Determinants Of Employee Engagement In Local Councils In Malawi

Abstract

The need for fully engaged employees especially in the public sector continues to grow with the growing world population and its demand for quality public service delivery. Public sector organizations such as local councils frequently need to deliver quality services to the citizens through committed and engaged employees. In the context of Malawi, the Local Authority Performance Assessment Report of 2020 revealed some deficiencies related to employee engagement that are contributing to poor service delivery to the communities. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of employee engagement in local councils in Malawi. Specifically, the study investigated the job factors and organization support factors that determine employee engagement in those councils. The study had a quantitative research design with a structured questionnaire which was distributed to 229 employees from the 5 councils and managed to receive back 208 questionnaires representing a 91% response rate. Through the structured questionnaire, respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions about 36 elements related to employee engagement on a 5-point Likert scale. The data was largely analysed using an ordered logistic regression, but further analysis was done using multiple regression. The findings of the study revealed that three job factors of job design, work environment and compensation as well as organisational support factors which comprise management support, communication, recognition, training & development, and leadership style all had positive correlation meaning that they have a significant relationship with the dependent variable, employee engagement. However, within these broad factors, meaningful and challenging tasks and responsibilities; collaboration and teamwork; sufficient communication channels; and finally, acknowledging and appreciating employees’ efforts and contributions were revealed to have more impact on employee engagement than the rest of the elements. The study has recommended that the councils should revisit the current human resource practices and strive to improve all elements that affect the engagement of employees as revealed in this study. Further studies were recommended on employee engagement between two or more public sector institutions in the country to see if their results would support the findings of this study. Furthermore, to address the rigidity associated with quantitative research methods, future research can also be undertaken on the same with a mixed methodological approach which would enable the respondents to suggest other factors, if any, that may influence employee engagement.