Introduction
Employee engagement is a form of managing the workforce in an organization in order to attain desired objectives. Engaging employees helps organizations to have augmented productivity, retention and competitive edge. Talent management is used by most organizations so as to achieve their objectives including those of employee engagement. The paper is aimed to find out the leadership style that is a best fit for augmenting employee engagement (Wang et al. 2011). The paper discusses in detail the concepts of leadership styles and employee engagement. It then explores the styles that may help in augmenting employee engagement in governmental organizations. The paper conducts research and data analysis and then presents its findings.
Most organizations are accountable for employee engagement. This includes in having a plethora of significant management areas that help in supporting employee engagement. These areas not only encompass leadership style but also reflect upon the related areas of communication, efficient management, benefits and pay, the safety and health, opportunities for training and career prospects of employees, equal and fair treatment of personnel, and other facets of the organizational culture and environment that impact the employee engagement levels. These features encompass the culture that may impact and control the engagement of employees (Carasco-Saul, Kim & Kim, 2015).
The research conducted in this is based on the survey collected from employees working in a Ministry. The outcomes have established the need for transformational and participative leadership instead of the autocratic and controlling style. In today’s workplace, it is essential for leaders to empower and motivate followers by delegating them with responsibilities. In most government firms, the practice of delegation of work is absent and this is one of the main reasons for an absence in employee engagement.
Data collected entailed a process of employee survey. The findings were interpreted by means of statistical analysis. Questions were asked general questions on their gender, age and the number of years they have been working in the organization. On the basis of this, it has been found that most employees were male and there exists a skewed distribution of gender in the workforce of the firm. Furthermore, the study has confirmed that one of the main motivators for employees to be engaged is remuneration consisting of monetary benefits. Government organizations need to ensure that employees are provided a balanced reward structure comprising of both monetary and non-monetary awards and rewards. The above finding clearly indicates that further study needs to be conducted on the existence of the award and reward structure and the manner in which it is linked with the productivity of the organization as well as that of the workforce (Rashid, Asad & Ashraf, 2011).
Especially in the competitive world of today, it is essential for human resource to play a significant role in contributing to the organization’s productivity and growth. The contribution of human resource in public sector firms is highly country specific and this impacts employee engagement. In general, most public sector firms have fixed human resource policies and processes that impede employee growth by limiting the chances of promotion (Soieb, Othman & D’Silva, 2015). This is one of the main reasons as to why the level of employee engagement is highly associated with the position of the personnel. Furthermore, employees aspire for a transactional and democratic leadership style as is opposed to the controlling and autocratic style. It is essential for public sector organizations to rethink their strategies so as to engage employees so as to attain higher firm productivity. The current study is an indication to bring about change in the management strategy to be aligned with organizational objectives by supporting employee engagement and growth. It is essential for further study to be conducted based on more public sector firms to assess the need for strategies supporting employee engagement and accordingly implement these strategies to further employee and organizational growth (Maha & Saoud, 2014).
References
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Maha, I. & Saoud, A. (2014). Employee loyalty and engagement in UAE public sector. Employee Relations, 36 (5), 562 – 582.
Rashid, H.A., Asaf, A. & Ashraf, M.M. (2011). Factors Persuading Employee Engagement and Linkage of EE to Personal & Organizational Performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3 (5), pp. 98 – 108.
Soieb, A.Z.M., Othman, J. & D’Silva, J.L. (2015). Mediating influence of collaboration on the relationship between leadership styles and employee engagement among generation Y officials in Malaysian public sector. Journal of Applied Science, 15 (1), 7 – 31.
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Wang, G., Oh, I., Courtright, S.H. & Colbert, A.E. (2011). Transformational Leadership and Performance Across Criteria and Levels: A Meta-Analytic Review of 25 Years of Research. Group & Organization Management, 36 (2), 223 – 270.
