Daily Self-Efficacy, Work Engagement, and Deviance Behavior among Construction Professionals and Workers: Cross-Level Moderating Role of Job Control

Abstract

This study is based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and aimed to investigate the potential within-person relationships between self-efficacy, work engagement, and workplace deviance behavior on a daily level and the potential cross-level effect of job control among construction workers. Data were collected from 128 construction professionals and workers over five consecutive working days using the experience-sampling method. The hierarchical linear modeling results indicated that in construction professionals and workers, the daily experience of self-efficacy was positively associated with daily work engagement, which in turn negatively influenced daily deviance behavior at work. The results also revealed the cross-level moderating effect; job control strengthened the within-person suppressing impact of work engagement on deviance behavior. This study provides episodic evidence for the impact of self-efficacy on work engagement and deviance behavior in the workplace. These findings contribute to the positive psychology knowledge in construction projects by unveiling the psychosocial mechanism of construction professionals and workers through the daily diary survey method to capture the daily fluctuation of beliefs, engagement, and deviance behavior and by revealing the resource accumulation corollary of the COR theory and the motivation process of the JD-R model to highlight the facilitating function of personal and job resources.