Different Levels, Same Relations? A Meta-Analysis on the Homology of the Nomological Network of (Daily) Work Engagement

Abstract

Work engagement has garnered significant attention from researchers and practitioners in recent decades, and several meta-analyses have examined its stable, between-person correlates. However, work engagement also has a dynamic component, meaning that it varies daily, across situations, and within individuals. Despite growing interest, the strength and direction of many associations within the nomological network of daily work engagement, as well as their consistency with the relations observed for stable manifestations of work engagement, remain unclear. In the present study, we meta-analyze within-person correlations of work engagement from daily diary studies (k = 230) and compare them to (a) meta-analytic between-person correlations based on aggregated daily scores and (b) true between-person correlations from earlier meta-analyses. Our findings reveal important similarities and differences in the nomological networks of daily and stable work engagement but generally demonstrate that predictions derived from major theories are invariant across levels of analyses. Yet, differences exist in the strength of relations, which could not be attributed to differences in reliabilities across levels or to aggregation bias, suggesting that theories should be refined to account for level-specific differences. We conclude by providing specific recommendations for the development and refinement of multilevel theories explaining work engagement.