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Modern Applied Science; Vol. 13, No. 7; 2019
ISSN 1913-1844 E-ISSN 1913-1852
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
115
Employee Engagement Level: The Transform from Employee to
Partner
Mohannad A.M. Abu Daqar¹ & Ahmad K.A. Smoudy²
¹ School of Management and Business Administration, Szent István University, Hungary
² Business Administration, Palestine
Correspondence: Mohannad A.M. Abu Daqar, School of Management and Business Administration, Szent István
University, 2100, Pater Karoly Utca 1, Gödöllő, Hungary. Tel: 36-70-540-9755. E-mail:
Mohannad.Abu.Daqar@phd.uni-szie.hu
Received: May 4, 2019 Accepted: June 20, 2019 Online Published: June 26, 2019
doi:10.5539/mas.v13n7p115 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/mas.v13n7p115
Abstract
Employee engagement recently has become a hot topic among the consulting firms and in the business press. The
purpose of this study was to study and create further understanding of employee’s engagement levels and how to
stimulate it to the maximum as long as possible. A survey was completed by 55 employees working in private and
governmental organization in Palestine from governmental service, manufacturing, technology,
telecommunication, financing and other services like retailer, NGO cultural to generate the output of having a
higher employees involvement in the governmental sector rather than the private one due to multiple factors, and
having a higher employee engagement in the private sector than the public one due to the more financial and
personal recognition they get there. The revealed results stressed that organizations need to recognize employees
as assets and customers. Business activities are key parts of the employee lifestyle, so it has a direct impact at his
reaction, so if the organization didn’t control these reactions it will be the main drivers for his disengagement.
Additionally, the employee engagement level is directly related to the efficiency of work and the overall company
performance. The authors recommend adopting employee engagement transforming strategies by the public sector
before the private one. Moreover, the study recommends that engagement transforming strategies must be
employee-oriented not entity-oriented.
Keywords: employee engagement, industry competitiveness, employee perception, company classification
JEL Classifications: O10, O15, M12, M53
1. Introduction
Employees, one of the most important building terms into any business. No matter what type of company we are
talking about or what sector the company operates in, no company can ignore one of its most valuable resources,
the human one. This relies on many factors, mainly the sustainability as the company existence depends heavily
on the human participation on a different structural level, whether it is in the first line or highest level, passing
through the middle as well.
It is true that a satisfying business structure can lead to a happy employee and therefore to a high performing entity.
But employees' behavior is continuously changing according to the human nature, in contrast with the business
structure that is either fixed or changing much less frequent than the human fluctuations. Moreover, companies are
continuously working to maintain the highest productivity. If it's not logically possible to keep changing the
business structure or create one that fits all human changing needs, then employee continuous productivity is surely
maintained by applying other long-term strategies and theories.
So, it is crucial at this point to study and create further understanding of employee's engagement levels and how
to stimulate it to the maximum as long as possible. We should understand what truly motivates employees to
maximize productivity and how to use it in the process of transferring them from employees "the basic engagement
level" to partners "the highest".
Companies in specific fields like retail and manufacturing, for example, have been suffering from high employee's
turnover for decades. This phenomenon reduces the efficiency of the company's overall performance because it
increases the tasks of the recruitment departments and disperses the efforts of the employees working in the
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departments mentioned earlier. The authors believe that understanding employee's needs and perceptions can help
in improving the efficiency of the human capital through working on their engagement level. Having a clear vision
of what are the factors affecting the engagement level will give the HR departments in companies a specific
guideline on how to engage their employees more in the indirect and direct decisions and efforts done by the
company in different departments. Eventually, this will help in strengthening the company's overall performance
which will affect the economic sectors in parallel.
Definition of Key Terms
Employee Engagement: the emotional commitment that an employee has to the organization and its goals.
Industry Competitiveness: the level of the direct head to head relation between companies within the same
economic sector.
Employee Perception: The future predictions set by employees regarding their career path inside the
company’s structure.
Company Classification: A system for classifying companies based either on the size of the company and
field of operation.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Study Context
Employees, or what the business like to call Human Power, is one of the most important pillars of the business
existence and development in the future. Employees resemble business success and competitiveness within the
market (Arthur, 1992). Attracting the human power with the needed talents might seem like a hard task, but
maintain their full potentials as much as possible and engaging them into the business different current mission
and future long-term vision is the hardest part. Investing in the human capital is the most beneficial investment,
whether for businesses or even for nations, looking at this as an asset, it is highly required to benefit from this asset
as long as possible by creating higher engagement and loyalty to the entity itself (Bailey, 1993).
In this study authors are classifying the factors that affect employee’s engagement level within the Palestinian
Companies, and whether such engagement and commitment influence the company competitive level within the
industry. To achieve these study goals, authors have started with collecting secondary data from previous studies
that have spotted the light on this issue in modern publications. The literature review will be the base to understand
the origins of the employee engagement and clarify why it is an important topic to businesses all around the world
and not only into the Palestinian local market. Afterward, primary data will be collected using a survey that was
distributed among a selected sample which was sampled using SRS “simple random sampling”. There are two
different samples, the businesses as entities were studied using a questionnaire addressed to the human resource
department. In parallel to focus groups that will be set with the business employees to collect data from both sides
of the engagement level as a term to study in order to analyze the data and come up with an integrated quantitative
and qualitative output that is leading to the research recommendations eventually.
Employee engagement is recognized by many international and locally operating businesses in recent years
(Ramus, 2001). This increasing importance is a result of the increasing talent acquisitions acts and the belief that
employees should be treated as a reversed-customer who needs continuous attention and stimulus motivating as
they are with no doubt an important stakeholder that is effected from the inside of the company and reflects it on
the outside public (Ramus,2001).
2.2 Employee Engagement Level definition
Employee engagement has no fixed definition that is agreed on upon all scholars. Some scholars define employee
engagement "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles, in engagement, people employ
and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during their performances" (Kahn, 1990). This
definition works in various pillars that are related to the part of the employee work experience. The cognitive pillar
is related to the employee believes about the organization, its working conditions, and the management. The
emotional pillar is driven by how positive or negative the employees feel regarding each of these three factors
(organization, management, and working conditions). The third and last pillar, which is the physical, is about the
physical energy exercised by individuals in order to accomplish the required tasks within their roles. In other words,
engagement means to be physically and psychologically present when performing an organizational role (Kahn,
1990).
In addition to Kahn's three-pillar definition, engagement has been defined as “the emotional and intellectual
commitment to the organization” (Baumruk, 2004) or “the amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees
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in their job” (Frank, 2004). However, there is always the simplest definition that you can always find for any field,
which is "passion for work" as defined by (Truss et al., 2006) this simple definition goes I parallel with Kahn
definition that relies on the three pillars nut I simpler stimulus. As the passion for work will not be possible if there
is no positive work environment with a healthy relationship with the organization leaders which will lead to
physically perform well.
The existence of different definitions for any term can cause a problem as it wouldn't be possible to determine the
drivers and deep analysis of the case researched. However, in the case of employee engagement, it is clear that
there are different definitions that each covers the concept from a different perspective. In some modern researches,
employee engagement definition has been developed to overcome the definition compatibility and the result was
to mistakenly define it under new terms such as (Organization commitment and organization citizenship)
(Ferguson, 2007). In this research, we will adopt Kahn's definition as it integrates most of the other definitions on
a way or another, and it analyses the relationship between employee engagement level and company's internal
stakeholders that upon Kahn's affect the performance of the employee eventually.
2.3 What are the Levels of Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement has several levels that allocate the employee level of commitment to the company overall.
Engagement levels vary depending on the definition vision, as we have adopted Kahns employee engagement
definition earlier. Levels of engagement in this research will be classified based on employee participation on the
comprehensive performance committed by employees at each level of engagement and its effect on the company.
Based on Don Rheem there are three levels of employee engagement that could be found at mostly every
organization (Rheem, 2017) as follows:
2.3.1 Highly Engaged Employees
These employees are the alpha players of the company who transform the workplace into a cell of productivity,
innovation, and fun. When these employees work along with co-workers who are positive, reliable, and predictable,
they will be capable to accomplish more than they would if doing it alone. These alpha players in companies could
motivate others, coworkers, and less engaged employees to improve their engagement level on a certain project or
within the same period that they work together.
2.3.2 Engaged Employees
These employees who make up to 20-25% of most companies (Rheem, 2017). Represent the performance
backbone for the company as they focused on their works and to deliver their roles on time with a positive outlook.
They are working hard and usually believe in the mission of the company. Many of the engaged employees get
inspired by highly engaged employees and usually create their own self-motivation.
2.3.3 Actively Disengaged
These employees who are present and absent at the same time, who attend to work every day and has specific roles
that they don't tend to improve it any point. This type of employees makes up to 50% of most businesses. They are
clock-punchers who are doing the work but with no intentions to perform their full potential. This can be due to
bad conditions of management. However, these disengaged employees try to resist the feeling of affiliation to the
entity as much as possible and look at the company only as a check payer every month (Rheem, 2017).
These different levels of engagement are present at more than 70% of enterprises around the globe (Rheem, 2017)
and always changing. Which means that highly engaged employees can shift down to become engaged employees
and another way up, even highly disengaged employees can become highly engaged employees if managed well.
That's why companies tend not to dismiss highly disengaged employees because it is always possible for research
development departments that every employee performs their full potentials at some point of their career life cycle
(Markos, 2010).
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Figure 1. The Pyramid of Engagement
Source: Own, adopted from (Rheem, 2017)
2.4 Employee Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is a term that is directly related to the employee’s engagement level (Markos, 2010). It is highly
related to employee engagement as employee satisfaction within the company interprets to higher loyalty and
therefore higher productivity and engagement (Soanne, 2008). Job satisfaction is defined to be whether employees
are happy and fulfilling their needs desires and at their works. Employee internal satisfaction reflects on several
measurements like employee motivation, dedication, and goal achievement (Mete et al., 2016).
Job satisfaction is integration between the internal conscious of the employee and the external surrounding
environment and they affect each other vice-versa. Job satisfaction is not absolute, it differs in levels and is always
found whether internally or externally (Torraco, 2005). The level of satisfaction can’t be controlled neither by the
company nor the individual solely, it is an integrated process that has multiple factors, and each factor affects all
other factors as well as the final output which is the job satisfaction.
Figure 2. Factors of Engagement
Source: Own, adopted from (Maylett, 2018)
“Work Environment, financial support, policies, employee age, feel of belonging, job security, innovation,
flexibility, career progression, promotions, etc…" these are all factors affecting not only the job satisfaction but
also each other factor. When discussing the job satisfaction in the context of employee engagement, salary,
environment, career path, and job satisfaction are the main four corners of the overall factors illustrated earlier.
These four directly related factors affect each other along with the level of engagement (Maylett, 2018).
Highly
Engaged
Actively Engaged
Actively Dis-Engaged
Salar
y
Environment Career Path
Satisfaction
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2.5 Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement
Previous studies have indicated that there are significant differences between the job and the organization
engagement, the perceived organizational support could predict both job and organization engagement, while job
engagement is determined by tit’s characteristics, additionally, the organizational engagement has been predicted
by procedural justice (Saks, 2006).
Employee engagement is affected and affecting at the same time. Antecedents like job characteristics,
organizational support and recognition are all causes of creating employee engagement, for sure different levels of
antecedents cause different levels. Afterward, Employee engagement will lead to job satisfaction vice versa and
create higher organizational commitment and less intention to quit. There is a direct “positive and negative”
relationship between the causes of employee engagement and the consequences of it as shown in the illustration
below (Saks, 2006).
Figure 3. Antecedents & Consequences of Employee Engagement
Source: (Saks, 2006)
2.6 Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance
Investing in employee engagement is so important for companies as employee engagement is significantly related
to significant business outcomes. Researches have shown that employee engagement influences organizational
performance outcomes like productivity, profitability, employee retention, safety, and customer loyalty. And also,
researches have indicated that there is a direct positive relationship between employee engagement and overall
company’s profitability and competitiveness as it can exceed the average profit growth in the industry (Markos et
al., 2010).
Many types of research on employee engagement have indicated that engagement is positively related to customer
satisfaction (Ellis and Sorensen, 2007; Coffman, 2000; Hewitt Associates, 2004; Coffman and Gonzalez-Molina,
2002; Towers Perrin Talent Report, 2003; Heintzman and Marson, 2005). The engaged employee consistently
demonstrates high performance while interacting with any stakeholder whether internally like peers and
management or externally with customers, vendors, and the public.
On the other hand, if employees are disengaged, it is more likely that the company will be losing talent and efforts
on tasks that may not matter much, and even if it matters, it will not be as productive and effective as if they were
at least engaging. Employees will also show a lack of commitment and participation in reflecting the company's
goals. Moreover, some disengaged employees might be splitting which means they won’t be considering any
change with the company (Perrin Report, 2003; BlessingWhite, 2006). Based on the results of a survey conducted
by ISR “Institute for social research” on 360,000 employees from different 41 companies worldwide in the top ten
world’s economically robust countries; the results find that both net profit margins and operating margin were
reduced over a 3 year period with companies with low engagement, whereas these measures will be increased
over a specified period in the high level of engagement companies (Meere, 2005).
2.7 Drivers for Engagement Strategies
At this point in the research, it is clear that employee engagement is highly important and needs attention and
efforts by companies to maintain a steady developed level of engagement. Engagement is highly related to the
employee behavior and conscious, therefore employee engagement can't be obtained by specific fixed steps as it
might differ from an employee to another. This doesn't mean that there could be a range of useful strategies and
efforts that can be implied by the company to positively affect the physical and mental consciousness of the
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employee. The researcher Solomon Markos in 2010 has set six-point tablets that –as he states- should be applied
by every company to reduce employee disengagement and benefit from employee's full job potentials:
2.7.1 Start it on Day One
Most of the organizations have talented efficient acquisition strategies, but they lack of employee’s retention
strategies. Orientation programs and effective recruitment are the primary pillars to be placed on the first day of a
new employee. Moreover, managers need to be careful in extracting the new employee potential talents through
their effective recruitment.
2.7.2 Start it from the Top
Employee engagement entails leadership commitment through incorporating clear values, vision, and mission,
unless people at the top-level own it, believe in it, push it down to employees, managers, and improve their
leadership, employee engagement then will never be more than just a “corporate fad” or “another HR thing”.
2.7.3 Enhancing Employee Engagement Throughout Two-Way Communication
Managers need to promote two-way communication. Employees are not chess stones moving according to your
orders ideas without giving them the chance to express their opinion on main issues that affect their job and life.
2.7.4 Giving Satisfactory Opportunities for Advancement and Development
It is crucial to encourage independent thinking among employees through granting them more job autonomy; so,
it will give them great chance to get their freedom to choose the best way of doing their job as long as their
performance within the intended outcome of the company.
2.7.5 Ensuring that Employees Have the Required Resources to do Their Jobs
It is expected from managers to ensure that their employees have access to all the required resources as material,
physical or, information and financial resources in order to accomplish the job requirements effectively.
2.7.6 Giving Employee’S Appropriate Training
The company should help its employees to update themselves through enhancing their skills and knowledge by
giving them the appropriate training. Normally, it is obvious that when your employees seeking to know more
about their jobs it will increase their confidence to enable them to work without headache supervision from their
direct managers which in turn helps to improve their commitment and self-efficacy (Markos, 2010).
3. Study Questions
What is employee engagement level and how is it measured?
What are the main factors affecting employee engagement and how do employee perceive it?
Do employees’ level of engagement and commitment enhance the company’s competitiveness; if so, how?
How can companies increase employee engagement level in the Palestinian economy?
4. Methodology
4.1 Research Approach
This study utilizes a Mixed Research Approach stream because it integrates the quantitative numeric and
qualitative descriptive data in parallel. The mixed Approach is due to the research main objectives that are about
the employee engagement level and how to improve it in the Palestinian business market. This study provides a
qualitative and quantitative analysis of the current understanding and measurement of employee engagement level
and the descriptive verbal output of how to improve employee level of engagement from level to another.
The mixed Research Approach is a research in which the researcher collects, analyses, integrates, and generates
both quantitative and qualitative results in a single study. (Johnson et al., 2007, cited in Cameron, 2011). This
approach is adopted when aiming to obtain a descriptive and new problem solution for a specific phenomenon.
The mixed research approach has been becoming increasingly attached to such researches and recognized as the
third major research approaches (Johnson, 2007).
4.2 Research Design
This study uses Causal study design, collecting live data of the selected sample identified using simple random
sampling. The change of specific variables regarding the current affected conditions with other un-affected
condition who have not been exposed to these changes. This will be done by collecting data of the 55-respondent
sample through questionnaire addressing and one-to-one interviews, data analyzing took place to clarify the current
situation into the studied companies.
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This study design is believed to be relatively flexible with changing conditions across time. It will be very
beneficial for future researches related to this topic as it will be possible for them to have a direct comparison and
description of the level of success and credibility of the study results and recommendations. This will set the
opportunity for future researchers to widen their study horizon and long-term goals.
The authors used the Cross-Tabulation method to perform the data analysis of the study instrument for all its
sections.
4.3 Population and Sampling Method
The target population of this study is the private and governmental organizations in Palestine which are aligned
with the research approach and objectives. The sample chosen from different organizations located in West Bank-
Palestine, 55 respondents participated in this survey. This research used simple random sampling. Furthermore,
the sample is a part of the target population which is the private and government sectors.
The questionnaire consists of 5 main parts as the following: (1. General Information, 2. The company, 3.
Management, 4. Operations, and 5. Needs).
5. Results and Discussions
In this section, authors have explained the main results of this study through the main study questions and the most
significant items in the questionnaire which have the greatest impact in the study.
5.1 Descriptive Analysis (Frequencies)
Figure 4. What are the top three words that relate to your job right now?
Source: Own
In figure 4 showed above, the sample has stated the most descriptive words of their jobs, and 52% stated that they
see it challenging, 49% felt their jobs are satisfying, 47% stated it's a development job, 40% felt they are doing a
successful job, 34% felt their jobs are motivating, 25% felt it's a consuming job, 22% felt their current jobs are
depressing, while only 13% felt their jobs are innovative.
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Figure 5. From your personal perspective, what are the most factors affecting your engagement within your
company?
Source: Own
As figure 5 shows the factors affecting the employee's engagement in their companies from their own perspective,
career path was selected by 54% of the sample, personal development was selected by 54% as well, salary scale
and future potential were chosen by 49% of the sample, career satisfaction was selected by 45%, financial support
was chosen by 27% and recognition was chosen by 22% of the sample.
Figure 6. On a scale from 1-5 "one is the lowest", Rank each engagement pillar on how much it affects your
personal engagement
Source: Own
Figure 6 shows, the sample weighted each pre-set engagement factor of how much it affects them from very weak
to very strong, the sample stated that all the factors (working environment, personal satisfaction, financial
recognition, and career path) has a strong effect on their engagement at (45%, 40%, 38%, 36%) respectively. (30%,
29%, 36%, 30%) viewed them all as weak respectively. (9%, 14%, 7%, 16%) viewed them as very strong factors
respectively. (7%, 12%, 14%, 14%) viewed them all as weak factors respectively. (7%, 1%, 3%, 1%) viewed them
all as very weak factors respectively.
5.2 Descriptive Analysis (Cross Tabulation)
Table 1. Tasks Acknowledgment VS How long they have been in the company
Tasks Acknowledgment VS How long they have been in the company Rate %
2-5 years 16%
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Agree 58%
Strongly Agree 42%
6-8 years 5%
Agree 100%
Less than 2 years 49%
Agree 30%
Can't Decide 38%
Disagree 16%
Strongly Agree 16%
More than 8 years 30%
Agree 38%
Disagree 19%
Strongly Agree 43%
Grand Total 100%
Source: Own
From the cross-tabulation table above (Tasks Acknowledgment VS How long they have been in the company) it
shows that all employees who have been in the company between 2-5 years well acknowledging their tasks with
58% agree and 42% strongly agree. While all employees who have been in the company for more than five years
well acknowledge their tasks. And 81% of the people who have been in the company for longer than 8 years well
acknowledge their tasks while 19% only disagree. Finally, 49% of employees who have been in the company for
less than 2 years well acknowledge their tasks while 16% don’t and 38% couldn’t decide whether to agree or not.
Table 2. Level of Employment VS I have a career path in this industry
Level of Employment VS I have a career path in this industry Rate %
First level jobs 45.5
Agree 34
Can't Decide 15
Disagree 38
Strongly Agree 6
Strongly Disagree 7
Middle Management 40
Agree 32
Can't Decide 18
Disagree 13
Strongly Agree 28
Strongly Disagree 9
Senior Management 14.5
Agree 38
Disagree 15
Strongly Agree 28
Strongly Disagree 19
Grand Total 100%
Source: Own
From the above table (Level of Employment VS I have a career path in this industry), it is shown that 40% of
employees at the first level employment feel that they have a clear career path in the same company with 34%
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agree and 6% strongly agree. While 45% felt that they don't have a clear career path with 38% disagree and 7%
strongly disagree, and 15% felt neutral. While 60% of employees at middle level employment felt they have a
clear career path in the company with (32% agree and 28% strongly agree, 22% stated that they don't feel they
have clear career path with (13% disagree and 9% strongly disagree), 18% couldn't decide whether they agree or
not to this statement. Finally, 65% of employees agreed that they have clear career path within the company since
they are in the senior level management with (38% agree and 28% strongly agree), while 34% disagreed with the
statement from the same level of employment with (19% strongly disagreed and 15% disagreed). 0% of the senior
level managers felt neutral since they are at the senior level and clearly state their feeling towards this statement.
Table 3. Ownership of the company VS Rarely Looking for another job
Ownership of the company VS Rarely Looking for another job Rate%
Governmental 58.1
Agree 19
Can't Decide 11
Disagree 26
Strongly Agree 6
Strongly Disagree 38
Private 43.6
Agree 32
Can't Decide 13
Disagree 9
Strongly Agree 24
Strongly Disagree 22
Grand Total 100%
Source: Own
As the cross-tabulation table above (Ownership of the company VS Rarely Looking for Another Job) shows, 25%
of the governmental sector rarely look for another job with (19% agree and 6% strongly agree) and 64% do look
for other jobs when possible with (38% strongly disagree and 26% disagree), 11% couldn’t decide. While 56% of
the private sector employees agreed that they rarely look for other jobs with (32% agree and 24% strongly agree),
31% disagreed with the statement with (9% disagree and 22% strongly disagree), and 13% felt neutral and couldn’t
decide whether yes or no.
5.3 Answers of Study Questions
Research Question (1): What is employee engagement level and how is it measured?
It was clear from the beginning of the literature review that employee engagement has various different definitions
based on different perspectives, eventually we chose to adopt one definition adopted Kahn's definition "the
harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles, in engagement, people employ and express
themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during their performances" (Kahn, 1990) as it integrates most
of the other definitions on a way or another, and it analyses the relationship between employee engagement level
and company's internal stakeholders that upon Kahn's effect the performance of the employee eventually.
Research Question (2): What are the factors affecting employee engagement and how do employee perceive
it?
When researching the employee engagement factors, we approached some HR officers at the study sample for a
one-to-one interview with a human resource expert employee at one of the Palestinian ministries associated with
finance as 58.1% of this sample was from the governmental sector, the HR officer clearly stated that employee
engagement is directly related to the internal environment of the entity as it is day-to-day process the employees
get exposed to the in the internal human power related policies. Mr .X stated that the motivation factors like
financial efforts, sharing the vision of the company, creating communication with employees from different
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departments and in different levels within the same department, in addition to discussing the external entity related
stimulus from outside factors among employees. All these factors are directly affecting the employee’s engagement
based on Khan's definition we adopted earlier as Mr. X agreed on.
Research Question (3): Do employees’ level of engagement and commitment enhance the company’s
competitiveness if so, how?
When researching the relation between the employee engagement level and the company's competitiveness. The
engagement was directly related to the company's competitiveness as the company competitiveness is based not
only on the financial profit but also in the internal stakeholders and the main key success factor which is the human
power commitment. When 54% of employees agreed that they feel well affiliated to the company's vision, 47%
agreed that they will recognize staying at their same company for the next 3 years' career time, and 52% agreed
that they feel the company motivates them to go beyond their potential. These numbers show that higher
engagement among employees pushes them not only to stay longer in their current companies but to give more
than full potential. It is undeniable that when employees perform better by self-motivation or any other motivating
factors that create employee satisfaction the company overall performance of the company will be improved with
more efficient productivity and higher employee loyalty outside the working hours which gives the companies a
differentiating step-ahead benefit in the industry regarding any other company in the same industry.
Research Question (4): How can companies increase employee engagement level in the Palestinian economy?
When discussing the engagement level with respect to the Palestinian economy with Mr. X, he stated that financial
satisfaction is a necessity for any employee as it goes along with the overall economic structure of the Palestinian
economy where individuals are financially oriented with their financial commitments and basic life needs affording
that goes higher day by day. Mr. X stated that financial satisfaction offers the company a full concentration on the
jobs tasks completion as employees won't be disturbed with looking for extra financial alternatives outside their
current positions. This goes along the quantitative results we analyzed as financial satisfaction factor was chosen
by 38% of the sample as a crucial factor. The working environment was also pointed out by Mr. X as he said the
social structure in the Palestinian culture highly depends on the word-of-mouth power as people discuss any issues
outside their companies whether it's true fact or a rumor. Which means that a good working environment will lead
to a positive public reputation generated by the employees themselves whether by reflecting the company's positive
environment or defending the negative external rumors. This also goes along with the quantitative result we got
when the sample chose the working environment as the number one strongest factor by 45% of the sample
responses.
6. Conclusion
Employee engagement level was a term to be defined at the beginning of this research, employee's importance and
human power optimization were and approved to be the key success factor for any company. The main resource
of any company was started from the beginning of the study to be Human Power. Like any other resource, we
always tend to get the best possible output from different variables associated with the study. In the case of the
human resource, we did not look at it only as a resource to benefit from but also a resource to invest in for the
future of the nations before the businesses.
Our study started by collecting secondary information about the employee engagement level and how to improve
it through previous related studies. Studies about this topic in the Palestinian industry were not that much but that
doesn't mean there were not any simple theories and economic basis to start from. We adopted one clear definition
of employee engagement and built our research upon its pillars and perspectives.
The study shows that employees need to be recognized both as an asset and as a customer at the same time. An
asset when it comes to maintaining the asset operating with 100% power and potential, and with loyalty and
satisfaction creation when it comes to the customer side. All business activities become part of the employee
lifestyle in some way or another, some actions might affect the employee directly, and some others will be indirect.
The common factor here is that they will be affected eventually. So, the key here is to control these effects in order
to control the reaction generated by the employees that might be for example a low employee engagement like
disengaging.
Importance of the engagement has been clarified previously with examples and numbers. The internal and external
factors affecting the engagement level has been mentioned as well to lead on how to motivate these factors after
all. It is very important to understand that employee engagement is not only affected by the financial part of the
business. Higher salaries do not mean higher loyalty and high voluntary engagement level; neither low salary has
a low engagement level.
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It was obvious when going through the literature review that studies regarding this topic have been international
and not regarding the Palestinian market in specific. There have been no specific studies regarding this topic into
Palestine, that’s why this study is important to recognize as it will be the corner-stone for future Human Capital
development with respect to the Palestinian market conditions. Using up-to-date information and results from the
local market itself.
The Human Power is the most important resource to invest in for any nation, starting from educating children and
ending with the future careers and incubation in the future building of their nations. The human mental and physical
power should not end and be consumed in the career life but employees should believe in their responsibility and
contribution not only on filling their positions but also in leading this nation and country to strong independent
economic and authority independence. To but Palestine in the map of development and to brighten the future not
only to our children but to our beloved Palestine.
7. Limitations & Recommendations
7.1 Limitations
The main challenge for authors in this study which is many companies in Palestine do not have good employee
engagemen t p ro gr ams to get the real practical image for employee engagement role models. Additionally, reaching
the specialists and HR experts wasn’t that easy task, sharing such information in this regard is somehow difficult
for them, which it restrains to obtain more information and practical examples.
7.2 Recommendations
The authors have generated a specific recommendation for the professionals and HR experts and everyone
interested or working in this field whether officers or top managers, the recommendations are divided into three
main parts as follows:
7.2.1 Deeper Studies in this Field in Specific
Through this study, it was clear that employee engagement level is a crucial hot topic among all types of
organizations from different sizes and industries. Even when companies did not recognize this issue, they draw
high attention on this topic when we approached as we opened their eyes to a broad new horizon.
The study did cover the basic employee engagement definition and strategies to transfer employees from the lowest
engagement level to the highest. However, it did not cover 100% of the case, neither from the overall possible
strategies or all factors or stimulus. Therefore, authors recommend having a deeper more specific studies in this
topic and the related fields like “Recruitment, Capacity Building, Employee Satisfaction” as these topics are related
to the level of employee engagement some way or another.
7.2.2 Adopting the Employee Engagement Transforming Strategies by the Public Sector Before the Private One
Employee engagement level was proven to be directly related to the efficiency of work and the overall company
performance. When talking about the private sector it is mainly profit-oriented and having a vision for a stronger
business, which is not bad as it is the private sector and always has good side effects on the overall economic
performance of the country. But when talking about the Public sector organization, having strong strategies for
improving the Employee Engagement will be directly affecting the governmental organizations' performance
starting from its employees. Long-term career and job security are all guaranteed in the governmental sector in
Palestine as the government stays away from expelling employees unless for serious rare issues. Which means
employees are feeling safe from the security perspective, and not looking for other main jobs rather than their
current ones. Having this combination is a key success for the governmental institutions to have the maximum
potential of their employees for the longest possible time through improving their working environment and having
a high engagement level in and out of work.
The effect of governmental institutions performance is more visible than the private sector as it is directly into the
nation’s overall operations and performance. The government is the number one employer in Palestine with over
than 160 thousand employees in the West Bank only based on the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics report
in the fourth quarter of the year 2018. The effect of engaging these 160 thousand employees will have a massive
push to the economy not only behind their disk productivity but also in their daily life activities.
7.2.3 Businesses Must Have Engagement Transforming Strategies That are Employee-Oriented and Not Entity-
Oriented
Going through the research, it was obvious from the businesses that their main objective when looking to
employee's productivity and engagement is only to increase their numeric profits in the first place. Which is not a
bad intention, but at the end of the day, employee engagement strategies should be centralized upon employees
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themselves and not the company at the first place. The company will always be benefited when having a high
employee engagement but they should aim not only for the numeric profits, these strategies will lead to but also
to the strong good reputation and their intangible credit they will have in the industry which is not measured by
numbers, but absolutely lead to positive business performance, higher stock price, and at the end of the day a good
numeric output.
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