ABSRACT
Positive organizational practices and employee engagement were the constructs tested and examined in this study to see their effect on organizational performance. Positive organizational practices are positive practices that the organization engages in the organization. Data was collected from a sample of 111 workers around Abraka, age range, male 47.7%, female 53.3% and marital status; single 47.7% and married 52.3%. Delta State using a research questionnaire and was coded and analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis and multiple regressing analysis. The results from the analysis showed that both positive organizational practices and employee engagement are predictors of organizational performance.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Cover page - - - - - - - -
i
Title page - - - - - - - - -
ii
Certification - - - - - - - - -
iii
Dedication - - - - - - - - -
iv
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - - v
Abstract - - - - - - - - -
vii
Table of Contents - - - - - - - - - vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study - - - - - 1
1.2
Statement of the Problem - - - -
- 8
1.3
Research Questions - - - - - -
9
1.4
Objectives of the study - - - - - 9
1.5
Significance of the Study - - - - - 10
1.6
Scope of the Study - - - - - -
10
1.7
Operational Definition of Terms - - - -
11
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Positive
Organizational Practices- - - - - 12
2.1.1 Dimensions
of Positive Organizational Practices - - - 14
2.2 Employee
Engagement- - - -
- - 17
2.2.1 Dimensions
of Employee Engagement- - - -
22
2.2.2 Importance & Advantages of Employee Engagement- - 22
2.3 Organizational Performance - - - - -
24
2.4 Positive Organizational Practices and
Organizational Performance 28
2.5 Employee
Engagement and
Organizational Performance - - 30
2.6 Research Hypotheses - - - - - -
31
CHAPTER THREE: REARCH METHOD
3.1
Research Design - - - - - - 33
3.2
Population of the Study - - - - -
33
3.3
Sample and Sampling Techniques - - - -
34
3.4
Research Instruments - - - - - -
34
3.5
Method of data collection- - - - - 36
3.6
Method of Data Analyses - - - - - 36
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1
Description of the sample- - - - - 38
4.2
Testing
of Research Hypothesis- - - - -
42
4.3
List of Research Findings - - - - - 44
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1
Discussions - - - - - - - -
45
5.2
Conclusion- - - - - - - - -
46
5.3
Recommendations - - - - - - - 46
5.4
Limitations
and suggestions for Further Studies- - - - 47
REFERENCES - - - - -
- - 48
APPENDIX I (Research
Questionnaire) - - - - 53
APPENDIX II (SPSS Output) - - - -
- 55
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
Emphasis on
positivity in organizations is increasing, although
positive practices is not a novel construct, scientific enquiry into the topic
has been scarce (Janse van Rensburg&Rothmann, 2020). Not much research on
the topic has been done. Increasing attention is being given to the term
―"positive" in organizational studies, and positivity has become a
popular topic with consultants, self-help advocates, and change agents. This
term, however, has created controversy among organizational scholars and has
spawned skeptics as well as advocates. The term ―positive is accused of a
potentially restrictive connotation and values bias (George, 2004; Fineman,
2006) and is criticized as implying that most organizational science is
negative, that an ethnocentric bias is represented, that a narrow moral agenda
is being pursued, or that non-rigorous concepts are being espoused without
theoretical grounding (Hackman, 2008). The term has been credited, on the other
hand, with expanding and enriching the domain that explains performance in
organizations and with opening up, rather than restricting, organizational
science (Dutton & Glynn, 2007; Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002;
Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005). Positive organisational practices produce positive
individual behaviour, which, in turn, contributes to organisational
effectiveness (Cameron, Mora, Leutscher, &Calarco, 2011; Lyubomirsky, King,
&Diener, 2005). In pursuit of positive practices, organisations are also
shifting their focus towards facilitating conditions to promote human
flourishing (Cameron, 2010), for example, by attending to demands and resources
individuals have, as well as their fit into their jobs and organisations.
In an
attempt to capture behaviours and characteristics of positivity in
organisations, Cameron, Mora, Leutscher and Calarco (2011) derived a list of
six positive practices: (1) respect, integrity and gratitude; (2) compassionate
support; (3) caring; (4) meaning; (5) inspiration; and (6) forgiveness;
Respect, integrity and gratitude1 refer to practices where employees trust each
other, treat one another respectfully, display integrity, show belief in
others, and openly express their gratefulness towards colleagues. Compassionate
support 2 Involves
assisting and caring for coworkers who are facing adversity, providing
emotional support and compassion, building strong social ties, being
kind-hearted and cherishing each other’s unique talents. Caring involves
showing genuine interest and concern to fellow workers, nurturing friendships
and being responsive to one another. Meaning involves finding elevation,
rejuvenation, meaning, motivation and purpose at work. Inspiration involves
finding inspiration in one another, sharing enthusiasm with each other and
publicly praising the good in others. Finally, forgiveness involves reserving
judgement when any blunders are made, correcting errors without pointing
fingers and not keeping record of any mistakes made by colleagues. Although
positive practices is not really a new construct, scientific enquiry into the
topic has been scarce (Janse van Rensburg&Rothmann, 2020). Organisations
with positive practices in their arsenal are more inclined to retain their
personnel and attain greater levels of organisational efficiency (Cameron et
al., 2011). At the team level, positive practices have been associated with
task performance and work engagement (Geue, 2018). Which
positive practices are key in accounting for organizational performance has yet
to be precisely established. Other positive practices in addition to those
considered in this paper are likely to be important. In addition, theories of
positive practices have not yet been fully developed, and the conceptual
boundaries and nomological network associated with those concepts is in need of
specification
Rautenbach
(2015) found that positive emotions, support and inspiration were linked to the
well-being of employees, while Redelinghuys, Rothmann and Botha (2018) showed
that meaning, inspiration and support had an impact on workplace flourishing.
Fouché (2015) found that meaning and inspiration affected the functioning of
employees. The current study investigated how positive organisational practices
were related to job demands and resources, person–environment fit (P-E fit) and
well-being. As noted, positive practices concern
behaviors and techniques that are affirming and virtuous (Cameron et al.,
2011). Key is how their enactment in work relationships produces positive
emotions, which can affect others through social contagion processes (Barsade,
2002), such as how positive mood states enhance a reciprocal effect of helping
behaviors, while also increasing self-efficacy and task performance (Tsai,
Chen, & Liu, 2007). Exposure to positive practices engenders positive
emotions, which leads to elevated performance (Cameron et al., 2011). It has
been demonstrated in work teams that positivity not only enhances performance,
but others’ positivity can neutralize an individual’s low positivity, uplifting
his or her positivity and performance (Livi, Alessandri, Caprara, &Pierro,
2015). Baker, Cross, and associates (2003, 2004) identified those who uplift
and boost others as “positive energizers” who enact positive energy as a
behavioral mechanism, with research indicating that high performance
organizations have three times as many positive energizers as average
organizations do, concluding that positive energy is a behavioral mechanism (as
cited in Caza & Camero, 2009).
The aspiration to
involve, engage and win commitment from employees has long been high on the
agenda of a select portion of enlightened management. However, there has been a
notable resurgence of interest in employee engagement in recent times and it
seems that the phenomenon has evolved and been redrawn. Different definitions
have risen up about the meaning of employee engagement, some commercial
meanings are; :‘The extent of employees’ commitment, work effort, and desire to
stay in an organization.’DellInc declares that,‘ To compete today, companies need
to win over the minds (rational commitment) and the hearts (emotional
commitment) of employees in ways that lead to extraordinary effort. ‘The
Corporate Leadership Council defines it as ‘The extent to which employees
commit to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work and
how long they stay as a result of that commitment.’ The Gallup Organization
simply states that it is the involvement with, and enthusiasm for, work’ (Vance
2006a, b). Some academic researchers have defined 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’ (Kahn 1990). Others have noted the centrality of ‘vigor’
in the idea of engagement – that is, feelings of strength and emotional energy
in the workplace (Shirom 2003). Shaw (2005) defined engagement as ‘translating
employee potential into employee performance and business success’.This means
changing the way employees perform ‘by utilizing the tools in the armoury of
internal communication professionals’. There is no single, universal definition
of employee engagement as we have seen, and terms such as “employee engagement”
and “work engagement” have been used interchangeably over the past two decades.
Khan first introduced the concept of engagement, defining job engagement as
“the harnessing of organisational members’ selves to their work roles” (Khan,
1990: 694).Unanimous with most definition of employee engagement is passion,
drive commitment and involvement of employees in providing consistent and
sustained discretionary effort (Cook, 2008; Anitha, 2014 &Carbonara, 2012).
These scholars concur that the consequence of good levels of employee
engagement is improved customer satisfaction, positive results and
organizational performance (Mone and London, 2014; Boikanyo, 2012). Employee
engagement is simply seen to be the emergence of motivation, active
participation and involvement of workers in all production processes, which
should favorably influence on the growth of labor efficiency. People begin to
work effectively only if they are passionate about work. To achieve this, it is
necessary to create conditions for the maximum interest of employees in their
work. It is believed that employee satisfaction with his work gives rise to his
loyalty to the employer, loyalty forms engagement, which, in turn, allows
improve the quality of products (Stevenson, 2019).
It is worth
clarifying that the concepts of “employee motivation” and “employee engagement”
should not be confused. Interpretations of the concept of engagement in various
studies indicate a lack of scientific consensus in determining the boundaries
of employee engagement. Many terms that seem similar within the meaning of the
term employee engagement, make it difficult to perceive the phenomenon as an
independent construct. The concepts of motivation and engagement differ in that
motivation motivates you to accomplish certain tasks whereas engagement is not
just about tasks, it is about cognition (immersion) as well as performance
(energy), which promotes high performance (Bakker, 2011). With research proving
that employee engagement reduces occupational fatigue, interest in engagement
has grown even faster (Shuck and etc., 2013). Studies have shown that more
engaged employees had higher employee participation in company programs,
retention, receptiveness to change, and loyalty. Employee engagement is the
emotional commitment employees feel towards their organisation and the actions
they take to ensure the organization’s success; engaged employees demonstrate
care, dedication, enthusiasm accountability and results focus. When employees
care - when they are ‘engaged’ - they use discretionary effort. They stay behind
to get a job done because they are committed and feel accountable and want to,
they pick up the cups left behind on the table in the meeting room or the
rubbish that missed the bin because they care about their workplace. They stand
up for their company because they are proud to be a part of it, they find
solutions to problems and create ideas to improve; they are emotionally engaged
with their organisation and they care. How an organisation treats its employees
has a direct impact on its employees’ engagement. Engaged employees work with
passion and feel an emotional connection to their company. They drive
innovation and move the organisation forward. They are characterised as being
loyal, committed, and productive and deliver results. They are passionate about
the organization’s success.
Contemporary
society is currently based on knowledge, technology development and
globalization, which inevitably contributes to its evolution at a rapid pace.
So, in creating learning organizations, the role of the manager and the leader
is essential. Organizational success is achieved only by rethinking strategies
and systems of values that must represent the bedrock of the decision-making
processes. The role of leadership at the level of the organization is
highlighted by the fact that the achievement of the organizational objectives
takes into account both the efficiency of the entire work team's activity and
the leader's abilities. Thus, the role of leadership in contemporary context is
highlighted by its necessity for both economic organizations, individuals and
the entire world. In order to define an organization’s performance it is
important to mention that “financial indicators reflect the fulfilment of an
multionationalentreprises’s (MNE’s) economic goals in financial terms” (Richter
et al., 2017). Also, “market-based financial indicators take the investor’s
view (e.g. cumulative abnormal returns, market-to-book ratio, excess value) and
concentrate on or involve risk considerations (…)” (Richter et al., 2017). According
to Richter et al. (2017) all these indicators form “the narrowest conception of
business performance”, and “the border conceptualization of performance is
operational performance”. Organizational performance,” according to Cho and
Dansereau (2010), refers to the performance of a company as compared to its
goals and objectives. In addition, Tomal and Jones (2015) define organizational
performance as the actual results or output of an organization as measured
against that organization’s intended outputs. Achieving organizational
performance depends largely on how an organization adapts to changes in the
external environment. In literature, performance refers to "the degree to
which an organization, as a social system, with certain resources and means,
achieves its objectives. (Tannenbaum and Shimdt, 2009; in Horga, 2012).
Every organization wishes to develop
continuously, and it is important to note that organizational performance is
correlated with the individual performance of the members of the team working
at the organization level. Achieving success requires three aspects, namely
(Horga, 2012): -economic efficiency: any organization wishes to achieve its
goals with few resources; -satisfaction of customers: getting superior results
with few resources, but in a way that exceeds consumer's expectations;
-satisfaction of employees: the effectiveness of the leadership process depends
on the leader's ability to enthusiastically lead the working team by meeting
the personal needs of each member of the team. The potential success of a
business depends on its organizational performance, which means its ability to
effectively implement strategies to achieve institutional objectives (Randeree
and Al Youha, 2009). Several variables constitute organizational performance,
such as business model effectiveness, efficiency, and outcomes (Deshpandé et
al., 1997; Boyatzis and Ratti, 2009; Ryan et al., 2009).
The performance of
any organization also depends largely on the level of skill its leaders possess
when it comes to implementing strategies. Silva (2014) described the essence of
leadership as a conditional relationship that exists between a manager and his
or her followers. Given that there are always hurdles to achieving
organizational goals, it is important that the techniques that leaders use be
flexible enough to accommodate change. The performance of an organization also
depends on its employees, who are a key part of the organization and form the
team that works toward achieving the organization’s goals. The effectiveness of
an organization consists in the efficiency of each of its individual employees;
thus, employee performance can be defined, in part, as a function of leadership
(Mastrangelo et al., 2014). In particular, employee performance can be managed
by manipulating the factors on which it depends. These factors include a wide
range of variables. The essence of performance is the creation of value. So
long as the value created by the use of the contributed assets is equal to or
greater than the value expected by those contributing the assets, the assets
will continue to be made available to the organization and the organization
will continue to exist. Organizational performance includes many dimensions and
aspects. Organizational performance includes strategic planning, operations,
financial, legal, and organizational development. Organization may achieve its
goals when each of the employee understand their roles and responsibilities for
the organization, and there should be continues communication between management,
leader and employee to set performance expectations, monitor program and
achieve a good results (Katou, 2008).
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Organizations are
commonly defined as instruments of purpose. They are seen as coordinated by
intentions and goals (James & Robert, 1997). Purpose of organizational
success and failure in fulfilling those purposes are conspicuous part of
conventional discourse. Business firm are compared in terms of profits, sales,
market share, productivity, debt ratios, and stock prices. For hospital they
use cost recovery, mortality, morbidity rates, board certification of
physicians and occupancy rates (James & Robert, 1997). Solis (2015:1)
identified that a major gap exists between executives and employees regarding engagement
and has become a critical issue in the workplace as executives underestimate
the importance of engagement and the requirements to cultivate a desirable and
productive culture. According to Sathe (2017: 2) proposed that employee
engagement is affected by organisational culture, appointing employees in
mismatched positions, lack of development and participation in decision-making.
A number of employee engagement trends are identified in the extant literature
with regards to HR performing a strategic role, developing approaches to engage
millennial, inclusive culture, flatter structures and recognition strategies
(Mtongana, 2017:2) & Mizne (2017).
Research
on positive practices in organisations is scarce. Researchers have studied the
effects of positive practices on work engagement and performance (Geue, 2018),
on organisational performance (Caza& Cameron, 2008) and on organisational
effectiveness (Cameron et al., 2011). In South Africa, only a few studies
regarding positive practices have been conducted. Rautenbach (2015) found that
positive emotions, support and inspiration were linked to the well-being of
employees, while Redelinghuys, Rothmann and Botha (2018) showed that meaning,
inspiration and support had an impact on workplace flourishing. Fouché (2015)
found that meaning and inspiration affected the functioning of employees. The
current study seeks to investigate the effect of positive organizational
practices, employee engagement on organizational performance in workers around
Nigeria. Not much studies have been carried out on positive organizational
practices and how it affects organizational performance.
1.3 Research Questions
The answers to the
following questions are what this research seeks to find:
1. Does positive
organizational practices have any effect on organizational performance?
2. Is there a significant
effect of employee engagement on organizational performance?
3. Does specific positive
organizational practices influence organizational performance positively in
organizations around Nigeria?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The objective of the
study is to investigate and examine the effects of positive organizational
practices and employee engagement on organizational performance in workers and
employees around Abraka Town, Ethiope-East L.G.A. it also seeks to find the
relationship between positive organizational practices and employee engagement,
and to see how employee engagement affects organizational performance either
positively or negatively. This research also seeks to find out the factors that
affect organizational performance.
1.5 Significance of the Study
There are no much studies
on Positive organizational practices and how it affects employees in an
organization, this study seeks to dive in deeper on the construct of Positive
organizational practices and how it affects both employee and the organization
in general.
This study will provide
relevant information on employee engagement, positive organizational practices
and organizational performance, how they are related how they affect one
another and how they differ as well. The study will
also identify the factors that influence employee engagement and hence line
management and HR practitioners can improve the levels of employee engagement.
From an academic perspective, the study contributes to the extant literature in
identifying the drivers of employee engagement in the insurance industry.
This study will help employers know
what affects the level of organizational performance of their various
organizations, and what to do to improve the rate of organizational performance
of their organizations. It will also help managers to know the right
organizational practices to carry out to produce results in the organizations.
This research will also provide a basis for employees to improve their
engagement at work, by providing information on what affects employee
engagement and the importance of a high level of employee engagement to both
the employee and the organization. This research will also serve as a reference
point to other researchers who want to study in this same line, it will be one
of the empirical evidence for the study.
1.6
Scope of the Study
This study is de-limited to employees
and workers and employees around Abraka Town, Ethiope-East L.G.A of Delta State
both private and public organizations in the environs. The scope includes
Teachers, Doctors. Bankers and the likes.
1.7
Operational Definition of Terms
1. Employee Engagement: Employee
engagement is the emotional
commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.
2. Organizational Performance: Comprises the actual output or results of an
organization as measured against its intended outputs (or goals and
objectives). It is a broad construct which captures what organizations do,
produce, and accomplish for the various constituencies with which they
interact.
3. Positive
Organizational Practices: Positive Organizational Practices are desired behaviors and actions of employees in an
organization that are usually repeated.
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