Drivers of employee engagement: differences by work area and gender

Purpose: Previous studies have not integrated the impact of the area of study into the notion of employee engagement. The purpose of this study is to empirically measure the association between employee engagement and the two antecedent factors of perceived organizational support (POS) and employee loyalty across different areas of study. Design/methodology/approach: A nationally representative survey of 2,408 adults in the USA collected by the worker representation and participation survey (WRPS) was used. A multinomial logit regression was used to estimate the impact of POS and loyalty across different areas of study. Findings: The findings of this study consistent with the previous studies showed that POS and employee loyalty are positively and significantly associated with employee engagement. This study found by a decline in the level of support from a “lot of support” to “somewhat support,” the degree of engagement declines by about 50 per cent. Further, it found that the level of engagement changes across different areas of study. For instance, professional and skilled workers are more engaged compared to other groups of workers. The findings were similar for the variables of loyalty to supervisors and loyalty to organizations. Moreover, the findings showed that conditioned on being loyal, women are more engaged than men. Originality/value: This is the first study that uses WRPS to understand how the level of engagement varies across different kinds of study.