Firm performance in challenging business climates: does managerial work engagement make a difference?

Do more highly work-engaged managers contribute to firm performance? Leaning on the resource-based view, we propose managerial work engagement as a resource relevant to firm performance. Data from a representative survey of managers in Bangladesh support this and illuminate the role of the wider context in predicting work engagement. In less-corrupt environments with a more humane leadership culture, work engagement is more prevalent. In addition, individual work engagement is driven by firm-level factors and contributes independently to firm performance. This illustrates the mutual dependency between an individual manager’s work engagement and microeconomic determinants of firm performance.