The influence of leadership on employee engagement within a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment

Abstract

VUCA represents a constantly changing environment - a set of timeless circumstances that challenge a leader s ability to make decisions, develop plans and execute these plans flawlessly on a daily basis. This research focused on the influence of leadership, organisational values and organisational change on employee engagement within a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. The construct leadership was further examined using two hierarchical levels, employee s line manager and employee s senior leaders to deepen the understanding of the influence these levels of leadership have on employee engagement A quantitative research approach was followed wherein a non-random convenience sample (N = 969) of permanent staff operating within the Retail Operations Specialities function of South Africa s largest non-food retailer participated in the study. Regression analysis was conducted to determine the strength of the relationship between the dependent (employee engagement) and independent variables for each research question. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was conducted to analyse the differences among group means and their associated procedures. Employee s senior leaders were found to have a stronger influence on employee s engagement levels in comparison to employee s line managers. In addition the study found that the application of organisational values have a positive influence on employee engagement whilst organisational change was found to have the strongest influence on employee engagement explaining 41.2% of the variance in employee engagement. The findings of the study challenges the current body of research by identifying that within a VUCA environment when employee s leave the organisation they leave their senior leaders not their line managers.