An employee engagement analysis of XYZ College: New Zealand

This dissertation provides a detailed view into the attitudes and concerns of employees in terms of the contributing factors that affect employee engagement within XYZ College. Only when the influencing factors of engagement within their environment matches the values and the qualities of their employees can sustainable engagement levels be expected. More importantly, no organisation can afford to react on incorrect or incomplete data and factors of engagement or not to react at all in light of the increasing struggles of colleges regarding funds, low job resources, high job demands, and decreasing support. The author adopted a quantitative framework approach, as the most appropriate approach to answer the research question(s) of this study. Furthermore, in order to inquire effectively into the current employee engagement status of XYZ College and uncover areas for improvement, the author considered a survey strategy most suitable for this research study. The reason being, a survey allowed the author to collect quantitative data that could be analysed quantitatively by means of descriptive statistics. Subsequently, the author adapted a questionnaire originally developed by the Best Companies Group in order to quantify engagement levels within XYZ College. This study includes 56 participants from a state integrated college within New Zealand and was aimed at capturing employee’s views and experiences on the factors of engagement as well as the positive and negative elements that affect their holistic functioning and behaviour within their current working environment. The response rate of the internet-mediated questionnaire was 72% as the total population of 78 employees received invitations to participate. Various results emerged that captured the opinionated information that included attitudes, views, and beliefs, all of which relate directly to participants’ engagement experiences as being favourable or unfavourable. These results showed that 48.2% of employees are somewhat engaged whereas 37.5% are somewhat disengaged, as a result only 5.4% was shown to be actively engaged while 8.9% was shown to be actively disengaged. The factor employees experienced as most favourable was “commitment” (Mdn=4.43) whereas the factor they experiences the most unfavourable was “pay and rewards” (Mdn=2.97). The drivers of engagement were identified as job clarity, organisational reputation, flexible job conditions, and trust. On the other hand, the barriers to engagement were identified as compensation and pay, recognition, being undervalued and company incentives.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Applied Management

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Eastern Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bosman, Werner

• New Zealand
• college staff
• state integrated schools
• employee engagement
• experiences
• attitudes
• leadership
• educational institutions
• surveys

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6612

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10652/6612