PERSONALquarterly 3/2020

7 03/20 PERSONALquarterly Arnold Bakker: Yes, by proactively redesigning their own jobs so that the work is a better match with their needs and abilities. This is called job crafting. By taking the personal initiative to ask for support, feedback, and opportunities for development, employees can sustain or increase their own work engagement. PERSONALquarterly: Which future developments do you expect when it comes to managing engagement in organizations? Could “People Analytics” prove to be helpful, and how might “New Ways of Working” relate to engagement? Arnold Bakker: Well, with the current corona crisis, new ways of working have become very important. We have shown in research and theoretical analyses that employees can work anytime, anywhere, but that it is very important that they re- gulate their own energy and motivation. This can be done in several ways, for example through recovery activities (see the work by Prof. Sabine Sonnentag and her team), proactive vita- lity management, goal setting, self-rewarding, self-leadership, playful work design – the list is very long. On my website you can find a range of papers on these topics. PERSONALquarterly: Over the years, hundreds of studies have generated considerable knowledge about engagement. What are important unsettled issues that need to be addressed in future research? Arnold Bakker: Well, we do not know so much yet about momenta- ry engagement or engagement episodes – when and why does engagement change from activity to activity throughout the day? Also, we know relatively little about team work engage- ment – how do individuals in teams influence the engagement of the whole team and vice versa? As a final example, we still need much more research that links human resources manage- ment with employee work engagement. What structural inter- ventions can organizations use to increase work engagement and keep their employees engaged? PERSONALquarterly: What is your current research interest, and what might be important practical implications? Arnold Bakker: I am currently working on two rather new topics, namely playful work design and self-nudges to be physically active. Playful work design refers to the proactive behaviour through which an employee makes her work more fun or more competitive (more “playful”). Our first studies show that indivi- duals do have a natural tendency to use this strategy (particu- larly people with fantasy, who are creative, and who are open to new experiences), and when individuals use playful work design, they become more engaged and more creative – they al- so deal better with their job demands. Our nudging research is still in its infancy, but we see that people use various “nudges” that help them to make the choice to be physically active, to exercise, to walk, to use the stairs, etc. This is very important, PROF. DR. ARNOLD BAKKER Erasmus University Rotterdam Webseite: www.arnoldbakker.com Arnold Bakker is professor of Work and Organizational Psycho- logy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and head of the Center of Excellence for Positive Organizational Psychology. He is also (distinguished) visiting professor at the University of Johannes- burg and North-West University in Potchefstroom (both in South Africa), as well as the University of Zagreb (Croatia). Bakker is Past President of the European Association of Work & Organiza- tional Psychology, and was visiting professor at Lingnan Univer- sity (Hong Kong) between 2012 and 2018. He is the most cited social scientist of the Netherlands, and has been included in Thomson Reuters’ list of The World‘s Most Influential Scientific Minds since 2014. Bakker is particularly interested in positive organizational phenomena, including work engagement, job crafting, leadership, JD-R theory, playful work design, and job performance. particularly when people work at home like now during the corona crisis. Physical activity helps us to feel good, stay healthy, and reduce anxiety and depressive thoughts. It may also have important implications for my main research topic: work engagement.