Using EENDEED to Measure Remote Employee Engagement: Influence of the Sense of Belonging at Work and the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) on Virtual Employee Engagement

Abstract

One organizational trend inherited from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased number of remote workers around the world. Extending and validating previous knowledge on traditional workplace employees to the growing population of remote workers is a requirement for research communities, and employee engagement is one of them. Using EENDEED, a validated instrument for measuring remote employee engagement, this study analyzed the influence of 1) belongingness or sense of belonging at work and 2) Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), on remote employee engagement. After uncovering the 2-factor structure of belongingness (positive and negative belongingness) and validating the 2-factor structure of EENDEED which includes PERFORMANCE and SELF-RELIANCE, a multiple regression analysis was conducted on a dataset of 267 participants, all remote workers within the United States of America. The results of the statistical analysis confirmed the existence of a significant positive relationship between LMX and EENDEED, as well as positive belongingness and EENDEED. Findings showed that there was no significant relationship between negative sense of belonging and remote employee engagement. The study also confirmed LMX to be a better influencer of engagement as compared to belongingness. This research contributed to knowledge by extending the relationship between LMX, belongingness, and engagement to the population of remote employees. In other words, the perceived notion of the relationship between the managers and their remote employees from the employees’ perspective is of great importance in keeping the employees engaged.