Cognition, Affect and State Work Engagement: A Diary Study = Cognición, afecto y State Work Engagement: un estudio diario

There is a new trend in organizational psychology to address the transient nature of constructs through intra-individual studies. This approach is mostly used to understand phenomena which are highly sensitive to changes in the environment and to internal states in workers, such as the intra-individual variation in well-being related concepts such as cognition, affect and motivational states. Traditionally the concept of work engagement has been considered and studied as a relatively stable-in-time concept, a great portion of research has been carried out with transactional designs and with self-report questionnaires. However, this methodology does not allow capturing the variability and fluctuations of the state and intra-individual transient cognitive and affective states of work engagement. Therefore, this dissertation aims to address the study of the intra-individual variables of cognition and affect that could be related to the daily state work engagement and explain how they are related. In order to capture the fluctuations of the cognitive, affective and motivational states, in this thesis diary experiences of 117 workers on 1170 work events were collected and analyzed with a longitudinal methodology and the diary technique. As a result, this dissertation proposes theoretical framework and reports three empirical studies to understand how the internal variables of the individual are related in a dynamic and transient process and which variables foster or inhibit work engagement. Upon the basis of the empirical studies, a model is proposed to explain how the antecedents of state work engagement function and which are some moderators of transient affect. The results highlight the importance of the temporary character of states such as affect, daily work engagement and cognitive appraisals about events at work. It proposes a multilevel approach to study the dynamics of the process that generates work engagement on a daily basis. To conclude, in the final chapter, practical managerial implication and future avenues of research are discussed.