Organisational career growth and work engagement: a moderated mediation model

Purpose – Drawing from the Conservation of Resources Theory and Organisational Justice Theory, this study examined the direct and indirect (via career resilience) effects of organisational career growth on work engagement. We further examined the boundary condition of procedure justice in the relationship between organisational career growth, career resilience, and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach – We employed time-lagged data collected in three waves from 431 employees working in the public health sector. Hierarchical regression analysis and Hayes Process Macro were used to test the study hypotheses. Findings – The findings revealed that organisational career growth has a significant positive direct and indirect influence on work engagement in the presence of career resilience. Also, the boundary condition of procedural justice was significant for employees who perceived procedural justice to be high as opposed to low. Practical implications – Organisational career growth has a positive influence on employee work engagement. Therefore, public health organisations need to prioritise employee career growth by creating an enabling environment that will help employees' career prospects and mitigate employees’ perception of low procedural justice. Originality/value – The originality of this study is in empirically establishing career resilience as an underlying mechanism in the relationship between organisational career growth and work engagement while considering the interactive effect of procedural justice. Additionally, the originality of this paper is demonstrated by empirically establishing that a perceived high level of procedural justice helps healthcare employees improve their work engagement, thus deepening our understanding of work engagement amongst health professionals.