2015/06/22 by Bradley P. Owens, Wayne E. Baker, Dana McDaniel Sumpter +1 · 370 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Health Professions · Psychology · #Applied psychology #Attachment and Relationship Dynamics #Community Health and Development #Computer science #Construct (python library) #Construct validity #Context (archaeology) #Developmental psychology #Energy (signal processing) #Interpersonal communication #Interpersonal relationship #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Job performance #Job satisfaction #Psychology #Psychometrics #Social psychology #Work (physics) #Work engagement
paper · doi:10.1037/apl0000032
published in Journal of Applied Psychology 101(1), 35-49 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2015/06/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Energy is emerging as a topic of importance to organizations, yet we have little understanding of how energy can be useful at an interpersonal level toward achieving workplace goals. We present the results of 4 studies aimed at developing, validating, and testing the relational energy construct. In Study 1, we report qualitative insights from 64 individuals about the experience and functioning of relational energy in the workplace. Study 2 draws from 3 employee samples to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a measure of relational energy, differentiating relational energy from related constructs. To test the predictive validity of the new relational energy scale, Study 3 comprises data from employees rating the level of relational energy they experienced during interactions with their leaders in a health services context. Results showed that relational energy employees experienced with their leaders at Time 1 predicted job engagement at Time 2 (1 month later), while controlling for the competing construct of perceived social support. Study 4 shows further differentiation of relational energy from leader-member exchange (LMX), replicates the positive relationship between relational energy (Time 1) and job engagement (Time 2), and shows that relational energy is positively associated with employee job performance (Time 3) through the mechanism of job engagement. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings and highlight areas for future research.