Antecedents of employee engagement : an examination of the banking sector of Nigeria

The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers andpractitioners. The term has been used differently;either a psychological stateor a state of mind. Thisresearch aims to study employee engagement antecedents within the Nigerian banking industrywith aunique contribution ofidentifying evolutionarywaves in the development of the concept. Drawing onrelevant literature, some basic employee engagement antecedents were selected and analysed usingacorrelational coefficient as well asthematic content analysisprocess. While much has been written onthe topic, little is known about the engagement of administrative workers in most of thedevelopingcountriesespecially in the banking industry of Nigeria. This research fills this gap. Though a lot ofresearch on the antecedents of employee engagement has been carried out with different findings,there is considerable confusion about the meaning of employee engagement.The thesis objectives include: (i)Tostudy selected antecedents oftheemployee engagement conceptwithin the Nigeria banking sector,(ii)Tostudy and analyse the overlaps between employeeengagement and other work attitude concepts (Job satisfaction, motivation, employee involvement,employee commitment and organisation citizenship behaviourwith a view to provide more clarity onthe overlaps betweenthe concepts.The study was conducted using a mixed methods sequential design involving quantitative(questionnaires) and qualitative (interview exercise) collection of data. 800 employees were selectedas the sample population for the study.Empirical findings show a positive correlation between employee engagement and other work attitudeconcepts(Job satisfaction, motivation, employee involvement, employee commitment andorganisation citizen behaviour) and define employee engagement as a cultural, multi-faceted concept,that is,a combination of different constructs put together to form a concept.Additionally, this studyuncovered few other employee engagement antecedentssuch as target setting, employee union,economic situations ,job securitywithin the Nigeria banking sector, however, further investigation isrecommended to clarify these results and explore the possibility of other variableinfluences. Finally,theknowledge gained from this thesis will be used by students who are interested in the topic ofemployee engagement, as well as in human resource management reviews,to address issues regardingtheemployeeengagementKeyword: Employee engagement, Commitment, Motivation, organization citizenshipbehaviour, Job satisfaction, employee involvement