The antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery: The case study of government departments in Harare

Jacob Shenje,Tawaziwa Wushe

doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1082

Abstract

Orientation: Employee engagement has become an impetus behind business success and a deciding factor for service delivery, especially in the Zimbabwean public sector.Research purpose: This study sought to investigate the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery with reference to selected government departments in Harare.Motivation for the study: The government departments in Harare have witnessed gross employee disengagement as indicated by reduced employee commitment and high absenteeism.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. A structured questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to 260 employees and management working in five selected government departments.Main findings: This study showed that the antecedents of employee engagement such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures greatly influenced employee engagement in the public sector. The study also noted that employee engagement positively impacted service delivery in the public sector.Practical/managerial implications: An important implication of this study is the need for the public sector management to understand the significance of the social exchange for employee engagement and to provide employees with resources and benefits that would oblige them to perform productively.Contribution/value-add: This study is expected to enrich the empirical evidence on the antecedents of employee engagement and also provide recommendations for practitioners in investigating the influence of employee engagement on service delivery in the public sector.

Highlights

OrientationThe current operating business environment has been compelling both public and private sector organisations to come up with new strategies to adapt to fast-changing circumstances in terms of the workforce
This study showed that training and career development had an indirect positive association with service delivery in the public sector (r = 0.53, p < 0.05)
This study showed that employee engagement mediated the antecedents such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures

Summary

Introduction

The current operating business environment has been compelling both public and private sector organisations to come up with new strategies to adapt to fast-changing circumstances in terms of the workforce. The public sector organisations had been facing employee turnovers as they look for greener pastures and new responsibilities and challenges. Employees who are not engaged will affect the organisational service delivery through higher absenteeism, higher turnover and lower productivity, recruitment and training cost (Crawford, Rich, Buckman, & Bergeron, 2013; Meutia, Tubagus, & Ahmad, 2017). Highperforming employees have become the most important asset that organisations have at a time when production economy has been shifting towards service economy (AbuKhalifeh & Ahmad, 2013; Ortiz, Cernas, Lau, & Qin, 2013). Engaged employees have become true impetus behind business success through efficient service delivery and three times more sincere towards their jobs in comparison to actively disengaged employees

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Conclusion