What are the differences between flow and work engagement? A systematic review of positive intervention research

ABSTRACT

Flow and work engagement are related concepts, and both are commonly applied and studied in the workplace. This review makes an attempt to define the potential differences and relationships between flow and engagement in the workplace. Based on a systematic review of the extant positive interventions designed to enhance flow and work engagement, meaningful differences between flow and work engagement interventions were found in terms of the mechanisms of the interventions, the types of interventions, and the intervention approach (i.e. personal vs. contextual and deficit-fixing vs. strengths-building). The review concludes that flow interventions can make important contributions above and beyond work engagement interventions. The findings illuminate the conceptual and empirical differences between flow and work engagement interventions, and suggest new directions for flow and engagement intervention research in the workplace.

KEYWORDS:

• Flow
• work engagement
• positive intervention
• theory-driven evaluation
• workplace

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to dedicate this article to our professor and colleague Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, widely known as the “Father of Flow.” Mihaly was an amazing pioneer focused on building the science of positive psychology, a nurturing mentor, and inspiration for our work and careers. We would also like to sincerely express our appreciation of Professor Jeanne Nakamura for sharing her expertise, guidance, and suggestions for improving our work on the science of flow.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Please contact the first author if you are interested in working with the data reported in this manuscript. The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at http://doi.org/10.4121/16880545.

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2036798.