The Role of Employee Engagement in Increasing Productivity at Juhel Nigeria Limited
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study was to investigate employee perceptions regarding the impact of employee engagement in increasing productivity at Juhel Nigeria limited.
CHAPTER TWO
CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter will conduct a literature review to establish what previous researchers have discovered on the relationship between employee engagement and productivity. It will start by presenting the theoretical framework that will be explained to shed light on the background of the study and then give definitions of the two constructs, employee engagement and productivity. The literature review will include both quantitative and qualitative studies. A global perspective on employee engagement together with the literature on engagement surveys will be given. Thereafter, prior studies that examined the drivers of employee engagement will be discussed followed by a review of the relationship between employee engagement and organizational outcomes. The barriers to employee engagement and the relevant engagement models have also been included. The summary gives a conclusion of the key findings from the literature reviews that have had a significant contribution through their findings. Lastly, a conceptual framework is drawn whereby the relationship between independent and dependent variable is shown. For this research, productivity and positive organizational outcomes will be used interchangeably.
Theoretical Framework
The Self Determination Theory (SDT) was used to study human motivation, personality and best functioning. Literature shows that the quality of motivation is what matters in predicting successful outcomes more than the amount of motivation. As described by Cherry (2016), SDT is centred on three psychological needs and is driven by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For people to engage, they need to feel competent, connected and autonomous. As applied to the study, if people experience positive meaning in their work, they become motivated to perform better because they experience a psychological sense of connectedness, competency and autonomy. People want more than just a salary, and are looking for a sense of belonging in their organisations and when they feel this, they become more engaged and motivated. According to Bhuvanaiah and Raya (2014) during the process of engagement the employee becomes self-motivated and is driven and energised to perform and thus increasing productivity. Employee engagement represents a motivational assemble and a forecaster of organizational outcomes. Theories such as social exchange theory (SET) and self-determination theory (SDT) have been advanced to explain employee engagement and organisational performance. In this study, SDT provides a framework to study employee engagement at UVS. The SDT claims that people are often motivated by external factors such as reward system, grades, evaluations or the opinions others have of them. It further explains that there is an interchange between these extrinsic forces with the intrinsic motives and individual needs.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study’s research methodology included a consideration of the research design, sampling, data collection, questionnaire design, and data analysis.
Research Design
This study followed the positivistic research paradigm and conclusions were drawn through logical reasoning, which involved building hypotheses from existing literature relating to the variables in the hypothesised model. The existing knowledge was thereafter subjected to empirical scrutiny by collecting quantitative data by means of questionnaires administered to respondents (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2010).
Population and Sample
The population of this study consisted of all employees of Juhel Nigeria limited. A total of 150 people were employed in the Juhel Nigeria limited during the time of the survey at the end of July 2020 (Juhel, HRMreport 2020).
Based on the extent the population covered, the non-probability sampling method was used for this study. Convenience sampling was employed. Employees from these organisation, and others that were known and easily reachable by the researcher and field workers, were selected to participate in the study. Furthermore, snowball sampling was used to identify additional respondents for inclusion in the study.
Data collection
Secondary data was collected by means of extensive literature reviews of the study variables, using national and international library databases of peer- reviewed journal articles, reports, books and internet sources. Primary data for this study was collected by means of the survey method using a combination of self- administered paper-based questionnaires and online questionnaires. Based on a targeted sample size of 95 responses, a total of 600 paper-based and 95 web- based questionnaires were distributed to eligible respondents in the Juhel Nigeria limited. A total of 80 useable questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 90 percent.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
The following sections discuss the empirical results of the study.
Demographics
The majority of the respondents (44 percent) were aged between 20 and 29 years, and 61 percent were female. In terms of the ethnic classification, the majority of the sample were yoruba at 33 percent followed by Ibos at 31 percent and Hausa who constituted 30 percent of the sample. In terms of educational qualifications, the majority of the respondents (29 percent) had a WACE certificate, followed respondents in possession of a national diploma (21 percent) and a bachelor’s degree (16 percent).
In terms of validity, the factor loadings presented in Table 1 indicate the correlation between the original variable and its factor. Hair et al. (2014) state that factor loadings greater than 0.30 can be considered significant if the sample size is greater than 350. As the sample size for this study was 428, a criterion of 0.40 was used as the cut-off point for valid factor loadings to determine construct validity.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
Based on the empirical results and hypothesis testing (summarised in Table 4), it was established that the one-dimensional construct of employee engagement improved organisational performance across all four dimensions of the BSC (H1– H4). This finding was in line with previous studies (Harter et al., 2002; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Saks, 2006). Financial performance in this study was measured by soliciting perceptions regarding the organisation’s profitability. The results showed that employee engagement had a significant and positive influence on financial performance (H1). This finding suggested that financial performance is predicted to improve as employees become more engaged in the workplace. The finding is supported by similar results in previous studies (Harter et al., 2002:276; Schneider, Macey, Barbera & Martin, 2009). Employee engagement contributes to increased profitability through employees exerting discretionary effort to increase revenue and reduce costs (Shuck et al., 2011).
The results indicated that employee engagement positively and significantly influenced customer performance (H2). Customer performance in this study was measured by evaluating perceptions related to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The results, therefore, suggested that engaged employees would lead to significant and positive improvements in customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. This finding is consistent with previous studies indicating that engaged employees create an outstanding service climate that influences customers’ favourable intentions, attitudes and cognitions towards the organisation’s products and services (Salanova, Agut & Peiro, 2005:1224). Engaged employees are strongly focussed on customer needs, and this gives customers a reason to return to the organisation when employees are in direct contact with customers.
Internal process performance was evaluated by items measuring productivity (the ratio of process outputs to inputs) and quality (the sum of features and characteristics of a product or service that satisfy customer needs). From the empirical results, it was evident that employee engagement significantly and positively influenced internal process performance (H3). This suggests that improving employee engagement will increase internal process performance related to productivity and quality. Previous studies concur, stating that engaged employees are more resourceful and willing to go the extra mile and are, therefore, more productive (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008:216). The proficiency with which engaged employees complete work tasks leads to higher quality performance, which enhances overall organisational performance (Kataria et al., 2014:49).
Employee engagement was found to influence the learning and innovation performance dimension of the BSC significantly and positively (H4). This finding suggests that organisations have increased capacity to improve on past performance, and adapt to change, when employee engagement is increased. Organisational learning hinges on engaged employees who acquire new knowledge and skills, and effectively apply this in the organisation to achieve competitive advantage. This finding is consistent with previous studies that revealed engagement results in employee proactive behaviour in taking personal initiative (being innovative) and pursuing learning goals (Sonnentag, 2003:525).
It can be concluded that employee engagement has a significantly positive impact on organisational productivity when performance is measured using the BSC.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that organisations create an enabling environment for employee engagement by providing sufficient organisational support to employees, to enhance their positive state-of-mind, which is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption. Social support should be provided to employees through coaching and feedback as well as nurturing positive work relations between co-workers and supervisors. Organisational support involves providing the necessary job resources to complete tasks efficiently.
Managers and supervisors should provide employees with sufficient latitude to exercise job control, and autonomy through participation in decision-making. Through recruitment and selection, managers and HR practitioners should ensure that employees experience work as meaningful by aligning employee personal values with their job role. This ensures that there is adequate job fit, which allows employees to experience physical and emotional comfort in their work. Furthermore, managers should allow employees the freedom to change the design and content of their jobs by choosing tasks or negotiating alternative job content. A positive work climate can be fostered through trust-building behaviours of open communication and openness to new ideas. Employees should be encouraged to take personal initiative by arranging working conditions with sufficient motivating and energising resources that engage employees.
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