TY - JOUR
T1 - Strength in Numbers: How Social Resources Travel Together to Increase Employee Engagement
AU - Murray, Peter
AU - Southey, Kim
AU - Marnie, Gibson
AU - Sands, John
AU - DLT, Ong
N1 - © 2025 The Author(s). Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
PY - 2025/4/1
Y1 - 2025/4/1
N2 - Based on a 2021 survey of 273 Australian workers across a range of occupations and industries, our structural equation modelling showed that workplace inclusion is a key driver of social resources for building employee engagement within the organisation. Relative to conservation of resources theory, we discovered that social support, social capital and workplace inclusion travel as ‘resource caravans’ in which a series of inter-relationships are activated that optimises their effectiveness in building employee engagement. Specifically, employees’ experiences of social support has a direct effect on employee engagement while social capital needs to be mediated by experiences of workplace inclusion in order for social capital to influence employees’ engaged state. In addition to the direct effect, social capital and social support reciprocally interact as concurrent resources that influence employee engagement through workplace inclusion. Meanwhile, social support increases its impact on employee engagement when mediated by workplace inclusion. We discuss HR practice implications for cultivating social support and social capital via workplace inclusion initiatives, that as a package of job resources, offer clear efficiency improvements in building employee engagement.
AB - Based on a 2021 survey of 273 Australian workers across a range of occupations and industries, our structural equation modelling showed that workplace inclusion is a key driver of social resources for building employee engagement within the organisation. Relative to conservation of resources theory, we discovered that social support, social capital and workplace inclusion travel as ‘resource caravans’ in which a series of inter-relationships are activated that optimises their effectiveness in building employee engagement. Specifically, employees’ experiences of social support has a direct effect on employee engagement while social capital needs to be mediated by experiences of workplace inclusion in order for social capital to influence employees’ engaged state. In addition to the direct effect, social capital and social support reciprocally interact as concurrent resources that influence employee engagement through workplace inclusion. Meanwhile, social support increases its impact on employee engagement when mediated by workplace inclusion. We discuss HR practice implications for cultivating social support and social capital via workplace inclusion initiatives, that as a package of job resources, offer clear efficiency improvements in building employee engagement.
KW - diversity
KW - human capital
KW - human resource management
KW - quality of work life
KW - social networks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105000235300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1744-7941.70008
DO - 10.1111/1744-7941.70008
M3 - Article
SN - 1038-4111
VL - 63
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources
JF - Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources
IS - 2
M1 - e70008
ER -