Organisational Culture: A Catalyst For Employee Engagement in the Ghanaian Public Sector (Published)
Given that public sector organisations have a mandate to advance the greater public good, makes hiring and retaining highly engaged employees critical to their success. Understanding, therefore, the conditions under which individuals would actively engage through the influence of organisational culture, is highly relevant for both employees and employers. The focus of this study was to determine whether culture affects three dimensions (Cognitive, affective and physical)of engagement in the public sector in order to encourage high levels of engagement within the sector.Though more research has been done in this area, most have looked at other engagement dimensions other than the cognitive, physical and emotional, and especially, in the Ghanaian public sector. The study adopted a descriptive approach. Questionnaires were used to gather data from 192 respondents who were selected based on convenience. With the help of a linear regression, the findings of the study showed a statistically positive effect of organisational culture on all three dimensions of engagement: cognitive engagement (β=.489, F statistic= 59.746, sig. value=.000); affective engagement (β=.397, F statistic= 35.474, sig. value =.000); behavioural engagement (β=.512, F statistic=67.418, sig. value =.000). It was therefore recommended that management must make Employee engagement strategic; instil a sense of belongingness and ownership in public sector employees, by clearly defining and ensuring a favourable corporate culture and emphasising assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members to assist in imporoving their collaboration with the mission, values and goals of the organisation.
Keywords: Affective Engagement, Behavioural Engagement, Cognitive Engagement, Organisational Culture