What Is the Connection between Fear and Engagement?

Is there a relationship between fear and employee engagement?

High fear led to lower psychological acceptance which led to lower work engagement in high demand jobs

Research by D. Matthew T. Clark and Natalie J. Loxton (Personality and Individual Differences, 2012) at the University of Queensland suggests that fear predicted lower psychological acceptance. Lower psychological acceptance, in turn, was associated with lower work engagement.

This indirect effect on engagement was only evident when the job was considered demanding.

Fear and employee engagement–focus on demanding jobs

The authors state that interventions to improve engagement in highly demanding jobs might include targeting psychological acceptance. According to Clark and Loxton, the definition of psychological acceptance is accepting thoughts and feelings. Based on this research, in highly demanding jobs, to improve employee engagement, one could target the intervening cognitive process of psychological acceptance through enhancement of psychological interventions.