Dynamics of Global and Organizational Self-Esteem at Work

ABSTRACT

Self-esteem represents one of the most important workers’ resources, and has been studied from two different perspectives conceiving self-esteem (1) as a global (i.e., global self-esteem, GSE), or (2) as a domain-specific construct (i.e., organization-based self-esteem, OBSE). To our knowledge, no study has addressed the dynamic relations between these two different self-esteem expressions and their concurrent value as useful work-related personal resources. In this study, we addressed this issue using six-wave longitudinal data weekly gathered from N = 279 full-time workers. We privileged the analysis of the dynamic relationships between GSE and OBSE at the state level, with a close eye on their different impacts on important organizational outcomes. Results from Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel models revealed that GSE and OBSE did not predict each other over time, despite being concurrently closely associated within each wave. The same close relation between GSE and OBSE was observed at a trait level. Importantly, rigorous concurrent predictive models revealed that neither GSE nor OBSE predicted or were predicted by the outcomes considered in the present study (i.e., job satisfaction and work engagement). We deeply discussed the implications of these results for refining our understanding of the value of these important self-esteem expressions at work.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-esteem at work
• self-esteem dynamics
• global self-esteem
• organization-based self-esteem
• random intercept cross-lagged models
• top-down and bottom-up effects

Disclosure statement

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

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request

Notes

1. We decided to use this estimator because most of the items of our scales were non-normally distributed.