From the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs (BMPN) to Employee Engagement: Indicators that Matter

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate if confidence, interest, authenticity, and loneliness as independent variables, could help predict employee engagement, the dependent variable. In this setting, the independent variables were indicators of the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs (BMPN) and the dependent variable was obtained using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). After surveying 151 participants in the United States, 17 responses were removed from the final dataset during data and assumptions validation. A multiple regression model was created using the remaining 134 valid cases. Our findings confirmed the existence of a statistically significant relationship between confidence, interest, and authenticity in predicting employee engagement. Only, we could not establish a statistically significant relationship between loneliness and engagement, in contrast to some prior research studies. These findings have significant implications for practitioners and researchers as documented in this article. For example, the findings can be useful for employees in determining their future career path, as they need to first look at what interests them. Indeed, interest was identified as the greatest determinant of engagement as compared to the other three predictors. These findings also suggest that managers can keep their employees engaged by assigning them functions or tasks that are aligned with their interests.