Work engagement y su relación con la performance y la satisfacción laboral

The current work, based on the contributions of Positive Organizational Psychology, analyzed the concept of Work Engagement. On one side, the work aimed to explore the conceptions that people, who occupy a leader position, have about work engagement, through interviews which were carried out with 38 volunteers of the general population of the city of Buenos Aires and surroundings (18 males, 47.37%; 20 females, 52.63%). The mean age was 49.87 years old (DE = 9.48). According to the content analysis conducted, a series of categories were obtained that reflect conceptions about engagement. Moreover, the research analyzed the relationship between engagement, work performance and job satisfaction. It was used the Escala de Compromiso con el Trabajo (ECT) and some scales were designed ad hoc to assess job performance –at individual and organizational level– and job satisfaction. The second sample consisted of 100 volunteers of the general population (52 males, 52%; 48 females, 48%) who worked as employees in public and private organizations in the city of Buenos Aires. The mean age was 31.82 years old (DE = 10.18). The results showed positive associations among the three dimensions of work engagement and job performance (individual and organizational) as well as a positive association between the attention and energy dimensions and job satisfaction. In addition, women obtained higher scores on absorption and energy. These results are important in the applied labor field given the association of the psychological variable studied –engagement– with effective results.