Employee Engagement and Competitiveness: Some Preliminary Analysis and Insights
Date Issued
2024-06-20
Author(s)
Abstract
Theoretical background and purpose of the study: Employee engagement is a construct that
has been widely investigated from the organizational sciences perspective in the past few
decades. Employee engagement is a contrast that incorporates the employees’ dedication and
involvement in their job and in the fulfilment of the job-related roles. Numerous authors have
attempted to define employee engagement and to elaborate all the concepts of the concept
(Khan, 1990; Maslach and Later, 1997; Beker and Demerouti, 2007; Bailey, 2016).
Additionally, significant number of studies focus on the investigation of the antecedents and
the consequences of employee engagement mostly from the management perspective (such as:
Saks, 2006; Saks, 2019; Robinson, 2007; Zeng et al., 2020, Govender and Busin, 2020; Aisa et
al., 2023). However, dome of the research efforts in the past decade are highlighting the
importance of employee engagement for introducing new concepts of human resource
management and for enhancing the overall organizational performance (Saks, 2022; Gruman
and Saks, 2011). Namely, Gruman and Saks (2011) elaborate the importance of employee
engagement for overall organizational effectiveness and introduce the model of the form of
performance management called the engagement management model. Although the relation
between human resource management or to be more precise the strategic human resource
management and competitiveness has been thoroughly investigated, there seems to exist a gap
in the research regarding the relation of employee engagement with the overall national
competitiveness and growth. However, recently some authors have analyzed the relation
between human resource practices and competitiveness, relying on the endogenous growth
theory assumptions (Sheran et al., 2013). Nonetheless, most of the studies on antecedents and
consequences of employee engagement focus only on the organizational preconditions for
increasing employee engagement and the organizational consequences. Considering the
identified gap in the literature and the existing research on the association between human
resource practices, on the one side, and employee engagement and innovation (Sheran et al.,
2013) and competitiveness (Albrecht et al., 2015), on the other side, conducting research on the relationship between employee engagement on a country level and the variables related to the
level of labor utilization and countries competitiveness should be considered.
Methods: To investigate the relationship between employee engagement on national level and
countries labor utilization and countries competitiveness, a correlation analysis was conducted.
The data on employee engagement was gathered from the Gallup research on employee
engagement by country in the period 2019-2022. Regarding the variables labor utilization,
average hours worked per person employed and gross national income per hour worked
(presented in USD, current prices) data from the OECD dataset were used. Regarding the
countries competitiveness the rankings by the IMD World competitiveness center were used.
In total data for 63 countries for the period between 2019 and 2022 were gathered. The total
number of observations varied between 136 and 247. Findings: The results from the analysis indicate that the percentage of engaged employees is
statistically significantly corelated with labor utilization, average hours worked per person
employed, gross national product per hour worked and countries competitiveness ranking. The
Pearson correlation between the percentage of engaged employees and labor utilization (hours
worked per head of population) is statistically weaker (it is significant at the 0.05 level), while
the other three correlations are statistically significant at level 0.01. Furthermore, Kendall's
tau_b and Spearman's rho coefficients between the percentage of engaged employees, on the
one hand, and labor utilization, average hours worked per person employed, GNP per hours
worked and countries competitiveness ranking, on the other hand, are statistically significant at
level 0.01.
Limitations and further research: Although the correlations indicate the existence of certain
associations between the analyzed variables, we must take into consideration the limitations of
these methods. These findings only suggest the existence of certain associations that should be
further investigated. In future research the analysis of the nature of the association between
employee’s engagement and countries’ competitiveness (measured by countries’ ranking or by
countries’ competitiveness index) should be deepened. Namely, future research should focus
on investigating whether countries’ competitiveness can be analyzed as a predictor or as a
consequence of employee engagement levels.
has been widely investigated from the organizational sciences perspective in the past few
decades. Employee engagement is a contrast that incorporates the employees’ dedication and
involvement in their job and in the fulfilment of the job-related roles. Numerous authors have
attempted to define employee engagement and to elaborate all the concepts of the concept
(Khan, 1990; Maslach and Later, 1997; Beker and Demerouti, 2007; Bailey, 2016).
Additionally, significant number of studies focus on the investigation of the antecedents and
the consequences of employee engagement mostly from the management perspective (such as:
Saks, 2006; Saks, 2019; Robinson, 2007; Zeng et al., 2020, Govender and Busin, 2020; Aisa et
al., 2023). However, dome of the research efforts in the past decade are highlighting the
importance of employee engagement for introducing new concepts of human resource
management and for enhancing the overall organizational performance (Saks, 2022; Gruman
and Saks, 2011). Namely, Gruman and Saks (2011) elaborate the importance of employee
engagement for overall organizational effectiveness and introduce the model of the form of
performance management called the engagement management model. Although the relation
between human resource management or to be more precise the strategic human resource
management and competitiveness has been thoroughly investigated, there seems to exist a gap
in the research regarding the relation of employee engagement with the overall national
competitiveness and growth. However, recently some authors have analyzed the relation
between human resource practices and competitiveness, relying on the endogenous growth
theory assumptions (Sheran et al., 2013). Nonetheless, most of the studies on antecedents and
consequences of employee engagement focus only on the organizational preconditions for
increasing employee engagement and the organizational consequences. Considering the
identified gap in the literature and the existing research on the association between human
resource practices, on the one side, and employee engagement and innovation (Sheran et al.,
2013) and competitiveness (Albrecht et al., 2015), on the other side, conducting research on the relationship between employee engagement on a country level and the variables related to the
level of labor utilization and countries competitiveness should be considered.
Methods: To investigate the relationship between employee engagement on national level and
countries labor utilization and countries competitiveness, a correlation analysis was conducted.
The data on employee engagement was gathered from the Gallup research on employee
engagement by country in the period 2019-2022. Regarding the variables labor utilization,
average hours worked per person employed and gross national income per hour worked
(presented in USD, current prices) data from the OECD dataset were used. Regarding the
countries competitiveness the rankings by the IMD World competitiveness center were used.
In total data for 63 countries for the period between 2019 and 2022 were gathered. The total
number of observations varied between 136 and 247. Findings: The results from the analysis indicate that the percentage of engaged employees is
statistically significantly corelated with labor utilization, average hours worked per person
employed, gross national product per hour worked and countries competitiveness ranking. The
Pearson correlation between the percentage of engaged employees and labor utilization (hours
worked per head of population) is statistically weaker (it is significant at the 0.05 level), while
the other three correlations are statistically significant at level 0.01. Furthermore, Kendall's
tau_b and Spearman's rho coefficients between the percentage of engaged employees, on the
one hand, and labor utilization, average hours worked per person employed, GNP per hours
worked and countries competitiveness ranking, on the other hand, are statistically significant at
level 0.01.
Limitations and further research: Although the correlations indicate the existence of certain
associations between the analyzed variables, we must take into consideration the limitations of
these methods. These findings only suggest the existence of certain associations that should be
further investigated. In future research the analysis of the nature of the association between
employee’s engagement and countries’ competitiveness (measured by countries’ ranking or by
countries’ competitiveness index) should be deepened. Namely, future research should focus
on investigating whether countries’ competitiveness can be analyzed as a predictor or as a
consequence of employee engagement levels.
Subjects
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Bozhinovska, Tihona - Abstract published in the Book of Abstracts of the 7th International Conference on Management and Organization: MANAGING PARADOXES IN AND ACROSS ORGANIZATIONS
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