Development climate and work engagement: a multilevel study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative impact of psychological HRD climate and HRD climate quality on work engagement. In addition, the paper attempts to examine the boundary conditions of the proposed relationship by proposing and testing HRD climate strength as the moderator of the relationship between psychological HRD climate, HRD climate quality and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from a total of 375 business executives from select business organizations in India using standardized measurement instruments. As the present study involved variables at different levels of analysis, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) approach was utilized for the purpose of data analyses. Findings - The results of HLM revealed that the shared employee perception of development climate accounted for significant percentage of between person variance in work engagement above and beyond individual climate perceptions. HRD climate strength was found to moderate the psychological HRD climate and work engagement relationship but the interaction of HRD climate strength with HRD climate quality did not add further to the understanding of work engagement process. Practical implications - The findings of the present research imply that creating a climate of human resource development is a compelling intervention, which could provide competitive advantage to the firm in terms of enhanced work engagement levels among employees. Originality/value - The study established the importance of social system or social interaction climate in its own right by demonstrating its unique effects on individual attitudes over individuals’ idiosyncratic perceptions.