, 3, and 4 are the main analyses of study 1,2 and 3. Chapter 2 investigated theapplicability of JD-R theory for the individual with young and highly educated characteristics.
The observational data were collected from 152 participants of the awardee of Lembaga
Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP: Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education) scholarship
who had already worked for either public or private sectors. This study utilized perceived
organizational support (POS) and employee voice (EV) as job resources and emotional demand
as a type of job demand. This study found that POS had a positive correlation with work
engagement, while EV did not correlate. Furthermore, ED negatively correlated with work
engagement and did not moderate the relationship between those two job resources with work
engagement, respectively.
Chapter 3 adopted the expanded theory-based model for the sample of mostly young
graduate students with working experiences. Specifically, I analyzed the effect of ethicalleadership on work engagement and workaholism with the potential moderation effect of selfefficacy as a type of personal resource. I examined the effect of ethical leadership on work
engagement and workaholism that are argued to overlap conceptually each other, to have aclearer understanding of the process towards work engagement. By utilizing an experimental
research design (randomized trial control, RCT), I collected the data from the students of auniversity in Indonasia. This study found that ethical leadership had a positive effect on workengagement and has an insignificant effect on workaholism. Furthermore, self-efficacy did notmoderate the relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement and workaholism,
respectively.
Chapter 4 tested the effect of ethical and transformational leadership on work
engagement with the interaction effect of those two leadership styles and the moderation effectof PSM in the case of public sector employees. Transformational leadership was added tocompare the relative importance of the two leadership styles and examine their potential
interaction effect, in addition to re-examining the positive effect of ethical leadership provedin Chapter 3. PSM was chosen as a personal resource because it is likely to be an effective
moderator in the study case, public sector employees. The data were collected from 149employees of Ministry of Finance, Indonesia, assigned to study at the university in the ministry.
An RCT was implemented, and the findings were that both ethical and transformational
leadership positively affected work engagement. There was no interaction effect between theseleadership styles—moreover, PSM moderated only the relationship between ethical leadershipand work engagement.
Chapter 5 concluded based on all three empirical studies. As a whole, the JD-R theory
is considered to be partially applicable for work engagement because the applicability of job
resources and demands might depend on the type of individuals, workplaces, and culture. The
implications for academics and practitioners, limitations, and direction for further studies arealso discussed in this chapter.