JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Work engagement is an important determinant of workers’ well-being. According to the Job Demands-Resources model, personal resources are one of the antecedents of work engagement. Enhancing personal resources leads to improved work engagement. Further, positively reflecting on one’s achievements at work may enhance personal resources. Hence, there is a need for a simple tool such as a smartphone application that can be used by employees to record and reflect on their work accomplishments.

Objective:

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a smartphone-based diary (i.e., Work Engagement Diary: WEDiary) that promotes positive reflection in daily working life on work engagement among Japanese workers in a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Methods:

Six hundred Japanese workers who met the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to either the intervention group or the wait-list control group (300 participants each). Participants in the intervention group kept the WEDiary for two weeks, whereby they were required to set a weekly goal at the beginning of the week and fill in their work achievements at the end of the day. Those in the wait-list control group did not receive any interventions until they completed a follow-up survey. Work engagement was assessed at pre-intervention (T1), post-intervention (T2), and three-week after-intervention (T3) in both the groups

Results:

A mixed model for repeated measures conditional growth model analysis using intention-to-treat revealed a significant improvement in work engagement for the intervention group compared to the wait-list group throughout the study period (P = .04). Effect sizes were small on work engagement for T1 vs. T2 (Cohen’s d = 0.11 [95% CI: -0.06 to 0.28]) and for T1 vs. T3 (Cohen’s d = 0.12 [95% CI: -0.06 to 0.28]).

Conclusions:

This RCT demonstrated that our newly developed smartphone-based positive reflection diary at work effectively improved work engagement among Japanese workers. Future research needs to clarify longer-term intervention effects and detailed mechanisms of the intervention effects. Clinical Trial: The study protocol was registered at the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000038430).