meyers s16

M.C. MeyersM. van Woerkom

Amsterdam, July 2014

The effects of a strengths intervention on employee well-being, psychological capital,

engagement & burnout

“Strengths are potentials for excellence” (Biswas-Diener et al., 2011)

STRENGTHS & INTERVENTIONS

A strengths intervention helps

participants to identify their strong

points (whatever they may be) and

encourages them to develop and use

their strengths.

(based on Quinlan et al., 2012)

• One afternoon: 4 ½ hours

• Groups of 40-45 participants

• 2 professional trainers

• Diverse work forms

Aims

• Visualize ideal future

• Plan how strengths can be used to realize this future

• Understand which resources can help in putting strengths to work

OUR STRENGTHS TRAINING

BENEFITS OF USING STRENGTHS

Participating in the strengths-based training increases…

1. positive affect

2. life satisfaction

3. psychological capital

4. work engagement

5. burnout

…of working people

HYPOTHESES

Group T1(pre)

Intervention T2(post)

T3(1 month)

Intervention

Experimental Group(N = 66)

x x x -

Waitlist Control Group (N = 63)

x - x x

RESEARCH DESIGN

6

Convenience sample of working adults working in diverse sectors

N = 129 (filled in all three questionnaires)

• Satisfaction with Life Scale SWLS (Diener et al., 1985)

• Positive and Negative Affect Schedule PANAS – PA scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988)

• Psychological Capital

• Life-Orientation Test – Revised LOT-R (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994)

• New General Self-Efficacy Scale NGSE (Chen, Gully, & Eden, 2001)

• Adult State Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1996)

• Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008)

• Utrecht Work Engagement Scale–9 UWES-9 (Schaufeli, Bakker, Salanova, 2006)

• Utrecht Burnout Scale UBOS-A (Schaufeli & van Dierendonck, 2000)

MEASURES

RESULTS: POSITIVE AFFECT

Wilk’s Lambda = .91, F(2,126) = 6.56, p <.01, partial eta squared = .09

RESULTS: PSYCAP

Wilk’s Lambda = .95, F(2,121) = 3.24, p <.05, partial eta squared = .05

RESULTS: SWLS

Wilk’s Lambda = .99, F(1,142) = 1.25, p =.27, partial eta squared = .01

RESULTS: ENGAGEMENT

Wilk’s Lambda = .99, F(1,135) = 1.23, p =.27, partial eta squared = .01

RESULTS: BURNOUT

Wilk’s Lambda = 1.0, F(1,138) = 1.23, p =.99, partial eta squared = .00

• Working on strengths enhances general well-being & psychological

capital

• PsyCap seems to be an important predictor of other positive

work-related outcomes, such as performance (Luthans et al.,

2008)

• No evidence for a positive effect on work-related forms of well-being

(engagement and burnout was found)

• there are a number of possible explanations, for instance the

lengths of the training

CONCLUSION

Limitations

• Convenience sample

• Big training groups

• Possible confounding factors

Future Research

• Conduct training with employees from 1-2 organizations

• Add more follow-up measurements (3/6/9/12 months)

• Optimize strengths interventions

LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH

Contact: m.c.meyers@uvt.nl

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION!