The Impact of Employee Engagement on Job Performance and Organisational Commitment in the Egyptian Banking Sector

Abstract

During the past two decades, employee engagement became a very popular managerial construct. Organisations use different engagement building tools in order to stay competitive and improve performance. Though there is an increasing contribution in human resource consulting agencies on the concept of employee engagement, yet there is a shortage of academic studies on that construct, especially in emerging economies countries. This engagement gap grew more in importance amidst the waves of ongoing recession and resource scarcity battles prevailing in the Middle Eastern Region, in general, and in Egypt in particular. This is an exploratory study that aims to identify the key drivers of employee engagement within the Egyptian context. It also studies the impact of employee engagement on job performance and organisational commitment based on social exchange theory (SET). A survey questionnaire was developed and validated. Regression analysis was used to predict and explain the proposed relationships. The study was conducted on 245 bank employees from several private and public banks operating in Cairo-Egypt with a response rate of about 81.6 % ( 200 employees) Pearson correlation matrix and regression were used to predict and estimate the relationships. Regression results indicated that leadership and organisational justice were the most significant drivers of employee engagement.. The mediation effect was confirmed. Employee engagement had significant impact on job performance, but less impact on organisational commitment. This study adds to the very few academic studies that have empirically investigated a comprehensive model of employee engagement drivers and outcomes. To the best of the author's knowledge, such a study is the first of its kind undertaken in the Egyptian context.