DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of developing employee engagement in Nigerian ports authority on Business performance. The research adopted a census descriptive design with a target population of employees of Nigerian ports authority.

From the findings on the study Nigerian ports authority as an organization has committed to ensuring employees are engaged through participation of all employees in the strategy formulation from all levels. From the study it was found that Nigerian ports authority has ensured that there is a clear link on what the employees do on a day to day basis with the organization’s strategy and overall goal.

It was concluded that there is a relationship between employee engagement and employee performance. This is because lack of employee engagement lowers employee commitment and employee competence. In the same way lack of employee engagement affects employee understanding of why the company is going in a particular direction. Additionally designing and implementing an effective employee engagement system is critical to employee performance.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

According to Cook (2008), employee engagement is more of a psychological contract than a physical one. Employee engagement can be defined as the willingness of the employees to go the extra mile, believe in the organization and what it stands for in an effort to help the organization succeed. Engaged workers are occupied in, passionate about and committed to their jobs. According to Lazonick (2014), companies globally cannot find a match between their returns, productivity and employee engagement in the office. Therefore some of the leaders of these global companies try to align the organizations strategy with the talent strategy in the organizations.

According to Lazonick (2014), the organization is the group of people and the opportunities or challenges that come with administration of an organization. It mainly deals with people-related issues that arise inside the organization. Schwartz (2011) found that possessions generating exist within a group of people who work for a particular organization, furthermore it embraces all facets of their information skill and intellectual properties. It includes skills knowledge and effort of the workforce and their capacity to do jobs. For that reason it’s important to note that organization acquires human resources that is motivated to do the job.

Companies survive for the purpose of achieving their set goals, be it privately owned or government owned or nonprofit making organization. To meet its goals an organization pools together resources such as human resource, wealth, material and equipment and puts equipment systems in place (Khan, 1990).

Mann and Harter (2016) established that by linking workers, by having them participate in judgment making, by making the place of work more self-governing and by empowering workers, there are certain outcomes such as attitudes and efficiency thus leading to improvement. Kariuki & Makori (2015) found that employee engagement has positive approach apprehended by workers about their jobs as well as inspiration and effort they place into their jobs concluded that that engagement leads to optimistic members of staff which leads to better performance.

Members of staff engagement have been defined in the educational literature in two categories; individual engagement and work engagement (Khan, 1990).Individual engagement is the harnessing of organization members to their job roles. He further renowned that there are three emotional conditions connected with individual engagement; meaningfulness, safety and availability. According to Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter (2001), occupation engagement can be described as a encouraging, rewarding, professional state of mind that is characterized by energy, commitment, and incorporation. This model considers engagement as an extremely significant variable for the association between organization environment and outcomes.

Employee engagement has potential to significantly affect employee retention, productivity and loyalty. It is also a key link to customer satisfaction, company reputation and overall shareholder value. As a result, many organizations share the belief that in an evolving international free-agent talent market where knowledge is becoming an organizational commodity (Kroth, 2009). Employee engagement is an undeniable dominant source of competitive advantage at all levels. An organization’s human resource is its best resource. Therefore, the maintenance of a workplace with a higher caliber of employees is the key to success and the way to set competitive advantage in the global scenario (Schwartz, 2011).

A global research that was conducted shows that actually less than half of employees who work globally (46%) support the organizations stand that they receive remuneration for what they actually do on a daily basis in the work place. This However was the same perception employees had the year before. The report also found that although there is a notable slight improvement on the organization commitment towards improving employee engagement, the overall net change in the average employee perception on engagement is negative. However, globally the perceptions about resources and practices that foster a general culture of employee engagement have fallen in the last year Hewitt ( 2015).

Mann & Harter (2016) have been tracking employee engagement since the year 2000 in their research further stated that only 13% of employees feel are engaged in their workplace, with the United States having only a percentage of 32% in the entire workforce. They based their ratings on top most important organizational factors that predict high performance outcomes such as having an opportunity to do what they do best each day, having someone at work who encourages their development and believing their opinions count at work. According to Harter & Adkins (2015), employees who work for managers who do not consider employee engagement valuable are often miserable in the office and this go on all the way to their homes. This consequently leads to their overall well-being even out of the office environment getting affected.

In Africa, employee engagement has risen over the past years and stood at 67%. As at 2014, Hewitt (2015) investigated and found that this is attributed to the economic opportunities in the region. This has led to more engaged employees who have focused on innovation, leadership and communication. This report further states that in Sub Sahara Africa though the trend is worrying as the proportion of employee engagement has been falling. According to Abbott (2014), in Africa the proportion of disengaged employees is similar to that of engaged employees for all professional employees working in organizations and those who have attained higher levels of education. The author further states that the reverse is true with the number of disengaged employees outnumbering the number of engaged employees for those with lower levels of education.

According to Deloitte Consulting (2014), a study that was conducted in Africa on employee engagement and retention 85% of the respondents indicated that this was a matter that needs to be dealt with urgency while 29% were simply not ready to face the issue. 63% of the respondents from South Africa rated employee engagement as the second most important challenge for South Africa. To attract the best employees, companies must research the market in their area as well as their industry to ensure that their total rewards package (salaries and benefits) is in line with their talent strategy. It is in light of this background that we want to study the impact of developing employee engagement and business performance

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Developing employee engagement is the key focus of both business entrepreneurs and academic researchers and is a blistering issue of modern business environment. A critical role of any organization is to provide an environment that boosts the potential of individual employees. Without understanding this, it is impossible for managers to formulate effective organizational strategies. A study by Juan (2010) indicates that the employee engagement has not been effectively managed in many organizations and firms loose between 5%-15% of sales revenue as a result of lack of attention to employee engagement. This suggests that formal employee engagement management systems are important tools contributing to the performance and growth of organizations.

Every organization wants to gain competitive advantage and employee engagement is the best tool for achieving it. In fact, employee engagement is considered to be the most powerful factor to measure a company’s vigor and orientation towards superior performance. Most organizations now tend to focus exclusively on measuring engagement rather than on improving engagement, they often fail to make necessary changes that will engage employees or meet employees' workplace needs. These flawed approaches pose significant barriers to improving engagement, increasing performance, promoting manager development and achieving lasting change. The result is that these companies make false promises to employees, pledging change through intensive communication campaigns but providing little actual follow-through.

The study sought to assess the impact of developing employee engagement in organization performance.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research was to establish the influence of developing employees’ engagement on organization performance at Nigerian ports authority.

Specific objectives are;

1. To determine if developing employee engagement have a positive impact on the organization performance in Nigerian ports authority

2. To find out the effects of lack of employee engagement on organization performance in Nigerian ports authority

3. To determine if the Nigerian ports authority have any employee engagement strategies for staff

1.4 Research Questions

1. Does developing employee engagement have a positive impact on the organization performance in Nigerian ports authority?

2. What are the effects of lack of employee engagement on organization performance in Nigerian ports authority?

3. Does Nigerian ports authority have any employee engagement strategies for staff?

1.5 Significance of Study

This research will help the following people: Nigerian ports authority employees, other governmental organizations, academicians and researchers

Nigerian ports authority employees

This Research will enable Nigerian ports authority employees to explain the possible problems in the organization that arise as a result of lack of employee engagement and possibly find a long term solution to these problems.

Other Governmental Organizations

This researcher will uncover out how employee engagement can be well thought out and monitored and thus these findings will be of great value to other organizations as it will help them establish their level of employee engagement and take actions

Academicians and Researchers

The research will be supportive to researchers who may want to accomplish additional research on issues associated to employee engagement in nongovernmental organizations in Nigeria. This is for the reason that this research brings out the variety of challenges being experienced by workers and strategies accessible to boost employee engagement in the organization.

1.6 Scope and limitations of the Study

The scope of this research was only limited to Nigerian ports authority. The respondents included management, middle level management and low level management staff who provided pertinent information about the research problem. This is intended to ensure resources are available and close supervision to guarantee quality information.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Workers Engagement: Workers engagement is a heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his or her job, organization, manager or co-workers that in turn influences him or her to apply discretionary effort to his or her work (Gibbons, 2006)

Career Development: This is a formal, organized, planned effort to achieve a balance between individual career needs and organizational workforce requirements (Bernardin, 2010).

Competitive Advantage: This is the advantage that a firm has over its competitors and occurs when an organization acquires or develops an attribute or combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. It is value that an organization is able to create for its customers that exceeds the cost of creating this same value (Porter, 2008).

Employee Well being: It is a multi-dimensional aspect that involves the physical, mental and the social health of the employee. It requires organizations to actively assisting the employees to maximize their physical and mental health (CIPD, 2006).

1.8 Organization of the Study

This chapter introduced the focal point of this study. The chapter also gave the background of the study and identified research problem as well as knowledge gap for the research. The chapter also looked at the specific research questions that guided the research. This research also identified the rationale of the study and the scope which is limited to five non-governmental organizations in Nigeria. Definitions of terms used in the research have been included and the importance of the study has also been addressed. Chapter two explained past literature on the study and used the research questions as the structure for this review. Chapter three described the research style that was adopted for the study. Chapter four addressed the conclusion of the data that had been collected based on the research questions. Chapter five then summarized the various conclusions of the research according to the research questions and presented the major conclusions.