Daily work events and state work engagement: the mediating role of affect / Eventos diarios y work engagement: el rol mediador del afecto

According to Affective Events Theory, the emotional elicitation process is initiated by the appraisal of affective events happening to employees. Moreover, the theory states that these elicited affective experiences influence attitude and behaviour in the workplace. In the present study this theoretical frame is applied to explain the interplay of variables influencing state work engagement. We analyse the mediating role of affect between work events’ appraisals and daily work engagement, using a diary study. One hundred and seventeen workers answered a daily questionnaire for at least 10 days generating a total of 1,203 registers. Multilevel analysis proved that daily events’ appraisal is positively related to state work engagement, and that this relationship is partially mediated by positive and negative affect. Moreover, the effect of positive affect was bigger than the one of negative affect. The explored relations provide new theoretical elements for models that explain which variables influence state work engagement.