Psychosocial Working Conditions and Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

With the evolution of the global landscape towards remote work, the working conditions of such arrangements tend to pique the interest of researchers. This framework seeks to assess the role of psychological well-being as a mediator between job demands, social support, family-work conflict, and work engagement by combining Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Boundary theory. Quantitative designs utilizing cross-sectional studies have been conducted. A total of 315 Malaysian employees with remote working experience were recruited as respondents via homogeneous sampling. The COPSOQ II was used to assess job demands and social support, the WAFCS to assess work-family conflict, and the WHO-5 to assess psychological well-being. The Hayes Process Macro Version 4 was employed for hypothesis testing. The results indicate that job demands and social support are significant predictors of work engagement, but work-family conflict is not. For mediation analyses, it was found that psychological well-being mediates the relationship between job demands, social support, work-family conflict, and work engagement. This study offers empirical support for the conceptual framework of JD-R model, COR theory, and boundary theory as a means of predicting work engagement in remote work settings. HR professionals and organizations considering the implementation of work-from-home policies can gain valuable insights from this study, which can be used to develop policies and procedures that promote employee engagement, productivity, and well-being.