Work Design Characteristics, Job Performance and Job Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Work design is a key antecedent of individual job outcomes, yet the mechanisms linking specific work design characteristics with performance and job satisfaction remain insufficiently understood. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 384 workers from diverse organizations in Chile (M age = 39.28; 57% women), and data were analyzed using regression-based mediation analysis with bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (5000 resamples) to test a mediation model examining the role of work engagement in the relationship between motivational and social work design characteristics and three outcomes: task performance, contextual performance, and job satisfaction. Results showed that engagement mediated the relationship between motivational work characteristics and all three outcomes, providing empirical support for this mediation pathway; in contrast, although social work characteristics were associated with the outcomes at the bivariate level, they were not related to engagement once other predictors were considered, yielding no support for their indirect effect through engagement. These findings extend the Integrated Work Design Framework by positioning engagement as a key psychological mechanism through which motivational work characteristics translate into individual outcomes, while highlighting that social characteristics may operate through alternative pathways, with theoretical and practical implications for work redesign and human resource management.