Relationships between intrinsic motivation, social support and work engagement of shift workers in a South African chemical company

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate whether statistically and practically significant positive relationships exist between intrinsic motivation, social support and work engagement of shift workers in a South African Chemical Company. The expected outcome was to find statistically and practically significant positive correlations between these variables for these workers. A cross sectional survey was conducted among a sample of 207 shift workers from a South African Chemical Company. Data was collected by means of existing standardised and validated questionnaires, to measure intrinsic motivation (six-item measure) validated by Kuvaas and Dysvik, 2009, perceived social support (Work Experiences Scale, May, Gilson, & Harter, 2004), and work engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Henn & Barkhuizen, 2009; Shimazu & Schaufeli, 2009). The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients. The results showed that there were statistically and practically significant positive relationships between these variables for this sample group