Abstract
Ongoing difficulties in promoting employee commitment confront the domain of higher education, hence, the importance of staff to help achieve institutional goals grows. For this to happen, employee engagement is key. This paper examined the issues of engagement or disengagement amongst employees, including job grades and the factors influencing this, at Durban University of Technology, South Africa. It adopted a quantitative and qualitative method of inquiry. The quantitative data collection targeted 420 employees utilizing questionnaires and obtained a response rate of 312 (74%). The qualitative aspect involved interviewing 12 out of 18 leadership personnel, giving a response rate of 67%. Also, descriptive and inferential analysis was used. Internal employee engagement demonstrated a significant difference across job level categories, F (4, 307) = 4.012, p = 0.003. There is also a significant difference in agreement mean score, which is lower for lecturer grade level (M = 2.5257, SD = 1.08359) than middle manager grade level (M = 3.2909, SD = 0.82396), showing that lecturer grade level is more engaged as compared to the middle manager level reflecting that the this level is not as engaged as it should be. Obtained qualitative results showed that there was minimal employee engagement. Overall, there was more employee disengagement than engagement at the institution, leading to employee stress, increased employee turnover, and minimal employee productivity. This can, in turn, affect institutional productivity. However, leadership viewed employee engagement as important and something to be further developed.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONHigher education (hereafter referred to as HE) employees are regularly under stress from the internal environment workloads, research outputs, student matters, and administrative issues, among others
Higher education employees are regularly under stress from the internal environment workloads, research outputs, student matters, and administrative issues, among others
There is a significant difference in agreement mean score, which is lower for lecturer grade level (M = 2.5257, SD = 1.08359) than middle manager grade level (M = 3.2909, SD = 0.82396), showing that lecturer grade level is more engaged as compared to the middle manager level reflecting that the this level is not as engaged as it should be
Summary
Higher education (hereafter referred to as HE) employees are regularly under stress from the internal environment workloads, research outputs, student matters, and administrative issues, among others. The external environment, such as public funding, autonomy issues, and transformation, to mention a few, compounds this. Administrative support staff functions in a similar environment as academic employees (Van Niekerk et al, 2017). Van Niekerk et al (2017) argue that the stress academic and support staff encounter would place further tension on interpersonal relationships. Academics and support staff play a vital part in the economic growth and future of SA (Van Niekerk et al, 2017). This paper examines the concept of EE to determine if employees are currently engaged on not and what could be the potential factors that influence employee engagement or disengagement within a HE setting
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
