The Purpose: Leadership plays an important role in organizations towards driving the growth and success. And employee engagement is considered a key factor for organizational efficiency, success and achievement. Existing literature defines drivers of the employee engagement from different angels and commonly relates a portion to leadership skills, especially of the immediate managers. Our purpose is to strengthen the literature that relates leadership to organizational success by leadership positively effecting employee engagement. Our case is to investigate the nature and the magnitude of the correlation between Leadership and Employee Engagement, witness the existence or non-existence in our example organization. Our research hypothesis is - “Effective Leadership in organisations leads to an increased level of Employee Engagement”.   The literature and the method: First, the related literature is reviewed. We focused specifically on the literature investigating the relation of our two variables i.e. Leadership and Employee Engagement. Next, for our research, we analysed the existing data from the survey reports of AB Volvo Penta for which we have been granted access. The company is long established, multinational and have its corporate culture with focus on both leadership competences and employee satisfaction. Key findings: Congruent with the reviewed literature, the 2015 survey results of AB Volvo Penta shows that the two variables are correlated. The two indexes, namely Leadership Effectiveness Index (LEI) and Employee Engagement Index (EEI), are showing close relation within 146 departments measured. The survey results provide an interesting commonality, about the importance employees give on the behaviour of their immediate leaders which is eventually impacting their engagement at work. The commonality also leads to the fact that focusing on increasing leaders skills would increase employee's engagement. Originality/value: The relationship between Leadership and Employee Engagement is explored theoretically and tested empirically in an isolated organizational structure.

Objective: This research intends to add to the understanding of the various factors that influence an employee’s intention to quit an organisation. Increasingly globalised markets and global competition have demanded that organisations retain scarce human resources. The moderating effect of an employees’ level of engagement on the relationship of an employees’ level of psychological contract breach and perceived supervisor support with the productivity outcome of the employees’ intention to quit the organisation is examined to deepen the understanding of the relevance and inter-relationships of these factors. Methodology: This quantitative explanatory study considered the level of an employees perceived supervisor support and psychological contract breach as the predictor of their intention to quit and their level of employee engagement as the moderator of the variable relationships. The study obtained 449 responses from the employees in the Johannesburg based business unit of a South African company. The Pearsons product moment correlation coefficients were observed to identify the extent of the relationships and a stepwise multiple regression analysis gave insight into which of the independent variables explained more of the variances in ITQ. Finally a two-way ANOVA was used to check for interaction to determine the moderating effect of EE. Outcome: The level of an employee’s engagement, perceived supervisor support and psychological contract breach were observed to have significant relationships with their intention to quit the organisation in this study. The level of employee engagement was not observed to significantly moderate the relationship of their perception of supervisor support and psychological contract breach with their intention to quit the organisation. This suggests that the relationship of an employees’ level of perceived super support and psychological contract breach on their intention to quit does not vary depending on their level of employee engagement. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Magister Commercii - MCom / Background: Many South African companies are faced with the challenge of integrating a racially-diverse workforce into a white-dominated environment. This research sets out to assess the relationship between race and engagement activities within the workplace. Significance/Objective of the Research: This study aims to explore employee engagement and how employees of different races perceive their work environment, and in so doing, enhance the employer's ability to respond. Research Methodology: The analysis made use of confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to validate the employee engagement concepts of an empirical survey that was conducted across all trading divisions within the retail group. Ethics Statement: The research survey ensured ethics by assuring respondents voluntarily contributed to the research, whilst guaranteeing them anonymity, honesty and full disclosure. Findings/Conclusion: The study confirms that race, leadership, nature of job, intent to stay, empowerment, relationship and reward are factors influencing engagement amongst employees within the South African retail group.

The thesis focuses on the role of leadership communication within a multinational business organization. It aims to confirm the critical importance of communication provided by leaders to their team members. The literature review will focus on the existing communication flows within organizations and the current research results and insights in the field of leadership communication, which is a new, emerging domain of study. Thanks to recent quantitative research (Men, 2014b), it has been already confirmed that leadership communication has a direct effect on employee-organization relationships and overall internal communication. However, qualitative research has been suggested for validation of how the discovered model works in concrete environments (Men, 2014b). Thus, the research section will reveal the findings of in-depth semi-structured interview analysis within a global internal IT services provider which is part of a Group enterprise operating in the logistics industry world-wide. The thesis will culminate in defining logical reasoning for adding communication skills to the company's core competencies for organizational managers and leaders.

As a result of global competitiveness and a continuously changing business environment, organisations are constantly seeking for ways and means to enhance their profitability. The current organisational trend for businesses to gain competitive advantage is to restructure them to leaner and more flexible organisations. Businesses are striving to increase shareholder value by increasing performance through corporate restructuring to obtain an increase in efficiency and production. Unfortunately restructuring affects employees and could result in uncertainty with potential side effects in the work environment that could influence the employees‘ trust within the organisation. Damage to institutional trust, or trustworthiness as perceived by employees, could affect how employees engage within the organisation and impact on the profitability of such an organisation. A quantitative research study was conducted to determine if corporate restructuring affects institutional trust. It also investigated the relationship between institutional trust and employee engagement to determine if corporate restructuring affects employee engagement. The main findings of the research are that corporate restructuring has a profound impact on institutional trust and that damage to institutional trust affects how employees engage within the organisation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study investigated predictors of employee engagement at a large public research university. Generally speaking, the typical employee is disengaged at work (Adkins, 2015), and previous research has identified burnout as a contributor to employee disengagement (Maslach et al., 2001). Full-time staff employees volunteered to participate in a four-part survey regarding their levels of employee engagement, burnout, anxiety, and physical activity. Burnout was found to be the most significant predictor of employee engagement or disengagement, however, the results of all four surveys used in the study further exposed the complicated nature of successful employee engagement strategy.

Businesses that actively engage in integrated internal communication practices should theoretically be more likely to foster employee engagement during change management interventions. Competitive forces and a dynamic business environment compel most organisations to continuously review the relevance of their current business operating model. As a result, organisations develop new strategies or revise existing ones. Part of the change management process of executing a strategy is the ability to communicate it to employees, in a manner that ensures alignment between strategy and employee. The communication process therefore must seek to effect behavioural changes among its recipients. This paper investigates the practices of a business unit of an organisation in the financial services sector which has recently undertaken an extensive strategic communication exercise. Through a series of survey questions and interviews, the research seeks an answer to the question of whether integrated internal communication initiatives are effective in changing employee behaviour. Furthermore, the report investigates the forces that either inhibit or promote internal communication; and engages communication practitioners to determine whether return on investment metrics are implemented that link internal communication initiatives to financial performance. Results from the research revealed that strategic communication does have the capacity to affect employee engagement, but if left unchecked, factors such as language, distance and education have the capacity to inhibit effective communication initiatives. Furthermore, the absence of financial metrics and indicators related to the strategic communication initiative render it improbable to determine a return on investment for the internal communication initiative. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study explore the existence of a possible relationship between participation in corporate rituals and the employee commitment to the company. This case study examines the “Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP)”. Questionnaires where designed using Microsoft Forms. A convenience sampling of 379 employees participated in this study. As revealed in the findings, there is no relationship between the employee commitment and the number of rituals in which he participates. Millennial collaborators mostly participate in only 1 to 2 rituals within the company with 27% and 31% respectively; being the Halloween contest the ritual that has the highest ratio of millennials who do not participate.

A reinsurance organisation in Gauteng conducted an employee engagement survey in November 2013 to gauge the employee engagement level amongst its employees. The survey revealed that the employee engagement level was at 24% across all the organisational levels. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore whether the employees are still disengaged and describe the current reasons and possible solutions for employee disengagement. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six managers and focus groups with 27 general employees. Data analysis followed Tesch’s eight steps in the coding process. The findings revealed that a lack of management’s experience, styles and skills; poor communication and a lack of a robust performance management system promoted employee disengagement. Recommendations include leadership training for managers; improving communication and reviewing the performance management system. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

This study examines the levels and drivers of employee engagement in a South African organisation that distributes personal protection equipment. The organisation relies on its human resources to retain a competitive advantage in the industry. An understanding of employee engagement is essential for the attraction of new talent and the retention of existing employees. The researcher employed a mixed method design, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods. A survey was sent to all employees to determine levels of engagement. It was followed by focus groups to probe deeper into the survey results. The findings of the survey and the focus groups are contradictory. The survey results indicate that respondents are engaged within the workwear distribution company, whilst the findings of the focus groups depict a different narrative. The researcher believes that participant responses to the different methodologies explains this contradiction. The survey contained a number of closed-ended statements, where participants were required to tick a particular box, indicating their responses. The researcher believes that this approach was very clinical and elicited certain responses. Furthermore, participants might not have felt comfortable sharing their true feelings in writing. The approach to the focus group was very interactive and the researcher posed open-ended questions to the participants. This approach was organic and participants might have felt more comfortable sharing their feelings and views in this forum. The study revealed that a work environment characterised by poor communication and conflict impacted negatively on employee engagement. It also revealed that the organisation is characterised by an autocratic leadership style whereby top management make the decisions and are not open to suggestions from employees. While support between co-workers was acknowledged, relationships were also described as strained and that there is no synergy between departments. Maintaining positive relationships with management and co-workers are vital drivers to achieving increased employee engagement. Although these findings are particular to one organisation, they will hopefully assist other organisations to expand their understanding of employee engagement and thus refine their employee engagement strategies.