The Impact of Behavioural Elements of Job Design on Employee Engagement of Public Sector Administrative Service Officers in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Public Sector should be focused on improving the productivity by empowering employees and this will be part of an overall growth strategy of the countrie's economy. Therefore, the service quality of public sector of the country is significantly important.The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of behavioural elements of Job Design on the level of employee engagement of Sri Lanka Administrative Service Officers. This quantitative study, 141 SLAS officers among 2384 SLAS officers are examined to identify the impact of each of the behavioural element tested in Hackman and Oldham's Job characteristics model on the level of Employee engagement. In addition the level of employee engagement of SLAS officers and the level of each of the five behavioural element embedded in the job of SLAS officers are measured in the study. The results of the study indicates that 65% of the variance in Employee Engagement is explained by five behavioural elements of Job Design. It is also found that Autonomy, Task Significance and Skill Variety elemants of Job Design are positively correlated with the level of employee engagement of SLAS officers and Task Identity and Task Feedback elements of Job Design are not significantly correlated with employee engagement. The study also proved that SLAS officers are moderately engaged in their job, having moderaley positve mean values for vigour, dedication and absorption elements. The level of Autonomy and Skill Variety elements embedded in the job of SLAS officers is at a moderate level and the level of Task Significance and Task Identity elements embedded in the job of SLAS officers is at a high level. The feedback provided by the job to its holder is at a low when considering the job of the sample. A more accurate method should be developed to provide a feedback to the job holder regarding the performance.

Human Resource Management Practices and Organizational Performance in Public Sector Organizations: with reference to Development Officers in the Colombo District in Sri Lanka

“…Some human resources practices of the private sector may not be equally applicable to the public sector organizations as they differ from private sector organizations, in terms of the nature of services provided, the characteristic difference of public sector employees, and the difference in the way of managing finance (Kalleberg et al, 2006). When concerning the public sector, improving productivity through empowering employees is significant as it ultimately affects the overall economic growth of the country (Dissanayake & Jayatilake, 2019). Even though several researchers have confirmed a positive relationship between HR practices and performances in their studies (Guest, 1997;Vlachos, 2008) there is a lack of empirical studies in examining the HR practices in the public sector, particularly in Sri Lanka.…”

Quiet Quitter, Myth or Fact? Measuring Employee Engagement on Aviation Education

“…Job design is an important factor in employee engagement, because work designs are interesting, varied, and challenging, and increase individual resources (Dutschke et al, 2019;Wicaksono et al, 2022). Good and challenging job design, requiring a variety of differrent abilities, breadth of authority, and good feedback will increase employee engagement in the job (Dissanayake & Jayatilake, 2019;Siruri & Cheche, 2021;Wicaksono et al, 2022). Following this explanation, the following hypotheses are arranged: H2: Job design has a positive effect on employee engagement.…”