Background: The German health care system has undergone radical changes in the last decades. These days health care professionals have to face economic demands, high performance pressure as well as high expectations from patients. To ensure high quality medicine and care, highly intrinsic motivated and work engaged health care professionals are strongly needed.
Objective: The aim of this study was to examine relations between personal and organizational resources as essential predictors for work engagement of German health care professionals.
Methods: This investigation has a cross-sectional questionnaire study design. Participants were a sample of hospital doctors. Personal strengths, working conditions and work engagement were measured by using the SWOPE-K9, COPE Brief Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Questionnaire, COPSOQ and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.
Results: Significant relations between physicians' personal strengths (e.g. resilience, optimism) and work engagement were evaluated. Work related factors showed to have a significant influence on work engagement. Differences in work engagement were also found with regard to socio-demographic variables.
Conclusion: Results demonstrated important relationships between personal and organizational resources and work engagement. Health care management needs to use this information to maintain or develop work engaging job conditions in hospitals as one key factor to ensure quality health care service.
Keywords: Health care; optimism; organizational resources; resilience; work engagement.