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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
