Research has generally conceptualized work engagement as a relatively stable variable
because of the continued presence of specific job and organizational characteristics
(Macey & Schneider, 2008). Nevertheless, it can be assumed that there are short-term
(i.e. daily or weekly) fluctuations in the experience of work engagement within one
person. Experience sampling studies and diary studies have indeed shown that withinindividual
variations in work engagement do exist (e.g. Sonnentag, 2003). In other
words, work engagement does not only differ between individuals but also shows
within-person variability over time. To capture these fluctuations in work engagement,
we use the diary study method in the present study. We expect that weekly variations in
job resources will be related to weekly variations in work engagement