Personal goal facilitation, burnout and work engagement: the role of self-discrepancy

Employees who perceive greater personal goal facilitation through work (PGFW) experience lower burnout and higher work engagement. This research examined whether self-discrepancies and emotional experiences explain these relationships across two cross-sectional studies involving a nationally representative sample of working adults (Study 1; N = 889) and a sample of public school teachers (Study 2; N = 228) in Singapore. Participants listed personal goals and rated how much their jobs facilitated these goals, alongside measures of self-discrepancy, emotions, burnout, and engagement. Across both samples, higher PGFW predicted lower burnout and greater engagement. These associations were consistently explained by lower ideal self-discrepancy and greater positive emotions, but less consistently explained by ought self-discrepancy and negative emotions. Findings suggest that organizations may reduce burnout and enhance engagement by fostering employees’ sense that their work supports attainment of their ideal self.