The Effect of Access to Training and Development Opportunities, on Rates of Work Engagement, Within the U.S. Federal Workforce

Abstract

This study aims to identify how the access to training and development opportunities influence rates of work engagement in the U.S. federal workforce. Organizations with high rates of work engagement tend to be happier and more efficient than those with lower rates of work engagement. Studies have evidenced that organizational and managerial characteristics can promote work engagement among employees. Through the lens of high-performance work systems and the job demands-resource theory, access to training and development is used as both a high-performance work practice and a job resource to explore its effect on work engagement. Data were drawn from the 2017 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, a nationally representative sample of U.S. federal employees. By employing ordinary least squares analyses, this study shows that there is a positive correlation between having access to training and development opportunities and higher rates of work engagement across the federal workforce.