Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Over the last decade, the concept of employee engagement has attractedsubstantial attention in both research settings and organizational applications (Christian,Garza, & Slaughter, 2011). Research has shown employee engagement to be related toseveral positive organizational outcomes, including employee production, employeeretention, customer satisfaction and company profit (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002;Hewitt Associates LLC, 2005). While there has been a recent surge of academic interestin employee engagement, there remains much to be learned about its antecedents. Thisstudy investigates employee engagement within the more established motivationalframework of Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) asproposed by Meyer and Gagne (2008) to determine if satisfying the needs of competence,autonomy, and relatedness through the work environment is associated with increasedlevels of employee engagement and well-being. This study also examines the underlyingneed satisfaction mechanism in detail using a computational modeling approach. Threecompeting models were tested and the "ramp" model, conceptually similar to Herzberg'soriginal formulation of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction (1959), best predicted levels ofemployee engagement in a sample of employees from a large southeastern publicuniversity.
Source: TigerPrints (Clemson University)
Author: Crystal Susan Wiedemann
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2592566566