EFEECT OF POSITIVE ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
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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