Editorial Board

A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management

Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in Improving Productivity among Employees

Dr. Subhadeep Chakraborty

Assistant Professor

Department of Commerce

Digboi College

chakrasubha13@gmail.com

Prof. (Dr.) Pranjal Bezborah

Professor (Retired)

Department of Commerce

Dibrugarh University

 pranjalbezborah@yahoo.in

 Pradip Ch. Das

Assistant Professor

Department of Commerce

Digboi College

pradip3@gmail.com

Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in Improving Productivity among Employees

Abstract

The study focuses on highlighting the link between employee engagement and employees’ productivity. The study also aims to assess the link that exists between independent variables (i.e career development, leadership, pay and benefits, health and safety and employee satisfaction) and employee engagement. Responses have been collected from 56 employees working in different sectors. Snowball sampling technique has been adopted for the study.

Keywords: Career development, leadership, pay and benefits, health and safety and employee satisfaction, employee engagement, employees’ productivity

Introduction

The dedication and enthusiasm with which an employee is involved into his job in the organization is known as employee engagement. It is perceived that an engaged employee is an asset for the organization. Since every organization spends a lot on employees’ training and development and maintenance so it wants to retain its employees throughout their service period. But in today’s competitive scenario, every employee requires better work environment with better opportunities and benefits. If at any time they feel that their rights are compromised and they are deprived of economic, social and personal benefits, they feel switching over to other jobs. No organization wants to lose its human resource at any cost. Henceforth, they want to provide all sorts of benefits to their employees and keep themselves engaged with their work; because employee engagement may lead to employees’ productivity in the organization.

Employee engagement can be defined under three different facets viz intellectual engagement, affective engagement and social engagement. (Chandani, A. et al, 2016). Disengaged employees are liabilities for the organization; because they are unhappy with their job and an employee who is not satisfied with his job will never be productive for his organization. So, organizations try to engage employees from intellectual, affective and on social aspects.

Conceptual Framework

With literature review, a conceptual framework has been designed with independent and dependent variables. All the factors leading to employee engagement like career development, leadership, pay and benefits, health and safety &employee satisfaction are considered as independent variables. The study focuses on establishing the link between dependent, mediating and independent variables.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

                                                                H1

                                                                                H2

                                                                H3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          H6

                                                                H4

                                                 H5                                        

(Source: Previous Literature)

Career development denotes all the opportunities that organizations provide to make the employees and their career better, make them better professional, enrich their skills, etc. Leadership on the other hand is to provide employees opportunity to act them in the team or a group, excel in taking group decisions, represent the group or team members before management, etc. Employees work in the organization for monetary and non monetary benefits. So any kind of compensation that organization provides to employees is called as pay and benefits. Likewise when employees work in an organization they expect a good work environment where they can feel safe and secured. They also require hygiene and minimum health facilities. The most important of all these is to make employees satisfied with their job. An employee may receive a good pay, career development and other facilities still he may feel switch over his job to other institutions. And reason might be his dissatisfaction towards his job. So, unless and until he gets satisfied with his job, he can never feel involved in the organization. If an employee is satisfied, he can give his best and that results into organization success. And that success might be the outcome of increase in employees’ productivity.

Objectives & Hypotheses

The study aims to find out thelink exists between employee engagement and employees’ productivity. The study also aims to assess the link that exists between input variable (career development, leadership, pay and benefits, health and safety and employee satisfaction) and employee engagement.

Some of the hypotheses of the study are:

H₁: Career development is positively linked to employee engagement

H₂: Leadership is positively linked to employee engagement

H₃: Payand benefits are positively linked to employee engagement

H₄: Health and safety are positively linked to employee engagement

H₅:Employee satisfaction is positively linked to employee engagement

H₆: Employee engagement is positively linked to employees’ productivity

Method

Responses have been collected from 56 employees working in different sectors. An online structured questionnaire consisting of 22 items has been preparedfor collecting the responses. For each statement, five (5) point likert scale has been adopted (where 1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= neutral, 4= agree and 5=strongly agree).  Snowball sampling technique has been adopted for the study.  Regression analysis and chi square test has been conducted for statistical analysis of the data. 

Results of the study

Table 1: Reliability Statistics

 “Reliability concerns with the measurement of a phenomenon that provides consistent result” (Carmines and Zeller, 1979). “Cronbach Alpha coefficient is a frequently used internal consistency measure of reliability when Likert scales have been used” (Whitley, 2002). “The reliability coefficient of 0.70 is adequate for research instruments” (Whitley, 2002). The cronbach’s alpha coefficient indicates that items have high internal consistency.

Table 2: Model Summary

Predictors: (Constant), Job satisfaction,

Predictors: (Constant), Job satisfaction, Employees’ motivation

Predictors: (Constant), Job satisfaction, Employees’ motivation, Employees’ performance

Dependent Variable: Reward

(Source: Data analysis)

The value of present adjusted R² for the present regression model is .501 which indicates that 50.1% of the variations in employees’ reward can be explained by the three-variables.                                                                 

Table 3: Coefficients

(Source: Data analysis)

The final regression model suggests that employee satisfaction (p<.005, β= .253) has come out to be the most statistically significant variable in predicting employee engagement followed by career development (p<.005, β= .227) pay and benefits (p<.005, β=.215), leadership (p<.005, β= .211) and health and safety (p<.005, β= .202). The regression equation is formulated based on unstandardized coefficients (B) is as follows:

Y= .234+.253X¹+.227X² +.215X³+.211X⁴+.202X⁵

Table 4:  Relationship between employee engagement and employees’ productivity

It is seen that the P-value i.e., 0.000<0.05, which indicates that there is relationship between employee engagement and employees’ productivity.

Discussion and Conclusion

The rationale of the study was conducted to examine the link between employee engagement and factors affecting employee engagement. The study was also conducted to assess the linkbetween employee engagement and employee productivity. Markos, S. (2010) revealed employees who are not dedicated towards their job in the organization tend to waste time in the organization. Moreover it is also found that that engaged employees tend to demonstrate emotional job attachment and higher productivity. (Abraham, 2012; Shuck, et al, 2011).

The result indicates that all the independent variables i.e., career development, leadership, pay, and benefits, employee satisfaction have positive association with employee engagement. The study also revealed employee engagement lead to employees’ productivity. It is not a rule of thumb that only technology or scientific innovations bring organizational success. But in most cases it is seen that it is the human resource that brings change in the organization and that beings change in fate for the organization in the positive direction. The corporate giants treat their employees as their main resource and give them ample opportunities to excel them so that they can be productive for the organization.

Therefore, all the organizations should make sure that they handle their employees properly and provide them adequate benefits (both monetary and non monetary) so that they can impart a sense of engagement among employees.

References

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