Measures Method 1 Participants and Procedures

387 psychological capital significantly predicted their job engagement  ˆ = .92, p .001; Model 3. Similarly, HLM results revealed that supervisors’ psychological capital significantly predicts subordinates’ psychological capital  ˆ = .15, p .05; Model 1. These results provide support for Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2, respectively. Table 1 presents the HLM results. In the first step, supervisors’ psychological capital needs to be related to job engagement. In support of this condition, HLM results revealed that supervisors’ psychological capital was significantly related to job engagement（  ˆ = .17, p .05; Model 2. In the second step, supervisors’ psychological capital needs to be related to subordinates’ psychological capital, which was supported in our testing of Hypothesis 2 above. Step 3 requires that individuals’ psychological capital be related to job engagement. This requirement was supported by the results of Hypothesis 1 see Model 3. Finally, in the fourth step, we included both individuals’ psychological capital and the mediators in the regression. As reported in Model 4 in Table 1, the effect of supervisors’ psychological capital was not significant（  ˆ = .06, ns, Model 4, but it was reduced in magnitude compared with the effect in step 1. Therefore, subordinates’ psychological capital mediated supervisors’ psychological capital on job engagement, providing support for Hypothesis 3. A Sobel 1982 test also confirmed that the indirect effect was significant t = 5.59, p .001.

5. Discussion

One of the critiques of positive organizational behavior raises concern about the utility of PsyCap with respect to job outcomes Avey, Luthans, Youssef, 2010; Luthans, et al., 2007; Walumbwa et al., 2010. However, at this stage in the development of positive organizational behavior , empirical analysis is need to assess whether PsyCap adds value to job engagement, which, to date, remains untested. This is the first study to examine the relationship between PsyCap and job engagement. This study supports that job engagement as a potential valuable positive psychological resource may lead to increased employee engagement. The findings thus provide empirical support for Sweetman and Luthans’ 2010 argument that a key component in developing job engagement can be found in developing PsyCap.