Abstract:
Measuring employee engagement is a popular means for contemporary
organisations to assess employee commitment and engagement. It is evident
from literature that a strong relationship exists between improved employee
engagement levels and positive business outcomes. However, globally and
in South Africa, employees tend not to be engaged, with non-managerial
employees showing lower engagement compared to their managerial
counterparts. From this perspective, disengagement, resulting in untapped
employee potential, has significant financial implications.
Traditional employee engagement models list a positive communication
climate as one of many job resources that contribute to improved engagement,
alongside resources such as performance feedback, employee autonomy and
opportunities for learning and development. Against this background, this
research argues that a positive communication climate could possibly play a
more expanded role in driving non-managerial employee engagement than is
currently recognised.
Survey data were collected from four short-term insurance organisations
in the South African financial sector. Data analysis was done using factor
analysis and structural equation modeling. The results show a reasonable fit
and support the notion that a positive communication climate may have an
impact on all job resources, which could lead to higher levels of employee
engagement among non-managerial staff.
The results show that communication climate may possibly be the
foundation of job resource effectiveness. As such, management can address
communication climate when seeking to improve engagement levels of nonmanagerial employees.
