Employees’ perceptions of work engagement: a study of Nigeria’s private and public universities

Abstract

Employee engagement is an important concept that has immense links with other intrinsic organisational factors and has been said to have the potential to increase organisational success. This study examined employee perceptions of work engagement and how it may influences the feeling of being engaged within the workplace. In this study, two different types of organisations, private and public universities were examined with a view to understanding how employee perception towards work engagement may influence the feeling of being engaged at work. This study adopted a qualitative research method in examining perceptions towards engagement at work and feeling of being engaged at work using in-depth interviews. Data was gathered from employees across six south-western private and public Universities in Nigeria and was analysed. Samples in the study were selected based on random purposeful sampling and the data gathered were analysed using NVIVO qualitative analysis software. In all, the study employed thirty In-depth interviews with revealing findings about employees' perceptions as well as their engagement at work.Findings revealed new perspectives of work engagement that creates a clearer conception of employee engagement, it discovered that employees' understanding and perspective about engagement at work differs from existing notions of work engagement i.e., academics and practitioner's perspectives. More findings revealed that employee perception towards engagement may not necessarily reflect their actual engagement at work as against the popular believe in literature which suggest that a happy employee is a productive or engaged employee. In addition, result showed that employee engagement relates with organisational performance with a relationship that could occur in various ways.The study concluded that employee engagement is a significant concept within the organisation with effects on overall organisational success. However, employees' perceptions of engagement may not necessarily determine how engaged an employee will be; it is important to note that employee viewpoint of their engagements at work is crucial and must be actioned into planning of engagement practices.

Date of Award	8 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bedfordshire
Supervisor	Victoria Carpenter (Supervisor)