Abstract
Adopting total quality management (TQM) program in an organisation may have consequences not only for organisational outcomes but also for employee work behaviour. Therefore, this study investigates the conceptual and empirical link between TQM practices, job satisfaction, and employee work engagement. Cross-sectional survey design, quota, proportionate and simple random sampling were used to draw 300 participants from the study population, out of which 190 responded and n = 183(61%) usable responses to the questionnaire designed for the purpose from employees of a food and beverage multinational company in Lagos metropolis were obtained. Regression and correlation analyses were used to analyse the study data. Significant positive relationship was found between dimensions of TQM practices (leadership and management support, employee participation, training, reward and recognition, and customer focus), job satisfaction and employee work engagement. After controlling for sex, age and experience, job satisfaction and TQM practices construct jointly and independently predicted employee work engagement. Also, job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between TQM practices and work engagement. The implications of soft TQM implementation on employee job satisfaction for achieving highly engaged workforce are discussed.
Highlights
In the last two decades employee engagement has attracted spirited research interest ranging from its conceptualisations, construct clarifications, understanding its anteced-Kahn (1990, p. 700) in his ground-breaking study defined engagement as “the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self ’ in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to others, personal presence, and active, full role performance on the job”
This study investigated the nexus between the total quality management (TQM) practices, job satisfaction and employee work engagement as well as the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between TQM practices and employee work engagement
The study concludes that TQM practices and job satisfaction have significant positive relationship with employee work engagement
Summary
In the last two decades employee engagement has attracted spirited research interest ranging from its conceptualisations, construct clarifications, understanding its anteced-Kahn (1990, p. 700) in his ground-breaking study defined engagement as “the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self ’ in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to others, personal presence (physical, cognitive, and emotional), and active, full role performance on the job”. A more recent conceptualisation asserts that job satisfaction refers to the emotional and intellectual fulfilment one receives from various aspects of one’s job (Cantarelli, Belardinell & Belle, 2016). Having established this distinction, researchers have made further efforts to examine the possible link between job satisfaction and some employee work outcomes (Kumar, Maiti & Gunasekaran, 2018; Amin & Ahmad, 2015; Snape, Wilkinson & Marchington, 1995), but what with employee work engagement? An understanding of how employees feel about their job is essential for the type of labor services they are expected to render for their organisation (Cantarelli et al, 2016)
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