Factors influencing employee engagement

Abstract In recent years, academics have paid more attention to employee engagement, a core psychological construct reflecting individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioral connection to their work. Nonetheless, there has been little scholarly study on employee engagement and its root antecedents. Therefore, based on psychological theories such as social exchange theory and the job demands-resources model, the study aimed to investigate the effect of job characteristics, reward and recognition, work environment, growth opportunities, and leadership quality on employees’ engagement in the case of the house of people’s representatives, Ethiopia. To achieve this aim, a correlation design with a total of 223 samples was used. As a result, employees were moderately satisfied with job characteristics, reward and recognition, work environment, growth opportunities, and leadership quality. Employee engagement was also at a moderate level. The correlation showed that job characteristics, reward and recognition, work environment, growth opportunities, and leadership quality were all positively and significantly correlated with employees’ engagement. The regression output indicated that job characteristics, work environment, and leadership quality significantly predicted employees’ engagement, whereas reward recognition and growth opportunities had no significant effect on employees’ engagement. Leadership quality was the strongest predictor of employees’ engagement, followed by work environment and job characteristics, respectively. Lastly, the results of the study may serve as a reference for other scholars who have interests in conducting similar research projects in employee engagement.