A Study Exploring How Leaders Experience Cultivating Employee Engagement at Work

Abstract

Employee engagement is a key indicator of a company’s growth. Employee engagement and leadership styles have been researched for generations, as evidenced by the number of dissertations and articles written about leadership and engagement. The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of how leaders experience cultivating employee engagement at work. This study aims to contribute additional knowledge to the field of educational leadership by detailing how leaders experience cultivating employee engagement at work. This research focuses on the democratic, transactional, and transformational leadership styles and how they cultivate employee engagement at work. The findings can assist the private sector to enhance employee engagement and workforce productivity. The theoretical foundation of this study is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which helps to understand why people behave the way they do. This study employed a qualitative approach to answer two research questions addressing how leaders experience cultivating employee engagement at work. This study used a non-probability sampling method; purposive sampling was used to select the study participants. The sample size for this study was 10 employees (n=10). A semi-structured survey was used to gather participant data and feedback. The data was analyzed by dividing the results into themes through a process known as descriptive coding, and the final information was captured in figures, tables, and survey comments. The results of this study show that participants have not been directly exposed to cultivating employees; however, they believe in its concepts. The respondents believed that employee cultivation is necessary for employees. Various strategies and leadership traits are utilized by the respondents: They reported common leadership styles being used, such as transactional, transformational, and situational leadership. However, it should be noted that some participants did not ground their practice in leadership theory, and listed leadership traits rather than a theory. Half of the leaders believed that their employees perform better as a result of employee engagement and cultivation, while others believed their employees have intrinsic skills that allow them to perform well and meet and exceed their targets.