Employee Engagement Among Government Employees: A Quantitative Study Exploring the Impact of Organizational and Job Factors

ABSTRACT Employee engagement has been a topic of growing interest in the United States. Despite this, academic research examining employee engagement in the public sector appears to be lagging. Employee disengagement can have adverse effects on customer service, which may impact public trust in government. Therefore, understanding employee engagement in the public sector is important for building trust in government. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the impact of organizational and job factors on employee engagement among government employees in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The research question was: What is the impact of perceived organizational support, supervisory leadership behavior, and job characteristics on employee engagement among government employees working in the Washington, D.C. area, after controlling for demographic variables of age, gender, and tenure? Data collected through an online survey was analyzed using multiple linear regression. Results indicate that job characteristics of contribution and challenge were strongly associated with employee engagement. The surprising finding was that neither organizational support nor supervisor behavior had a significant impact on employee engagement. This suggests that job design of public sector jobs requires attention. Findings from this study also suggest that engagement theory may need adaptation for the context of the public sector. Supervisors should be empowered to implement human resource management (HRM) practices that build employee skills with new challenging tasks and provide opportunities for contributing in meaningful ways. Public sector leadership can play a role in improving perceptions of trust in government by attending to insights from this study on what matters most to employees in government. The results of the study indicate the need for employee recognition and effective communication that demonstrate to employees that they are valuable to the mission of the agency. This study adds to the academic literature on engagement by emphasizing the importance of job characteristics on employee engagement in the public sector that can lead to organizational effectiveness and the ability of government to serve the needs of the public.