Determinants of employee engagement in public sector organisations: case of Zimbabwe

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-03-2021-0073
• Published date: 18 August 2022
• Date: 18 August 2022
• Pages: 749-764
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Nyashadzashe Chiwawa

Determinants of employee

engagement in public sector

organisations: case of Zimbabwe

Nyashadzashe Chiwawa

College of Law and Management Studies, University of Kwazulu-Natal,

Durban, South Africa

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of the study was to explore the contribution and determinants of employee

engagement (EE) in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach –A cross-sectional survey was used based on a deductive research

approach. Data were collected and analysed quantitatively. The quantitative data were collected using a

questionnaire from a sample of 248 civil servants.

Findings –Research findings indicate that prioritising the development ofengaged workers reap substantial

rewards for organisations in terms of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Findings further show that

employees who are involved at work have been shown to perform better than their colleagues. The research

accordingly recommends organisations to invest in ensuring EE as this has direct link to outcomes related to

performance, which ultimately leads to optimisation of organisational resources and competitive advantage.

Originality/value –The study provides a critical analysis of the factors that determine EE in the public

sector. EE, as a driver of public sector organisational effectiveness, is an area of research that has received little

attention in the African milieu. This research provides a detailed understanding of EE asa tool for improving

public sector performance and, as a result, lowering the performance gap and waste. EE is a product of the

structural characteristics of the organisation as well as the parameters within which psychologicalpresence of

an employee is activated. EE, therefore, engenders employee support to pursue organisational goals in a

coordinated system of collaboration.

Keywords Public sector, Zimbabwe, Organisational climate, Human resource management, New public

management, Employee engagement

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The global business environment is increasingly becoming complex due to changing

technological advancements, competitive rivalry and consumers’changing demands. The

employees in the public sector organisations are increasingly becoming exposed to serving in

dynamic conditions due to the nature of the diverse and changing needs of their clients (Paek

et al., 2015). According to Bozeman and Feeney (2011), public servants become disengaged

from their jobs, less inventive and less efficient when they experience seemingly pointless yet

burdensome rules and guidelines/procedures. As a result, such “red tape”is regarded as a

“hindrance job stressor”, which is characterised as “job demands/work situations”that

include unnecessary and undesired restrictions hindering work engagement by employees

(Quratulain and Khan, 2015). However, in such complex business environments,

organisations are failing to balance their competitive position and the sustained wellbeing

of their employees (Inceoglu et al., 2018).

Although the concept of employee engagement (EE) is now well known, what remains

gloomy is that human resource management (HRM) practices drive EE and how best this can

be measured (Chiwawa and Wissink, 2021). Most studies conducted particularly in developed

world remain contextual and mostly failed to link the gap between theory and practice by

embedding an integrated system of practices and procedures (Albrecht et al., 2018). The

public sector’s poor performance can be ascribed to various factors, including poor

Determinants

of employee

engagement

749

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Received 15 April 2021

Revised 26 January 2022

5 May 2022

14 July 2022

Accepted 1 August 2022

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 35 No. 7, 2022

pp. 749-764

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-03-2021-0073

perceptions of training, management and employee benefits when compared to the private

sector (Fletcher et al., 2020). Owing to the realisation of the need of a productive workforce, HR

development practitioners need to progressively assist in the development of workplace

strategies that promote EE (Chiwawa and Wissink, 2021). This current study is important for

the development of job interventions aimed at optimising EE for the establishment of a

conducive and productive working environment.

EE extends beyond mere work committedness. EE is defined as “an employee’s

willingness to invest their genuine selves physically, cognitively and emotionally in their

work roles. This self-investment in work roles should promote connections to work and team

members as a result of a favourable work environment”(Fletcher et al., 2020;Anthony-

McMann et al., 2017). It then becomes logical that a variety of factors such as leadership

styles, trust to job design and organisational strategy influence employees’propensity to

devote themselves to their jobs. All these factors fall under the purview of leadership

influence and as a result, affect employees’willingness to devote to their jobs (Chiwawa et al.,

2021). Consequently, researchers have proposed that the overarching concept of engagement

be used to study engagement as it holistically accounts for the management of the workforce

in pursuit of organisational goals and effectiveness.

Although the concept of EE is gaining worldwide acceptance, what is of particular

concern is what human resources strategies can be implemented to drive EE (Fletcher et al.,

2020). The Lockwood (2007) study shows that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged

with their employers. Additional research shows that engagement level in Japan is as low as

11%, while disengagement in India is as high as 45%. Differences in culture, values, politics,

management styles, individual inequalities and the national economy are likely to be the

cause of such variances at national levels. As a result, the management of organisational

operations must be cognisant of the contributory factors to engagement in the countries in

which they operate (Chiwawa and Wissink, 2021). Engagement models are country specific;

hence, models that work in one country might not work in another. Accordingly, the purpose

of this paper is to explore the determinants of EE and how EE might be used to optimise

organisational performance in the public sector. The research question addressed in this

article is “which EE determinants increase employee committedness”.

Public sector human resource management

According to Kaufman (2001),HRM,onceknownas“personnel management”is “the

science and practice that deals with the nature of the employment relationship and all of the

decisions, actions, and issues that relate to that relationship”. Depending on societal and

cultural contexts, the area of HRM has followed the history of business and undergone

significant change over time. In the public sector, the old model of personnel administration

was supplanted by the application of HRM principles (Leisink and Knies, 2018). HRM is

believed to have been introduced in the public sector by shifting from a ‘rule-bound’to a

‘performance-based’culture (Leisink et al., 2021). The adoption of New Public Management

(NPM) may have given managers the opportunity to learn or develop sophisticated HRM

approaches. As a result, NPM principles provide a more flexible and responsive approach to

issues of public sector staff recruitment, selection, retention, training and development.

Therefore, HRM has as its central focus, “the management of people within the employer-

employee relationship”and involves marshalling the productive capacity of an

organisation’smembers(Chiwawa et al., 2021). However, HRM practices may vary

depending on environmental factors which may affect organisationsin accomplishing their

objectives.

The advent of NPM, which focused on transferring private-sector management principles

to the public sector, switched the focus in the public sector from administration to

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