Work engagement of employees who are parents of children with disabilities: empirical evidence from Singapore and the United Kingdom

Work engagement has attracted increased interest among human resource management scholars and practitioners. Within a family-work context, a population whose levels of work engagement has sparsely been previously studied has been that of employees who have children with special needs/disabilities (SND). These employees frequently face demanding responsibilities at home, a fact that may have implications in the workplace. Drawing on perceived family-work strain and organizational support literatures, we examine whether the disability severity of employees' children and the support provided by the supervisor may affect employees' levels of work engagement. Deriving data from two societies, those of Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK), the findings of this research may inform human resource management literature concerning the work engagement of employees who are parents of children with SND. Our two-society data collection rendered 430 usable questionnaires. Employees with children with SND in Singapore (n = 224) reported higher work engagement levels than employees in the UK (n = 206). Also, the research results confirmed that the relationship between child's disability severity and employee work engagement is moderated by the support provided by the supervisor. Setting the grounds for an international discussion about human resource management and family-support practices directed toward employees with children with SND, implications and recommendations for future research are offered.