CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Mokaya & Kipyegon (2014) are of the opinion that employee engagement involves creating prospects for employees to attach with their managers, colleagues & organizations. However, defining employee engagement is not straight forward; this is obvious from the existence of different definitions made by various researchers as each study examines employee engagement under a different procedure. Unless employee engagement can be universally defined and measured, it cannot be managed, nor can it be known if efforts to improve it are working. Employee engagement goes beyond job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement and organizational citizenship behavior. Employee engagement has been found to be related to employee cooperation, involvement, satisfaction and commitment; all of which have been used as proxies for employee engagement.

Kahn (1990) defines employee engagement as “the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances”. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement concerns employees’ beliefs about the organisation, its leaders and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organisation and its leaders. The physical aspect of employee engagement concerns the physical energies exerted by individuals to accomplish their roles. Thus, according to Kahn (1990), engagement means to be psychologically as well as physically present when occupying and performing an organizational role.

 However, employee engagement involves some functional variables which are beneficial to both the organisation and its employees, but are not limited to them. Such variables include employee voice, employee commitment, employee involvement, organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction. According to Armstrong (2012), employee voice refers to the say employees have in matters of concern to them in their organisation. If employees are allowed to have a say in matters of concern in the organisation, it will hence improve organizational performance. The performance of an organisation is also an important aspect of an organisation and thus, remains the most studied variable. It is hence the actual output or results of an organisation as measured against its intended outputs, objectives or goals. Organizations have however tried to explore ways to improve the behavioral outcomes of its employees. Some indicators of employee behavioral outcomes include, but are not limited to, employee retention, turnover intention, promotion opportunities, productivity, employee commitment, job satisfaction, workers participation in management activities. Performance is considered as all-around module of an organization’s human resource strategies. Employee engagement and behavior are critical for organizations because employees are the driving force to achieve the development and accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objectives.

Statement of the Problem

Staff engagement has been seems to be a focus among tertiary institution, business organizations and academic researchers, as well as issues pertaining to modern business environment. In the present turbulent and unpredictable Nigerian environment, the non-availability of employee voice in some universities has made turnover intention a major problem. The awareness of having a job but knowing that it is not secure is stressful and a burden on employees’ shoulders. However, despite the critical role of higher institutions in Nigeria play, the issue of engagement of employees by these universities and how it affects their behavioral outcomes and performance has been less documented. Most employees in these universities lack voice on matters of concern to them in the organisation, which is an important factor in employee engagement. The lack of engagement strategies has made turnover intention inevitable in these schools. These employees seem not to have an opinion on matters that affects them in the organisation due to the salient reason that most private universities are un-unionized. As a result of this, they are being viewed as not been committed and this affects their intentions of staying in the organisation.

 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to find out the impact of engagement strategies on staff behavioral on staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions, specifically the study intends to:

1.     Find out different work engagement strategies employers use

2.     Find out the impact of work engagement strategies on staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions

3.     Examine the factors that influences staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions

 Research Question

1.     What are the different work engagement strategies employers’ use?

2.     Is there any impact of work engagement strategies on staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions?

3.     What are the factors that influences staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions?

Research Hypothesis

Ho: there is no significant impact of work engagement strategies on staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions

Hi: there is significant impact of work engagement strategies on staff behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions

Significance of the Study

The research work will expose management of higher institutions and other organizations on the different work engagement and also the impact work engagement strategies can make on the behavioral outcomes in tertiary institutions.

Also this research work will be useful for researchers and other academicians as a guide and reference point.

 Scope of the Study

This research work will be conducted in Lagos state, the University of Lagos will be used for the research. As this research will examine related concepts and literatures on work engagement strategies and staff behavioral outcome

 Delimitation of the Study

Finance for the general research work will be a challenge during the course of study. Correspondents also might not be able to complete or willing to submit the questionnaires given to them.

However, it is believed that these constraints will be worked on by making the best use of the available materials and spending more than the necessary time in the research work. Therefore, it is strongly believed that despite these constraint, its effect on this research report will be minimal, thus, making the objective and significance of the study achievable.

Definition of Terms

Work engagement: the "harnessing of organization member's selves to their work roles