Understanding Factors Influencing

Employee Engagement: A Study of the

Financial Sector in Malaysia
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Raida Abu Bakar

BSc, Purdue University, 1998
MBA, University of Malaya, 2002

School of Management
Business Portfolio
RMIT University

March 2013

AUTHORS DECLARATION
I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of
the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to
qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work
which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved
research program; and, any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party
is acknowledged.

Raida Abu Bakar

March, 2013

ii

Dedicated in loving memory of my mother, Hazilah Hassan, my idol and inspiration,

and the best friend I have ever had

and

To my father, Abu Bakar Hashim, whose love, support, and understanding have
made me who I am today.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise be to God for giving me the health, strength, patience and perseverance to carry
out this research.
My PhD journey would not have been possible without the guidance of my principal
supervisor, Professor Fang Lee Cooke. I am indebted to her for her unfailing support,
her academic rigour and her recommendations. Her constructive critiques have proven
invaluable in refining my thesis. She has always believed in my capabilities even when
I did not. I cannot thank her enough for all her genuine efforts to help me overcome
my PhD hurdles. I am truly honoured and humbled to have had such a dedicated
supervisor.
My appreciation also goes to DrNuttawuth Muenjohn, my co-supervisor, who shared
valuable insights and facilitated my work. Your methodological astuteness has helped
me to be a better analyser and researcher.
This study would have not been possible without the financial support of my sponsor,
the University of Malaya. Additionally, my special thanks go to all the respondents
from the financial sector for their time and effort. I would also like to express my
gratitude to DrAdrian Schembri from the School of Mathematical and Geospatial
Science, RMIT, for his valuable feedback on the statistical aspect of this thesis.
I owe this accomplishment to my friend for life, Adleen Ahmad, who has always been
there, listening through tough moments and laughing with me through the bizarre
times. My appreciation also goes to DrLatif, DrNorbani and all my friends who have
been a great support.
I extend my deepest gratitude to all my family members, most of all, to my in-laws,
Ahmad Jusoh and Saripah Salmah, for their support and prayers, and to my siblings,
Rizal and Asrar, for always standing by me.
And most importantly, my husband Muhammad Zamharir Ahmad. He has provided
wholehearted support and graciously embraced taking care of our children, for which I
am grateful. His encouragement and support are the pillars to my motivation.
Last but not least, my most precious and delightful children Aiman, Ayshah and
Aathif for their unconditional love and prayers for me. Your distractions have
protected me from exhaustion and made this journey truly meaningful. May you find
knowledge in your innermost thoughts and curiosity!

iv

CONTENTS
AUTHORS DECLARATION ................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... iv
CONTENTS................................................................................................................ v
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... x
LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................ xi
LIST OF ACRONYMS ............................................................................................ xii
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES ............................................................. xiii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................. xiv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1
1.1 Background of the Research ................................................................................ 1
1.2 Objectives of the Study ........................................................................................ 4
1.3 Rationale for the Study ........................................................................................ 5
1.3.1 Theoretical significance ................................................................................ 5
1.3.2 Methodological significance ......................................................................... 9
1.3.3 Practical implications .................................................................................... 9
1.3.4 The importance of studying the financial sector in Malaysia ..................... 10
1.4 Organisation of the Thesis ................................................................................. 13
CHAPTER 2: PERSPECTIVES ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT .................. 16
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 16
2.2 The Conceptual Definition of Employee Engagement ...................................... 17
2.3 Sociological Perspectives of Work .................................................................... 23
2.4 Psychological Perspectives ................................................................................ 27
2.5 Strategic Human Resource Perspectives ............................................................ 34
2.5.1 Resource-based view .................................................................................. 42
2.5.2 Institutional perspectives ............................................................................ 45
2.6 Cultural Values and Religious Elements ........................................................... 61
2.7 Summary ............................................................................................................ 70
CHAPTER 3: MALAYSIA IN CONTEXT.............................................................. 71
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 71
3.2 The People ......................................................................................................... 71
3.3 Politico-economic Background .......................................................................... 73
3.4 Human Resource Management in Malaysia ...................................................... 75
3.5 The Financial Sector .......................................................................................... 78
3.6 High-performance Plans and the Role of the Central Bank ............................... 80
3.7 The Role of Trade Unions in Malaysia: a Formal Grievance System ............... 83
3.8 Religiosity and its Role in Malaysia .................................................................. 84
3.9 Summary ............................................................................................................ 87
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................... 88
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 88
v

4.2 Considerations of Research Paradigm ............................................................... 88

4.3 The Mixed Method Paradigm ............................................................................ 91
4.4 Epistemological Stance: Rationale for Using a Mixed Method Approach ....... 93
4.5 Research Design Method ................................................................................... 95
4.6 Research Context ............................................................................................... 97
4.6.1 Target population ........................................................................................ 97
4.6.2 Malaysia in context ..................................................................................... 98
4.7 Study 1: Qualitative Study ................................................................................. 99
4.7.1 Sampling strategy ..................................................................................... 100
4.7.2 The instrument: semi-structured interviews ............................................. 102
4.7.3 Data collection procedures........................................................................ 103
4.7.4 Data analysis procedures .......................................................................... 103
4.8 Study 2: Quantitative Study ............................................................................. 107
4.8.1 Sampling strategy ..................................................................................... 107
4.8.2 Controlling for common method bias ....................................................... 108
4.8.3 Pre-analysis (power analysis in determining sample size) ....................... 109
4.8.4 Data collection procedure ......................................................................... 111
4.8.5 The survey questionnaire .......................................................................... 112
4.8.6 Measurement scales .................................................................................. 113
4.8.7 Data analysis techniques ........................................................................... 117
4.9 Ethical Considerations ..................................................................................... 119
4.10 Summary ........................................................................................................ 120
CHAPTER 5: STUDY 1 THE INTERVIEWS: THE FOUNDATION OF
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................... 121
5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 121
5.2 Interviewees Attributes ................................................................................... 122
5.3 Results and Emergence of the Themes ............................................................ 125
5.3.1 Empowering leadership behaviour ........................................................... 127
5.3.2 High-performance work practices ............................................................ 138
5.3.3 Personal resource: religiosity .................................................................... 153
5.3.4 Who is engaged? ....................................................................................... 156
5.4 Discussions ....................................................................................................... 158
5.4.1Why are employees engaged?..................................................................... 158
5.4.2 Understanding employee disengagement ................................................. 171
5.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 175
CHAPTER 6: STUDY 2 A SURVEY: DETERMINING FACTORS
INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT .................................................. 176
6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 176
6.2 Sample Characteristics ..................................................................................... 177
6.3 Preliminary Analyses ....................................................................................... 179
6.3.1 Non-response bias ..................................................................................... 179
6.3.2 Missing data and cleaning up.................................................................... 180
6.3.3 Normality and outliers .............................................................................. 181
6.3.4 Distribution of latent constructs ................................................................ 182
6.4 Reliability Analysis.......................................................................................... 183
6.5 Construct Validity ............................................................................................ 184
6.5.1 Convergent validity................................................................................... 184
6.5.2 Discriminant validity ................................................................................ 188
vi

6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9

Regression Analyses for Testing Hypotheses .................................................. 190

T-Test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA): Differences between Groups ... 199
Discussions ...................................................................................................... 206
Summary .......................................................................................................... 211

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................. 212

7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 212
7.2 Triangulation and Corroboration of Study 1 and Study 2................................ 213
7.3 Contributions of the Study ............................................................................... 224
7.3.1 Theoretical contributions .......................................................................... 224
7.3.2 Methodological contributions ................................................................... 227
7.3.3 Practical and managerial implications ...................................................... 227
7.4 Limitations of the Study .................................................................................. 232
7.5 Directions for Future Research ........................................................................ 233
REFERENCES............................................................................................................234
APPENDICES.............................................................................................................265

vii

LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Key studies on employee engagement.. 31
Table 2.2: Prominent studies in HRM and performance... 37
Table 2.3: Reviews of theories and their relations to employee engagement 49
Table 3.1: Major financial institutions and the workforce..... 80
Table 3.2: Malaysian government Islamisation policies....86
Table 4.1: Elements of worldview and implications for practice. 89
Table 4.2: A pragmatic alternative to the key issues in social science research
methodology. 90
Table 4.3: Types of mixed method designs... 95
Table 4.4: Effect size for the study 111
Table 4.5: Reliability of scales for pilot study.. 117
Table 5.1: Interviewees attributes 123
Table 5.2: Strength of discussion depending on the number of sources.. 126
Table 5.3: Nature of HR practices in the financial sector. 152
Table 5.4: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on gender.. 156
Table 5.5: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on age 157
Table 5.6: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on education
level... 157
Table 5.7: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on tenure... 158
Table 5.8: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on sub-sectors.. 158
Table 5.9: Ranking of empowering leadership behaviour in relation to
engagement... 159
Table 5.10: Ranking of HPWP in relations to engagement.. 163
Table 5.11: Problems in HRM functions that cause lower engagement... 172
Table 6.1: Demographic data of the sample respondents. 178
Table 6.2: T-Test comparing first and second group of respondents 180
Table 6.3: Statistical distribution of the various constructs.. 182
Table 6.4: Reliability score for all variables.. 184
Table 6.5: Criteria for a model fit...... 185
Table 6.6: Employee engagement factor item loadings.... 186
Table 6.7: Empowering leadership behaviour factor items loadings 187
Table 6.8: High performance work practices factor item loadings... 188
Table 6.9: Intercorrelations among variables 189
Table 6.10: Regression model Empowering leadership behaviour and
employee engagement. 192
Table 6.11: Regression model Empowering leadership behaviour and
employee engagement (with control variables).. 193
Table 6.12: Regression model HPWP and employee engagement..... 194
Table 6.13: Regression model HPWP and employee engagement
(with control variables).... 195
Table 6.14: Regression model Religiosity and employee engagement
(with control variables).. 196
Table 6.15: Hierarchical regression analysis of the relationship between
empowering leadership behaviour and employee engagement
with religiosity as moderator.. 198
Table 6.16: Hierarchical regression analysis of the relationship between
HPWP and employee engagement with religiosity as moderator.. 199
viii

Table 6.17: T-Test Gender.. 199

Table 6.18: ANOVA Age... 200
Table 6.19: ANOVA Ethnicity... 200
Table 6.20: ANOVA Educational qualification.... 201
Table 6.21: ANOVA Job position. 202
Table 6.22: ANOVA Tenure.. 202
Table 6.23: ANOVA Annual income..... 203
Table 6.24: ANOVA Type of sector.. 203
Table 6.25: ANOVA Changing jobs.. 204
Table 6.26: T-Test comparing employees of high and low engagement levels 205
Table 6.27: Summary of hypotheses testing..... 205
Table 7.1: Key findings from Study 1... 214
Table 7.2: Results of hypotheses testing from Study 2. 215
Table 7.3: Implications for different stakeholders 228

ix

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Job-Demand Resources model.... 28
Figure 2.2: An analytical framework of business environment and
organisationalstrategy. 41
Figure 2.3: Multilevel factors in the institutional context. 50
Figure 2.4: The relationship between high performance work practices
and employee engagement... 57
Figure 2.5: Eastern and Western goals of economic progress.. 63
Figure 2.6: Research framework.... 70
Figure 3.1: Ethnic groups in Malaysia... 72
Figure 3.2: Evolution of the Malaysian financial sector... 79
Figure 3.3: Human resource development and enrichment... 81
Figure 3.4: Religions in Malaysia. 85
Figure 4.1: Research methodology.... 96
Figure 4.2: Study sites... 99
Figure 4.3: Phases of categorical analysis for the study.... 105
Figure 5.1: Sample distribution by education level... 124
Figure 5.2: Sample distribution by tenure. 124
Figure 5.3: Sample distribution by sub-sector in the financial sector... 125
Figure 5.4: Major themes emerging in percentage of coded references... 126
Figure 5.5: Empowering leadership behaviour set of concepts in percentage
of coded references.. 127
Figure 5.6: HR practices set of concepts in percentage of coded references. 139
Figure 5.7: Role of religiosity in employee engagement... 153
Figure 5.8: Individual factors influencing employee engagement.163
Figure 6.1: Conceptual framework for Study 2. 190
Figure 7.1: Integrating the macro and micro institutional environments.. 213
Figure 7.2: Integrating elements from both methodologies that influence
employee engagement. 223

LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A:
Appendix B:
Appendix C:
Appendix D:
Appendix E:
Appendix F:
Appendix G:
Appendix H:

Letter of invitation to each institution 265

Plain language statement of interview to employees. 266
Consent form.. 269
Interview protocol.. 271
Ethics approval letter for interviews.. 272
List of participants in the interviews...... 273
Survey questionnaire...... 274
Ethics approval letter for survey 286

xi

LIST OF ACRONYMS
AIF
FSTEP
ICLIF
INCEIF
HR
HRD
HRDF
HRM
HPWP
MII
KPI
PSMB
RBV

:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

Asian Institute of Finance

Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme
Centre for Leadership in Finance
International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance
Human Resource
Human Resource Development
Human Resource Development Fund
Human Resource Management
High Performance Work Practice
Malaysian Insurance Institute
Key Performance Indicator
Perbadanan Sumber Manusia Berhad
Resource-based View

xii

PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Refereed Chapter in a Book

Abu Bakar, R., Cooke, F. L. and Muenjohn, N. 2012. Conceptual link between
personality and job engagement: the moderating influence of empowering
leadership.In N. Muenjohn (ed.), Organisational leadership: concepts, cases
and research, Cengage Learning Australia, Melbourne, pp. 51-92

Refereed Conference Papers

Abu Bakar, R., Cooke, F. L. and Muenjohn, N.2012.Passionate about work: an
empirical study on individual, social and organizational factors and its effect on
employee engagement, Proceeding in the 2012 European International
Business & Economics Conference, Rome, Italy, 10-17 June 2012.
Abu Bakar, R., Muenjohn, N . and Cooke, F. L. 2012. Employee engagement: is my
personality important? Proceeding in the 2012 MAG Scholar Global Business,
Marketing and Tourism Conference, Gyor, Hungary, 29 May2 June 2012.

xiii

ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the factors that influence and shape employee engagement in the
context of the financial sector in Malaysia. It does this by studying multilevel factors at
three levels, the individual, organisational and societal levels. Specifically, the thesis
focuses on three increasingly prominent concepts: empowering leaders behaviour, highperformance work practices (HPWP) and the possible role of religiosity. Drawing on
institutional theory, an important argument in this thesis is the limitation of the mainstream
single-level conceptualisations of employee engagement, which fail to capture the relational
interplay of the contextual factors and the multilevel nature of engagement. Earlier research
in HRM, particularly on employee engagement, has been conducted primarily from a
micro-perspective that has focused on a specific function with little acknowledgement of
contextual setting. This study uses a framework that bridges the macro- and microinstitutional levels of analysis in understanding employee engagement.
To achieve this objective, this study adopted a mixed-method approach. The first method, a
qualitative study of 41 interviews with employees in the financial sector, was designed to
explore the most salient factors in the employees levels of engagement. The second
method, a quantitative survey of 278 employees, was designed to investigate the
associations between the studied variables. Findings from both analyses suggest that
empowering leadership behaviour has the largest effect on employee engagement. In
particular, employees experience a significant level of engagement when their leader shows
concern. At the organisational level, HPWP do seems to be practised in the organisations
and to have an effect on engagement. However, problems that occur within the
organisations cause the ineffectiveness of HPWP implementation. Interestingly, religiosity
was found to play a crucial role in engaging employees at work among the Malay Muslims.
The key findings of this study suggest that both macro- and micro-institutions have
pertinent roles in stimulating employee engagement. Organisations and managers need to
understand the changing role of leaders, the introduction of HPWP and the practice of
religious belief in the workplace as sources which enhance engagement. The expectation is
that, through a better understanding of the relationships between these factors and the
potential effectiveness of HPWP adoption, the selection of leaders and the development of
employees may be conducted more effectively.
xiv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
_____________________________________________________________________

1.1 Background of the Research

The growing level of uncertainty in the business environment requires organisations to
continuously adapt to changes and accommodate different needs of the workforce.
Organisations often compete and attempt to survive by lowering prices, cutting costs,
redesigning business processes and downsizing the number of employees. Assuming
that there is a limit to cutting costs and downsizing, new approaches to human resource
management are inevitable for organisational survival and progress. Rather than
focusing on reducing costs, the shift of the focus in human resource management
(HRM) is to build employee engagement. As a result, numerous articles have been
published that call for a more positive approach that focuses on the workforce, that is,
engaging employees rather than focusing on problem-coping strategies (Luthans &
Avolio 2009; Bakker & Schaufeli 2008; Luthans & Youssef 2007; Avey et al. 2008;
Youssef & Luthans 2007; Seligman et al. 2005).
The notion of employee engagement has sparked widespread interest over the last
decade (Hallberg & Schaufeli 2006; Demerouti et al. 2001a; Saks & Gruman 2011).
While research findings vary slightly, most of these studies share a similar conclusion:
that engaged employees seem to be an important source of organisational
competitiveness (Teng et al. 2007; Salanova & Schaufeli 2008). Engaged employees
are those who give full discretionary effort at work, and are highly vigorous and
dedicated to their job, while disengaged employees are those who are motivationally
disconnected from work, who do not have the energy to work hard and who are not
enthusiastic at work (Bakker et al. 2008; Towers Perrin 2009). By most accounts,
employee engagement affects productivity, profitability, employee retention and
customer services (Zigarmi et al. 2009; Xanthopoulou et al. 2009). Even so, not much
is offered in the current body of knowledge concerning how best to stimulate
employee engagement (Bakker et. al 2007; Bakker & Schaufeli 2008).

A 30-year study of the United States workforce by Gallup organisation found that, on
average, the ratio of actively engaged to disengaged employees in organisations was
1.83 to 1. This sounds like a small disparity, but it is one that is estimated to cost more
than USD 300 billion in lost productivity per year (Buckingham & Coffman 1999). In
stark contrast, in world-class organisations the premier organisations in their
industries the engagement ratio approaches 8 to 1, and sustainable practices have
been built to reduce the negative impact of actively disengaged employees while
unleashing the organisation's potential for rapid growth. According to Bakker and
Demerouti (2008), there are at least four reasons why engaged employees perform
better than non-engaged employees. First, engaged employees often experience
positive emotions (e.g., happiness, joy and enthusiasm). Second, engaged employees
experience better health. Third, engaged employees create their own job resources and
personal resources. Fourth, engaged employees transfer their engagement to others.
Hence, extensive research shows the positive effect of employee engagement (i.e., HR
outcome) on organisational performance (Bakker et al. 2008; Xanthopoulou et al.
2009; Britt et al. 2006; Medlin & Green 2009; Harter et al. 2002). A 12-month study
across 50 multinational companies by Towers Perrin (2009) found that companies with
high levels of employee engagement outperform those with less engaged employees in
three key financial measures: operating income, net income growth and earnings per
share. These are increases of 19.2%, 13.7% and 27.8% respectively. A meta-analysis
based on 7,939 business units in 36 companies conducted by Harter, Schmidt and
Hayes (2002) affirmed that having engaged employees results in business unit
outcomes of enhanced customer satisfaction, productivity and profit. Due to the
aforementioned research, this study does not examine the impact of employee
engagement on performance, as numerous studies have proven that the impact is
significantly positive. Instead, the focus of this study is on the factors that cause
engagement in the Malaysian context.
One of the most significant proposals for achieving employee engagement is to engage
in HRM programs, which generally refers to the activities of organising work and
managing people to achieve organisational goals (Zhang et al. 2012). A problem lies in
the fact that HR professionals and managers are constantly being confronted with the
2

pressing challenge as to how they can engage the workforce. For instance, a recent
study by a global consulting firm found that four employees out of ten are not engaged
worldwide (AON Hewitt Report 2012). Among the four regions studied, Latin
America was found to have highly engaged workforces in comparison to Asia Pacific,
Europe and North America. With respect to the Asia Pacific region, people from the
Baby Boomers generation (born 19461964) seemed to be highly engaged in
comparison to Generation X (born 19651978) and the Millennials (born 1979
present). These findings are significant in at least two respects. First, the conditions of
the engaged workforce in the Asia Pacific region remain somewhat bleak. Second, the
fact that the new generations of employees seem not to be as highly engaged as the
earlier generations poses serious threats to the development of the workforce,
particularly in developing countries. Embarking on studying the factors which may
influence engagement is therefore necessary.
The share of global economic output by emerging economies has now exceeded that of
the advanced economies and is projected to account for about 60% of total world
output by 2030 (Reisen 2010). Interestingly, Asia is expected to remain the worlds
fastest growing region over this decade and is expected to generate one third of the
world output by 2015 (International Monetary Fund 2011). This rapid transformation
will contribute to increasing Asias financial and economic potential and will thus
instantaneously intensify the pressure to compete globally. This pressure involves a
focus on developing the workforce. Prior research demonstrates several important
factors in developing the workforce (Bakker et al. 2007; Harter et Al. 2002; Konrad
2006); however, this study argues that these factors may be different in Asia from
those in the West. To shed further light on this topic, this study focuses on the relevant
factors that may or may not affect employee engagement in the Asian setting, with a
particular focus on the finance industry in Malaysia.
Malaysia has a rich history of financial sector reforms (Yusof et al. 1994). The Asian
financial crisis in 1997 caused the sector to undergo a series of financial restructures to
improve financial systems. Domestic banks and finance companies were merged into a
smaller number of groups which provided a platform for a more efficient and
competitive financial industry (Ang & McKibbin 2007). The Financial Sector
3

Blueprint 2011 cemented Malaysias leadership in Islamic finance to develop Malaysia

as an international Islamic financial centre. With the restructuring of the financial
institutions and the focus on the new Islamic financial system, a committed workforce
is deemed necessary in assisting with the development of the country. However,
research by a renowned consulting organisation, Tower Watson, on Malaysias
workforce (Tower Watson 2010) found that only 28% of the surveyed employees were
engaged. The rest remained either disengaged, disenchanted or only in the state of
enrolment (i.e., only physically present). The question remains: what causes employees
to be engaged or disengaged in the Malaysian context?
The motivation for this research is to address these problems and fill the existing gaps
in engagement literature. Indeed, as so little has been published on the contextual
aspects of employee engagement, this study presents primary data and analysis of how
the contextual setting is incorporated in the employee engagement framework. The
subsequent sections of this chapter commence by outlining the objectives of the study..
Next, the rationale for the study is elaborated. This is followed by an explanation of
the importance of this study in the financial sector and in the Malaysian context.
Finally, the organisation of the thesis is presented.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The aim of this research is to integrate elements from the individual, organisational
and societal levels to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that may
affect employee engagement. Three important dimensions are investigated: (a) the
possible implications of empowering leadership practices, (b) the level of adoption of
high-performance work practices and (c) the effects of the societal context on HR
practices. The third outcome is investigated by examining the role of religiosity as a
personal resource for employee engagement. This study addresses three broad research
questions:
Research Question 1: What form of empowering leadership plays a significant role in
engaging employees at work and how does it occur?

Research Question 2: Do high-performance work practices exist in Malaysian

organisations? If so, how do they impact on the level of employee engagement?
Research Question 3: What is the relative importance of religiosity in relation to the
level of engagement at work in this Malaysian context? Does religiosity moderate the
relationship between empowering leadership behaviour, high-performance work
practices and engagement?

1.3 Rationale for the Study

The rationale for this study is discussed from four important dimensions: theoretical
significance, methodological treatment, practical implications, and its significance in
the financial sector and the Malaysian context. Each of these dimensions is discussed
in the following sub-sections.

1.3.1 Theoretical significance

The dearth of research on positive organisational behaviour
The thrust of earlier research has been predominantly on negative outcomes (e.g.,
stress and burnout) and little attention has been paid to exploring and building positive
organisational behaviour (Schaufeli & Bakker 2004). The prevalent negative bias of
psychology is illustrated by the fact that publications that focus on negative states
outnumber those that emphasise positive outcomes by a ratio of 14 to 1 (Myers 2000).
Focusing on negative effects, such as job stress, burnout and staff turnover, signifies a
problem-solving coping strategy. The emphasis on negative effects entails neglect of
the potentially positive effects of work. In contrast to developing problem-solving
coping strategies, identifying the positive effects of behaviour at work suggests a focus
on efforts to improve performance at work. Stemming from the positive psychology
movement as advocated by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), employee
engagement seeks to understand the conditions in which individuals flourish at work.
Inspired by Bakker and Schaufelis (2008) study, this research examines the impact of
work practices and the causes of employee engagement. Thus, this study contributes to
positive organisational behaviour by exploring the various mechanisms by which
different levels of engagement emerge.
5

Changes in leadership role that affect employee behaviour

This study has the potential to make a valuable contribution by examining the possible
implications of leadership practices for employee engagement at work. Organisations
spend large amounts of money on leadership training. In 2003, the US Training
Industry study found that 85% of US companies offer leadership training to their
employees (Gavin 2003) while in 2007, USD 821 million was estimated to be
allocated to leadership-related training in the United States (Anderson & Brennan
2008). These statistics highlight the apparent importance that organisations attach to
the role of leadership. High-performing leadership is essential for organisations to
create and sustain competitive advantages (Judge, Bono, Ilies & Gerhardt 2002).
Relevant phenomena are the increasing use of autonomous work roles and the efforts
to empower employees, which consequently modify the leadership roles in
organisations (Arnold et al. 2000; Druskat & Wheeler 2003). To ensure survival in a
dynamic environment, organisations require that leaders adapt to constantly evolving
roles that elicit positive responses and performance from their subordinates.
Consequently, as organisations seek to empower their employees, empowering
leadership development might be necessary to help teams and individuals become
more engaged at work and accomplish the organisations goals. Advocates of
empowerment (Bowen & Lawler 1992; Spreitzer et al. 1999) propose that both
employer and employees benefit from empowerment. Empowering leadership is
claimed to increase the intrinsic motivation of employees so that they experience high
energy and meaningfulness in their work. While there is empirical evidence that
supports the adoption of empowerment, Argyris (1998) and Jones (2012) have
criticised the notion and argued that empowerment is an illusion. To exacerbate the
chasm, research exploring the association between empowering leadership and
employee engagement has been sparse to date and thus we do not know how
profoundly employee behaviour is actually affected by empowering leaders. This study
attempts to examine issues around these competing claims about employee
engagement.

The relevance of high-performance work practices

This study contends that HR practices are likely to play a critical role in employee
engagement. The results of previous engagement research specify job resources for the
6

inducement of employees engagement (Bakker, Demerouti, De Boer & Schaufeli

2003; Schaufeli, Bakker & Van Rhenen 2009; Bakker et al. 2007). HR practices play
an essential role in motivating employees by offering job resources. In line with the
concepts of autonomy and flexible work systems, the introduction of high-performance
work practices (HPWP henceforth) includes a focus on empowering employees and
providing them with relevant information, knowledge and rewards the resources that
employees need to become engaged. Wright et al. (2001, p. 875) assert that a one
standard deviation increase in the use of progressive or high performance work
practices can result in up to a 20% increase in firm performance. Nevertheless, apart
from Konrads (2006) sole attempt to link HPWP and employee engagement by
providing cases in which high-involvement work practices can develop positive beliefs
and attitudes associated with employee engagement, there has been no empirical
research conducted to support these relationships. The most prominent model of
employee engagement (Schaufeli & Bakker 2004) focuses on the availability of job
resources and the effect of job demands on the level of engagement. This model fails
to acknowledge other important dimensions of the HR system such as communication,
sophisticated recruitment and selection, job security and grievance procedures, which
are components of HPWP (Becker & Huselid 1998). This study aims to investigate
other factors (i.e., various dimensions of HPWP) that could affect the level of
engagement and, consequently, refine the existing employee engagement model.

The distinctive role of societal context

This study is important because little attention has been paid to the role of societal
context in HR practices and its effect on employee engagement. A significant amount
of research on employee engagement has been conducted only in Western countries
and has assumed behavioural similarity in the generalisation of the findings (Bakker &
Van Emmerik 2006; Maslach & Leiter 2008; Demerouti et al. 2001). The field of
HRM has evolved in the Asia-Pacific region since the late 1990s. While there is an
increasing body of studies on HRM in China and India as the two main economic
powerhouses in Asia, there remains a paucity of investigation into the development of
HRM in other developing Asian countries. In existing HPWP studies, the pertinent
aspect of the societal context is often ignored, thus the behaviour of emerging markets
is not known. In their review of the existing Asian management research, Bruton and
7

Lau (2008) found that, of the 30 nations regarded as Asian, only 14 had been examined
in top journals. While admittedly some Asian nations such as Japan and China have
become dominant players in the world economy and hence have received an increased
amount of research attention, other Asian countries such as Malaysia, which have
much to offer in the world economy, remain under-researched.
It is within this milieu that the author was encouraged to study the Malaysian setting.
In an attempt to understand the Malaysian context, this study adopts the term human
resource management in the broadest sense. Budhwar and Debrah (2001) argue on the
need to define HRM in a broad sense when exploring HR practices in developing
countries, including the very question of whether or not it exists and the variations in
the models. Malaysia as part of Asia is very much influenced by its multi-ethnic
society and its religious and political contexts. Given that Islam is Malaysias main
religion and given the assumption that religion, culture and politics all have roles in
affecting human behaviour, further investigation into the role of Islam in HRM must
be undertaken.

The limitations of the mainstream single-level conceptualisations of employee

engagement
This study attempts to make a theoretical contribution by acknowledging the
limitations of the mainstream single-level conceptualisations of employee engagement.
The aim is to use a multilevel approach in identifying the important factors
contributing to a persons engagement at work. In the past, research in HRM has been
conducted primarily from a micro perspective that has focused on a specific function
with little coordination across disciplines (Wright & Boswell 2002). It must be noted
that HR policies and practices do not exist in an organisation in isolation. By
employing different perspectives, this study by no means argues that all relevant
variables are identified. Rather, the study explores the perception of employees to
allow the researcher to recognise some of the significant HR practices that can shed
light on the processes through which HR practices result in employee engagement. In
relation to the new form of work organisation, two increasingly prominent concepts
empowering leaders behaviour and high-performance work practices may have
effects on employee engagement. These concepts represent the micro-institutional
environment in the form of individual and organisational level factors. At the macro
8

level, a societal factor, specifically religiosity, will be examined for its effect on
engagement.

1.3.2 Methodological significance

In existing employee engagement research, almost all of the prominent research is
conducted from a positivist point of view. Such research discusses the theory behind
engagement and establishes constructs to determine the possible causes of engagement
(Rothbard 2001; Sonnentag 2003; May, Gilson & Harter 2004). The identified causes
are often derived by developing several hypotheses. The findings are then confirmed
on the variables that can best predict engagement. A contribution of this study is the
qualitative stance it takes in understanding the phenomenon of employee engagement.
Researchers are often encouraged to exploit the potentialities of social observation
(Reiss 1971) in order to gain an inside view. In this study, interviews are used to get
close to the subjects and see the world from their perspectives. The main purpose for
conducting interviews is to gain insights into employees experience at work and to
understand the processes by which different levels of engagement emerge. Employees
interpretations of their experience at work provide richer data than a quantitative
method. This qualitative approach, which is relevant for this research, is one of the
earliest in researching into the employee engagement experience.

1.3.3 Practical implications

The study has two practical implications. First, there is a need to examine the utility of
Western employee engagement concepts in a developing country environment in an
area such as Asia. In order for a developing country to progress, research should
explore the adoption of Western practices in the economic, business and human
resource environments of the developing country to determine whether they are in
reality functioning. Implications from this study may very well benefit a developing
countrys government, policy-makers, and HR departments in particular, as to how
they could engage the workforce. The second practical relevance of this study is that
because research in HRM and its effect on employee engagement is limited, the
knowledge of significant HR variables that may arise from this study could help
managers to understand why employees are engaged or disengaged at work.
Disengagement at work is likely to be detrimental to employees performance. By
9

looking at the different levels of HR input, the study aims to elicit explanations that
might assist managers to determine appropriate management techniques for their
organisations, and to understand how these techniques enhance engagement and, thus,
employees job performance. A critical role of any organisation is to provide an
environment that boosts the potential of individual employees. Without understanding
this, it is impossible for managers to formulate effective organisational strategies.

1.3.4 The importance of studying the financial sector in Malaysia

Deregulation and liberalisation, as well as technological advancement, have been the
driving forces behind dramatic changes in the workforce in the financial sector (Dirks
& Ferrin 2002). Over the recent decades, the employment structure in the financial
sector has increasingly reflected a pronounced upgrading of skills and profound
changes in the position of employees (Hunter & Katz 2012). Several developments
have led to changes in traditional job profiles in the financial sector, particularly in the
banking industry. For example, many of the back office jobs in the US banking
industry have been reduced, while front-line customer contact and operators in call
centres have been increased due to a focus on marketing (Branine & Pollard 2010).
There has been a shift from a service focus to sales, requiring effective customer
service and a skilled, sales-oriented workforce. Similarly, in Germany and China,
skills requirements have changed over the past decades (Metcalfe 2007). In accordance
with changing skill requirements, the occupational profile of banking apprenticeship
was modernised in the late 1990s by strengthening aspects such as banking processes,
marketing and selling competencies. For the most part, merger activity between
organisations has reinforced this trend.
With respect to compensation practices, the prevalent trend in US retail banks is the
growing use of performance-related pay (Branine & Pollard 2010). Employees
opportunities for career development and promotion are increasingly being determined
by their sales performance and less by any additional qualifications. Thus, there has
been a shift of emphasis away from technical and product-related skills towards the
key skills that are required for the successful sale of standardised products (Haipeter,
Jurgens & Wagner 2012). Personal and social competencies are becoming increasingly

10

crucial in the selection and recruitment of employees in the financial sector. Training
departments also place greater emphasis on sales skills.
Nevertheless, a review of publications demonstrates that most of the research in HRM
in regard to the financial industry has focused on advanced industrialised nations in the
West (Haipeter et al. 2012; Hunter & Katz 2012). This means that many questions
remain unanswered, particularly in the context of Malaysia. The financial industry
plays a vital role in providing funding for the production of goods and services in the
Malaysian economy. An examination of the financial industry is useful for discovering
new trends of HR practices in the Malaysian economy. Malaysias government policy
is one of the most important factors contributing to the growth of Malaysias financial
industry. The Central Bank of Malaysia, the body that governs the financial sector, is
considered the foundation of the financial system and thus speeds up the opening of
the financial sector internationally.
One of the major shifts in HRM research in the last two decades is the growing interest
in high-performance HR systems where people are increasingly recognised as a source
of business competitiveness (Martin & Moldoveanu 2003). Similarly, in the financial
sector of Malaysia, the strategic challenges that Malaysian leaders face are how to
maintain organisational growth and renewal, and pursue excellence; and how to better
prepare for the next millennium within the context of a multiracial and multi-religious
society (Yeoh 1998). Recent studies, however, suggest that the three ethnic groups in
Malaysia Malays, Chinese and Indians do not differ significantly in work-related
values (Abdullah & Lim 2001; Fontaine & Richardson 2003, 2005). Thus, what needs
to be more clearly established is how certain HR inputs affect the organisations in the
Malaysian financial sector and the extent to which high-involvement organisations are
adapted in Malaysia. There are four reasons why this study is being carried out in the
Malaysian context: (1) to examine the utility of the studied Western concept in
Malaysia; (2) to explore the economic, business and human capital environment for
adopting Western practices; (3) to understand the implications for organisations in
Malaysia; and (4) to make an intellectual contribution to the HRM studies in Malaysia
which have been limited thus far.

11

First, the utility of the Western concept in Malaysia needs to be examined. Findings in
the Malaysian context converge with the studies on HRM in the Asian context
(Othman 2009; Boon et al. 2007), which suggests that adopting high-commitment
HRM leads to improved organisational outcomes. Similar to a claim made by Cooke
and Saini (2010a) in regard to findings in the Indian context and their applicability to
the Asian context, the results of the Malaysian studies suggest two pertinent
possibilities. First, there is a relatively high universality of HR concepts as guiding
principles, although some practices may differ according to societal and organisational
contexts (Kim & Bae 2005). Yeung, Warner and Rowley (2008) assert that HR
systems in the Asian region are not all unique to Asia and many represent
modifications of those in the West. This diffusion or so-called isomorphism occurs
because organisations are under a strong pressure to imitate more progressive HR
practices by organisations that operate in a similar set of environmental settings and
institutional constraints (DiMaggio & Powell 1983). Secondly, there may be stronger
HR attributions in Asia due to the Asian collectivist culture in comparison to countries
with an individualistic culture. However, there are still other HR attributions that are
not known in the Asian countries such as Malaysia due to the limited studies of these
countries.
The second reason for the Malaysian context is that this study explores the economic,
business and human capital environment for adopting Western practices. It seems that
Asian nations are under great pressure to catch up because of being latecomers as
global economic players (Cooke & Saini 2010a) and therefore may be ready to accept
Western HR practices and adapt them. In the case of Malaysia, the Prime Minister of
Malaysia formed the Putrajaya Committee in 2005 to encourage organisations to use
high-commitment high-performance programs to enhance organisational performance
in responding to market pressures. A key question is whether the same HR concepts
that are applied in the Western countries are applicable in Malaysia; and the extent to
which the concepts in the Malaysian context are similar to or different from those
prescribed in the existing employee engagement model. The cultural perspective
suggests that as each culture is relatively unique, it may require specific understanding
in order to be effective. Unfortunately, not much is empirically known about the work
engagement culture in Malaysia.
12

Third, despite the shock of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s and pressures
towards deregulation along the neoliberal line, which entails treating labour as any
other commodity, the practice of HRM in Malaysia continues to show certain
distinctive features (Mellahi & Wood 2004a; Smith & Abdullah 2004). This study
locates the practice of HRM in that context. Consequently, one of the major aims of
this research is to explore the implications of employee engagement practice in the
Malaysian setting. It is noted that although much research in engagement has been
conducted in a variety of international settings including the US (May, Gilson &
Harter 2004; Halbesleben & Wheeler 2008) and European countries (Schaufeli,
Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma & Bakker 2002; Schaufeli & Bakker 2004; Langelaan,
Bakker, Doornen & Schaufeli 2006), very little seems to have been conducted in Asia,
particularly Malaysia. With the exception of studies by Sze and Angeline (2011) and
Chung and Angeline (2010), other studies have actually only focused on the concepts
of job involvement and organisational commitment (Boon, Arumugam, Safa & Abu
Bakar 2007; Ahmad & Abu Bakar 2003), which have different conceptualisations from
employee engagement.
Fourth, this study hopes to make an intellectual contribution to HR research in
Malaysia. While there is little doubt that there has been a convergence of HR practices
in Malaysia and Western countries, national particularities persist. Thus, it is
anticipated that this research will produce theoretical and practical insights into
employee engagement in the Malaysian context. The etic approach assumes that there
are universal constructs that transcend individual cultures and can be identified and
measured scientifically (Hofstede 1998, 2010). Conversely, the emic approach assumes
that most cultures are unique. It will be crucial to examine the applicability of the
concepts used in this study to identify the similarities and differences that may be due
to differences in culture, thus extending knowledge in the area.

1.4 Organisation of the Thesis

This thesis consists of seven chapters including this Introduction. The remaining
chapters are organised in the following manner.

13

Chapter 2 provides a critical review of relevant literature. An eclectic approach to

theorising and conceptualising is adopted. This approach focuses on different
theoretical debates in relations to employee engagement and HRM. It begins by
exploring the sociological perspectives of the meaning of work and then considers the
psychological perspectives of employee engagement. It then reviews the resourcebased theory and the institutional theory. The multilevel perspective is emphasised and
each of the factors which may influence engagement is duly presented.
Chapter 3 outlines the Malaysian context of the study. The chapter begins by
reviewing the people of Malaysia through a historical lens. The aim of this chapter is
to provide relevant background information and clarification in regard to the people of
Malaysia and the political economic background and human resource management in
the Malaysian setting. The financial sector, the high-performance approach and the
role of the Central Bank are described. The chapter concludes with a review of the role
of trade unions, labour trends and the role of religiosity.
Chapter 4 elaborates on the methodological approach used in the study. It begins with
a consideration of the research paradigm, the mixed method paradigm, and the
rationalisation for using the mixed method approach. This is followed by the research
context, methods and data analysis techniques, and finally the ethical considerations.
Chapter 5 discusses the findings of Study 1, the qualitative study. The objective of this
chapter is to provide insights into employees experiences at work and to understand
the processes by which different levels of engagement emerge. In particular, the study
investigates the process by which leadership roles, HR practices and personal
resources such as religiosity impact on an employees level of engagement. The results
highlight how micro-institutions can be affected by a macro-institutional context.
Religiosity, in particular, plays a significant role in a persons engagement at work and
there is a complex interplay between empowering leadership behaviour, religiosity and
engagement.
Chapter 6 focuses on the findings from Study 2, the quantitative study. This chapter
investigates the association between empowering leadership behaviour, high14

performance work practices and the individuals level of engagement. The survey also
examines the possible role of the personal factor of religiosity in the relationship
between empowering leadership behaviour and high-performance work practices on
the one hand and employee engagement on the other hand. The findings corroborate
those of Study 1 that religiosity plays a moderating role in these relationships.
Finally, Chapter 7 presents the conclusions, implications and limitations of the study.
This concluding chapter presents an overview of the findings in relation to the three
broad research questions that are the focus of the thesis. This is followed by a
discussion of the theoretical, methodological and practical contributions of the
research. The chapter concludes by considering the limitations of the research and
important areas for future research.

15

CHAPTER 2: PERSPECTIVES ON EMPLOYEE

ENGAGEMENT
_____________________________________________________________________

2.1 Introduction
A number of disciplinary perspectives have informed this study of employee
engagement. This chapter begins by providing a conceptual definition of employee
engagement. It then provides a critical review of the sociological perspectives of work
in demonstrating the changes in how work has been experienced and valued in recent
history, and the relationship of this to work engagement. The psychological
perspectives are also discussed. Employee engagement has been widely viewed from
the psychological perspective on the basis of the Job Demand-Resources model. The
intention of this thesis is not to demote the role of psychological study in employee
engagement research. Rather, this thesis takes a further step by investigating employee
engagement from the strategic human resource management perspective. The study
contends that both perspectives have roles in managing the insides of employees
rather than their external behaviour. By adopting a holistic perspective of human
resource management, this study assumes not only the role of job resources but also
assumes the motivational processes that may be triggered by cultural or context
sensitivity. Accordingly, this study argues that it is the relationship between these
institutional forces, cultural forces and management choices that shape HR policies
and practices. Thus, the chapter moves on to the strategic HR perspective which draws
upon the resource-based view and institutional theory, both of which are significant in
explaining employee engagement. In doing so, the discussion explicates the limitation
of a purely resource-based theory and highlights the value of also exploring an
alternative theory, i.e., institutional theory, and its relation to employee engagement.
Essentially, the role of institutional theory is to investigate the multilevel factors that
may have significant impacts on engagement.The overall aim of this chapter is to
propose a framework that bridges the macro- and micro-institutional levels of analysis
in understanding employee engagement. In doing so, the particular nature of strategic
HRM in the Malaysian context is highlighted. Together, these discussions constitute
the individual, organisational and societal contexts within which employee
engagement can be comprehended.
16

2.2 The Conceptual Definition of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a relatively new concept in the academic community but has
been heavily promoted by consulting companies (Wefald & Downey 2009b). Scholars
and practitioners in the HRM field tend to agree that the fundamental concept of
engagement may help explain behaviour at work, but they present different definitions
of it. Thus, while the concept of employee engagement seems on the surface to be
compelling, the concept lacks clarity in its definition. The purpose of this section is to
discuss the conceptual disparities among different schools of thought on the definition
of employee engagement in order to develop a conceptual foundation for this study.
Using Kahns (1990) seminal work as the point of departure, the concept of
engagement was first introduced by him to explain how people are personally engaged
and disengaged at work. He defined job engagement as the harnessing of
organisational members selves to their work roles where people express themselves
physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances (Kahn 1990, p.
694). This definition clarified the concept of engagement as the manifestation of being
present at work. Being present at work requires a particular mental state. In order to
be engaged, an individual has to think, feel and act on their job. In other words, this
mental state constitutes a driving force which requires physical, cognitive and
emotional resources. These resources can be enhanced in certain psychological
conditions: meaningfulness (feeling that one is receiving a return on the investment of
the self in the work role performance), safety (a sense of being able to show and
employ oneself without fear of negative consequences to ones self-image or status at
work) and availability (a sense of possessing the physical, emotional and psychological
resources needed for investing oneself in the work role). These psychological
conditions serve as the mechanism by which individuals connect to their role
performance. In contrast, disengagement refers to withdrawal from the work role. The
dominant contribution by Kahn is the identification of the conditions in which
engagement would be likely to exist.
However, Kahns conceptualisation has a weakness. When he explored the
psychological conditions, he did not take into account a theoretical conceptualisation
of engagement. One of the reasons for this is the lack of literature on employee
engagement at that time (1990s) and a dependency on other psychological constructs
17

such as job involvement and commitment at work. The issues relating to job
involvement and commitment identified by Kahn help explain personal engagement
and disengagement at work. However, personal engagement at work in this context
focuses on the role of the individual at work. Kahn expressed engagement as the role
people bring to work, and he proposed that how they behave at work is attributable to
certain conditions. This school of thought lacks the comprehensiveness required to
address what employee engagement truly is. Despite Kahns work, researchers did not
explore the construct until research into burnout contributed to a reintroduction of the
idea.
Maslach and Leiter (1997) reintroduced the concept of engagement as an energetic
state of involvement that is posited to be the opposite of burnout. Engaged employees
who are seen as energetic and take their work as a challenge appear as the opposite to
burnt-out employees who are stressed and see their work as demanding (Bakker,
Schaufeli, Leiter & Taris 2008). Maslach and Leiter (1997) added to their argument by
asserting that, if an employee is not engaged, he or she will be more likely to move to
the other end of the continuum and experience burnout. The state of engagement is
characterised as having high energy (as opposed to exhaustion), high involvement (as
opposed to cynicism) and efficacy (as opposed to lack of efficacy). Gonzalez-Roma,
Schaufeli, Bakker and Lloret (2006) supported this view and further characterised it by
activation, identification and absorption. Activation refers to having a sense of energy,
identification is a positive relationship towards work, and absorption is being fully
immersed in ones job. This school of thought improved on Kahns (1990) definition
of engagement as being present at workby adding these three dimensions.
Nevertheless, this school of thought supported the notion that if an employee is not
engaged, he or she will be likely to move to the other end of the continuum and
experience burnout. The argument that engagement is the antithesis of burnout is this
schools main weakness. Engagement is not the antithesis of burnout. When an
employee is not engaged, it does not signify that he or she will be experiencing
burnout. For example, an employee who does not have a good fit with his or her job
might find their job uninteresting and thus do their work routinely just to complete
their tasks. However, he or she may not be suffering from exhaustion or burnout. The
18

issue of whether burnout and engagement lie at the extreme ends of a continuum
contributes to the theoretical foundation of this study. Although a study by GonzalezRoma

and

colleagues

(2006)

yielded

empirical

evidence

supporting

the

conceptualisation that the core burnout and engagement dimensions are conceptual
opposites, the theory only supports two dimensions (i.e., vigour is the conceptual
opposite of emotional exhaustion, and dedication is the conceptual opposite of
cynicism). First, it must be emphasised that although burnout and engagement are
conceptual opposites, they are still distinct concepts that do not lie on a continuum, and
so different measures are required for assessing the construct. Secondly, by excluding
absorption, these two dimensions do not provide a comprehensive meaning for job
engagement. Thus this approach is not the best approach for explaining employee
engagement.
Other scholars such as Britt (1999) have used the concept of self-engagement, which
involves feeling a sense of responsibility for and commitment to a performance
domain so that performance matters to the individual. Britts approach is practical in
defining engagement at work by using the Triangle Model of Responsibility (i.e.,
engagement is feeling responsible at work), but the definition is not a sufficient one
because of the overlapping issue with the commitment construct. Britt, Castro and
Adler (2005) later argued that self-engagement involves a psychological state where
individuals are committed to perform and put much effort into work. This school of
thought emphasised the utility of the Triangle Model of Responsibility developed by
Schelenker, Britt, Pennington, Murphy and Doherty (1994). Thus, an employee is
engaged according to the responsibility they feel for work, which is dependent upon
three elements: event, prescriptions and identity images.
Similar to Kahns view, this school of thought emphasised the elements in which
engagement exists and gave little consideration to the theoretical foundation of
engagement. This study argues that a commitment to perform should not be mistakenly
equated to engagement as they are distinctly different constructs. Thus, there is an
overlapping definition of engagement and commitment in Britts notion of selfengagement. Commitment focuses on the long-term effect of behaviour at work while
engagement focuses on the short-term effect (i.e., daily behaviour at work). Another
19

weakness is that solely referring engagement to feeling responsible for work does not
explain the whole perception of being engaged at work. A person could feel
responsible for work but not enthusiastic or positive about doing the work. When a
work-related experience is neither positive nor characterised by enthusiasm, it cannot
be called engagement. Thus, the definition produced by this school of thought does not
clarify the concept of engagement and is therefore not appropriate to be adopted by
this study.
Engagement has also been defined as an individuals involvement, satisfaction and
enthusiasm for work (Harter et al. 2002). This definition was derived from items in the
Gallup Workplace Audit (GWA 1999), developed by the Gallup organisation, which
were based on employee perceptions of work characteristics. Perceptions of work
characteristics resulted in this definition having conceptual overlaps with job
involvement and job satisfaction. First, job involvement is a concept that focuses on
how a job helps define a persons identity (Lawler & Hall 1970). A person who is
involved in their job: (a) finds their job motivating, (b) is committed to their work and
organisation and (c) engages in professional relationships with co-workers (Brown
1996). Thus, as Hallberg and Schaufeli (2006) argued, job involvement is a function of
the individual and should be seen as an antecedent in a research model, whereas
engagement, on the other hand, should be seen as a dependent variable in a research
model. Furthermore, this definition overlaps with the term job satisfaction. Job
satisfaction explains how content an individual is with his or her job; it is a pleasurable
emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job (Locke 1976). Twelve of the
thirteen items used in the GWA explain the variance in job satisfaction. Concepts
derived from the literature on satisfaction were used in explaining engagement.
Clearly, there are conceptual overlaps with both of these constructs describing
engagement.
This school of thought captures only one domain of employee engagement, i.e., being
enthusiastic about work. Being strongly engaged in ones work does require a
considerable sense of significance and enthusiasm at work. However, due to the fact
that the definition of engagement was not theoretically developed and relied too much
on perceptions of work characteristics, the definition from this school of thought is
20

inadequate in explaining what engagement is. Perceptions of work characteristics, job

involvement and satisfaction could be factors that affect employee engagement and not
the concept itself. Clearly, there are conceptual overlaps in the constructs used by
Harter, Schmidt and Hayes (2002) to describe engagement.
Recently, employee engagement was recategorised as vigour (Wefald & Downey
2009a). According to this school of thought, to realise that employee engagement is a
different construct, the only non-confounding construct that should be measured is
vigour. Vigour as defined by Shirom (2003) refers to an individuals feeling that they
possess physical strength, emotional energy and cognitive liveliness. This definition
refers to an affective state that individuals attribute to their job and workplace. Vigour
in this respect focuses on the notion of having energy at work. It does not refer to
behavioural responses to events at work such as dedication to work, which is a
significant characteristic of employee engagement. Thus, adopting the concept of
vigour (i.e., energy) does not capture a holistic concept of engagement. Clearly, this
school of thought only covers one facet of engagement. For this reason, this school of
thoughts definition of engagement cannot be used to conceptualise employee
engagement in this study.
Having presented all the arguments, this study contends that engagement does not lie
along the same continuum tangentially opposite burnout but is, in fact, an independent
concept. If an individual does not experience burnout (at one end of the continuum), it
does not mean that he or she is experiencing engagement (at the other end of the
continuum). Employee engagement is a state of mind which is a pervasive affectivecognitive state requiring a persons attention and immersion in their job. In order to
give full attention to ones job and to be fully immersed, one needs to be positive and
enthusiastic about it. As an independent concept, employee engagement can best be
defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by
vigour, dedication and absorption (Schaufeli et al. 2002b). These three dimensions
seem to provide the most precise, valid and comprehensive conceptualisation thus far
(Kim et al. 2009; Schaufeli & Bakker 2004; Schaufeli, Martinez, Pinto, Salanova &
Bakker 2002; Shimazu & Schaufeli 2009; Karatepe & Olugbade 2009). From the
psychological perspective, engagement is a state-like phenomenon which is portrayed
21

as an affective-cognitive state-like condition. It is not a temporary state such as mood

nor as relatively non-malleable as fixed characteristics such as personality traits
(Sweetman & Luthans 2010). It is deemed quite stable.
The first element of employee engagement, vigour, is a positive affective response to
an employees interactions with the elements of the job as well as the environment.
The concept of vigour is drawn from the view that individuals share a basic motivation
to obtain, retain and protect the things that they value, such as resources (in this case,
energetic resources) (Hobfoll 1989). Energetic resources refer to physical strength,
emotional energy and cognitive liveliness. According to Schaufeli et al. (2002), vigour
is characterised by high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the
willingness to invest effort in the work and persistence even in the face of difficulties.
Vigour relates to psychological capacities for exercising will power and developing
alternative ways to achievement, optimism in expecting future success, and resilience
to persist in the pursuit of goals. A person who is vigorous at work distinctly represents
an engaged employee.
The second element of employee engagement is dedication. This refers to being
strongly involved in ones work and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm,
inspiration, pride and challenge (Schaufeli et al. 2002). Being dedicated to ones job
includes motivated acts such as working hard and giving the best that one can at work.
Work not only seems to be important but also requires self-disciplined behaviour, as
demonstrated by following rules, taking the initiative to solve a problem at work and
exceeding ones personal job requirements (Van Scotter & Motowidlo 1996). A person
who is dedicated to work is veritably engaged to his or her job.
The third element of employee engagement is absorption. This describes the feeling of
contentment while performing work. Absorption represents a state of being fully
concentrated on and happily engrossed in work, a state in which time passes quickly
and one has difficulty in detaching oneself from work. This domain of employee
engagement concerns the hedonic aspect of work. For a person to be engaged, he or
she should enjoy the work and find pleasure in performing it. Thus, a happy and
focused employee embodies an engaged employee. A study using 30 in-depth
22

interviews confirmed that absorption is a relevant aspect of engagement (Schaufeli &

Bakker 2001). The study argued that this facet of engagement relates to individual
efficacy through having the confidence to be absorbed and the resilience to be
persistently absorbed in a task.
To sum up, different school of thoughts have conceptualised employee engagement in
various ways. The lack of agreement among scholars in establishing a solid foundation
for the definition of employee engagement has caused many gaps in the research area.
Some have defined engagement as being present at work, some as the opposite to
burnout on a continuum, and some have overlapped it with other constructs such as job
satisfaction and job involvement. The arguments presented in the above sections
justify why Schaufeli et al.s (2002) conceptualisation of engagement is most thorough
and precise. Employee engagement focuses upon the positive and fulfilling aspects of
doing work. For a person to be engaged, he or she must be vigorous, dedicated and
absorbed in their job. This positive reflection is in line with the movement of positive
organisational behaviour in seeking to understand how individuals thrive at work. For
this reason, Schaufeli et al.s (2002) view on engagement is seen as more dominant
and comprehensive than others. Given these key attributes and following Schaufeli et
al.s (2002a) conceptualisation, this study defines employee engagement as a positive,
fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and
absorption. This definition distinguishes it from other established measures of positive
employment states such as job satisfaction and job involvement.

2.3 Sociological Perspectives of Work

Work has always been the central feature of human experience. The word work is
rooted in the Indo-European word werg meaning to do (Budd 2011). In the past,
work was conceptualised as a human burden. Work was deemed to be physically,
mentally and emotionally draining because work was seen as an economic necessity
where people worked to live. Robert Dubin (1958) defined work as continuous
employment in the production of goods and services, for remuneration. He argued that
in a sociological sense, only those expenditures of human energy producing goods or
services can be defined as work. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, such a claim
appears outdated. There have been many cases where work is not renumerated and is
23

still considered to be work. The operation of non-profit organisations is one example

where work is voluntary and remuneration is not given. This section serves to
illuminate the sociological view of work in several important ways: the meaning of
work in pre-industrial times, the changes in work values and the moral aspects of
work.
In pre-industrial times, a large amount of an individuals work was done in and for the
household. Many forms of work were carried out for family needs. Self-sufficiency
was generally central in every family, such as involvement in agricultural activities.
The fundamental transformation of the meaning of work in individuals lives is usually
believed to have occurred with the reorganisation of production that separated the
workplace from the household during industrialisation (Berg 1987). Subsequently,
neoclassical economics theory embraced the view that labour is a commodity,
something of value that can be exchanged for other economic purposes. Budd (2011,
p.2) defined work as purposeful human activity involving physical or mental exertion
that is not undertaken solely for pleasure and that has economic or symbolic value.
Their paid employment is generally considered to be a central defining feature of
individuals. Often, individuals are evaluated by other people based on their job
position. In a materialistic world, we often segregate individuals in accordance with
their status at work.
The principal conditions which constrain, support or enhance the material
circumstances of life are an individuals perceptions of work values. Work values have
been defined as the outcomes people desire and feel they should achieve through work
(Frieze, Olson & Murrell 2006). Employees perceptual experiences are shaped by
work values in the workplace and have a direct effect on employees attitudes and
behaviour (Dose 2011). One apparent distinction in work values is the notion of
intrinsic and extrinsic work values (Ryan & Deci 2000). Extrinsic work values focus
on the outcomes of work, that is, the tangible rewards external to the individual such as
salary, status, incentives and promotion. On the other hand, intrinsic work values focus
on the process of work, that is, the intangible rewards that reflect inherent interest in
the work such as the opportunity to learn new things, the chance to be creative,

24

autonomy in decision making, the prospect of helping others and time flexibility,
among other factors.
In Western capitalist economies, two things prevail: people work primarily for
economic reasons and extrinsic values predominate. First, people work to earn money
to acquire consumer power (Noon & Blyton 2002). People who work have much
higher levels of consumer power and consequently more choice about their lifestyles.
Second, given the importance of the link between work and spending power, earning
money is of prime importance for why people work. The notion that extrinsic rewards
such as material possessions and prestige are the primary factors that motivate humans
to work can be traced to as early as 1911, in a work by Thorndike. Today, there is less
emphasis on extrinsic rewards than on intrinsic rewards. This can be attributable to the
different life experiences encountered by different generations (Twenge, Campbell,
Hoffman & Lance 2010). Life experience affects the value each generation puts on
extrinsic rewards. For example, generations which suffer economic hardship, such as
during a long financial crisis, may place a greater emphasis on pay. In the 1940s, the
period of the Baby Boomers, work was considered a high priority in career
advancement where people lived to work (Lancaster & Stillman 2003). These earlier
generations of workers gained a reputation as status-conscious young urban
professionals, or yuppies, because they were blatantly materialistic and focused on
careers (Adler et Al. 1984).
To date, many anecdotal reports have consistently revealed that the reasons people
work and, hence, become engaged, are far more complex than merely for money
(Noon & Blyton 2002). A job that is interesting, offers challenge and enables an
individual to make their own decisions is characterised as intrinsically motivating
(Deci & Ryan 2000). Around the mid-19th century, employees began to give value to
the meaning of work (Arnett 2004; Lancaster & Stillman 2003). It was reported that
people work for expressive reasons, that is, for the intrinsic rewards work can bring
such as enjoyment, satisfaction and a sense of achievement (Demerouti, Bakker &
Fried 2012; Fagan 2002). The rise in the importance of individualistic traits suggests
that employees seek jobs that interest them and provide personal meaning. Further, the
study found that irrespective of gender or employment status, people indicate similar
25

expressive reasons. This reflects a post-materialist orientation to work, emphasising

the quality of life. It would seem that materialist values in advanced capitalist societies
might be waning. Accordingly, instead of focusing on management practices that just
improve knowledge and skills, organisations have started to structure their efforts
around selection and training, among others, to focus on employees career potential
and growth.
Another prevalent aspect of work that is worth considering from the sociological angle
is the roles of ethics and religion. Implicit in this point of view is the notion that work
is good. Being at work is morally desirable irrespective of any financial or social
benefit. Work is deemed to be virtuous, dignified and a worthy activity for people to
engage in (Noon & Blyton 2002). In some areas of 17th century Europe, work was
seen as a religious calling based on the roots of Protestantism, which led to the later
studies on the Protestant work ethic (PWE). Scholars of the work ethic have claimed
that the notion of work as an ethical concept centred on four main themes. First, work
was seen as an obligation or duty where an individual does their utmost to seek paid
employment instead of remaining idle. There was a desire not to be perceived as lazy
even if pay was not high.Those who did not work were condemned for not living up to
this standard (Dunn & Saunders 2010; Turner et al. 1985). Being at work conferred
economic power as well as providing a form of contribution to society. Secondly, work
was deemed to be a central life activity. In a study by the Meaning of Working
International Research Team (MOW International Research Team 1987), work was
found to be the second most important aspect of an individuals life after family. Third,
work was a conscientious endeavour with a strong emphasis on doing a job diligently.
Individuals were encourage to put in their best effort in order to produce the greatest
outcome. This also required each individual to manage their own emotions at work, a
notion that is much debated today (Fredrickson 2001). Fourth, work was seen as a
disciplined compliance which emphasised the common goals of employees and
managers. Employees needed to conform to the values and goals of the organisation
disseminated by leaders through organisational policies and culture. It is important to
note that this belief in the importance of the work ethic seems to have declined with
the rise of the materialistic society when pay and status became more important.
Consequently, most human resource studies have not looked much into this aspect of
26

work. Most studies have been conducted in the Western world where other aspects of
work seem to be more important, such as pay-for-performance systems and career
advancement.
With the increasing complexity of an industrialised society, work may simply be a
means to earn a living. Yet, this image should not be overgeneralised because it means
work is merely instrumental. Many studies have shown that even individuals who have
been compensated generously or have enough money to live on would still choose to
work. Work gives an individual a purpose in life. As work is central to the human
condition, this study, acknowledging its importance, investigates the concept of the
employee at work. In particular, the study looks into the factors that affect employees
attitudes and behaviour at work, i.e., employee engagement. The premise assumes that
people are motivated to work by the activities, outcomes and factors that they value. It
seems that work engagement has far-reaching implications for employees
performance. The above discussions also postulate that an individual is driven by
different factors of engagement. It is therefore critical to be aware of the different
motivational factors and the different perspectives within the current engagement
literature. In particular, employee engagement studies have been predominantly
psychological in nature. Thus this study next looks at the psychological perspectives in
understanding employee engagement.

2.4 Psychological Perspectives

The field of scholarship related to the concept of employee engagement has been
dominated by the Job Demand-Resource (JD-R henceforth) model, relying on the
issues of measurement and prediction of the three-dimensional framework proposed by
Bakker and Schaufeli (2004). By virtue of analysing employee engagement, the
conservation of resources theory of the JD-R model becomes a special case of the
theory put forward in employee engagement studies. Conservation of resources theory
was introduced by Hobfoll (1989, 2002), based on the assumption that various
resources are salient factors in gaining new resources and in enhancing well-being.
The theory claimed that resources are things that people value and therefore strive to
obtain, retain and protect. The theory assumes gain spirals between job resources and
engagement, which implies that both could reciprocally strengthen each other. When
27

employees are provided with job resources, they could become more engaged over
time, and engaged employees are inclined to be more energised to take advantage of
existing job resources and consequently more motivated to create new resources. This
energy and attention inherent in engagement allow employees to bring their full
potential to the job.
The conservation of resources theory has served as a foundation for the JD-R model
(Figure 2.1) established by Demerouti, Bakker, De Jonge, Janssen and Schaufeli
(2001a), which emphasises the notion of work engagement. The model focuses on two
sets of work conditions: job demands and job resources. Job demands represent
characteristics of the job that potentially evoke strain. Job demands refer to the
physical, social and organisational aspects of the job that require sustained physical
and/or psychological (i.e., cognitive and emotional) effort on the part of the employee,
and are therefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs
(Bakker et al. 2007). Job resources, on the contrary, refer to working conditions that
provide resources for employees. Specifically, job resources are those physical,
psychological, social and organisational aspects of the job that may reduce job
demands and the associated costs, are functional in achieving goals and stimulate
development (Demerouti et al. 2001b).

Figure 2.1: JobDemand-Resource model

Source: Bakker and Demerouti (2007, p. 313)

28

The bulk of past studies have consistently shown that job resources such as social
support from colleagues and supervisors, skill variety, autonomy, performance
feedback and learning opportunities are positively associated with employee
engagement (Xanthopoulou et al. 2009; Schaufeli et al. 2009). Job resources are found
to enable goal achievement and play intrinsic and extrinsic roles in a persons
motivation. Intrinsically, job resources foster employees growth, learning and
development, and thus fulfil basic human needs such as the need for autonomy and
competence (Van den Broeck et al. 2008). Extrinsically, job resources are influential in
achieving work goals. In this case, work environments that offer many resources could
increase dedication and effort at work (Meijman & Mulder 1998). In such an
environment, it is likely that tasks will be completed effectively. Job resources can
exist in different areas such as the organisation (e.g., pay, career development,
training), social relations (e.g., supervisor and co-worker support), the organisation of
work (e.g., participative decision making) and tasks (e.g., skill variety, autonomy).
Although these variables do show the factors that may affect the engagement of
individual employees, it is not, however, specified how engagement is affected and the
extent to which it is affected. For instance, many engagement studies have found that
supervisory support has an impact on employee engagement but the particular kind of
support is not known.
Further, due to the nature of the psychological studies, with the exception of Kahns
(1990) work, the bulk of engagement studies has been construed positivistically. This
means that the examination of employee engagement has been predominantly crosssectional and quantitative in nature (Kim et al. 2012). Table 2.1 summarises some of
the influential research on employee engagement. From the table, the determination of
factors that may affect engagement was based on presumptions and theory, and then
tested accordingly. Recent developments in work organisation have heightened the
need for a grounded research exploration in psychological-related studies (Biggerstaff
2012). Instead of generalising from cross-sectional studies, the emphasis should be on
human experience and social life by taking into account matters such as history,
language and context. As mentioned earlier, the intention of this thesis is not to demote
the role of psychological research in employee engagement. Rather, this study takes an
additional step by exploring employee engagement from the strategic human resource
29

management perspective. This study assumes not only the role of job resources but
also the motivational processes that can be triggered by cultural or context sensitivity.
Accordingly, this study argues that it is the relationship between these institutional
forces, cultural forces and management choice that shapes HR policies and practices.

30

Table 2.1: Key studies on employee engagement

Year

Author (Source)

Context

Measure (Participants)

1990

Kahn (Academy of
Management Journal)

The study illustrates the nature of personal engagement &

disengagement & the 3 psychological conditions
(meaningfulness, safety, availability) found to influence those
behaviours

Qualitative research on 2 different participants:

1. Summer camp (as participant and observer) collect using indepth interviews, self-reflection, document analysis, observation;
16 counsellors
2. Architecture firm (as outside researcher) using in depth
interviews; 16 employees

2001

Rothbard
(Administrative
Science Quarterly)
Schaufeli, Salanova,
Gonzalez-Roma &
Bakker (Journal of
Happiness Studies)
Harter, Schmidt &
Hayes (Journal of
Applied Psychology)

The study examines both the depleting and enriching processes

that link engagement in one role to engagement in another

Survey sent to 1310 employees at a large public university

790 returned (60% response rate)

Measuring the internal consistencies of the 3 scales and the

factorial validity using confirmatory factor analysis. Examining
the relationship between burnout and engagement

Sample 1: 314 undergraduate from Spain

Sample 2: 619 employee from public and private companies (12
organisations)

A meta-analysis in examining the relationship at the businessunit level between employee satisfactionengagement and the
business-unit outcomes of customer satisfaction, productivity,
profit, employee turnover and accidents

Based on 7,939 business units in 36 companies

2002

2002

2003

Sonnentag (Journal of
Applied Psychology)

The study examines work-related outcomes of recovery during

leisure time; it investigates the impact of recovery periods on
subsequent work engagement & proactive behaviour at work

147 out of 425 survey (34.6% response rate)

Employees from 6 public service organisations

2004

May, Gilson, Harter

(Journal of
Occupational and
Organizational
Psychology)

The study examines the role of 3 psychological conditions

(meaningfulness, availability & safety) in employees work
engagement

Employees & managers across all departments in administration

division at an insurance firm in USA
213 out of 270 (79% response rate)

31

Year

Author (Source)

Context

Measure (Participants)

2007

Mauno, Kinnunen,
Ruokolainen(Journal
of Vocational
Behavior)

This study focuses on :

3 types of job demands; time demands at work, work-to-family
conflict & job insecurity
3 types of job resources; job control, organisation-based selfesteem & perceived management quality

Data gathered in 2003 (T1) and 2005 (T2) from a single public
health care organisation (which includes 7 hospitals located in
Finland, includes professional employees (doctors, nurse,
researcher) and non-professionals (cleaning and catering staffs)
1600 questionnaires sent, at T1 735 returned (46% response rate).
At T2, questionnaire sent to the 735 people who had returned at
T1 and who were still employed (n=623), 409 returned the
questionnaire (65.7% response rate).

2008

Macey & Schneider

(Industrial and
Organizational
PsychologyPerspectives on
Science and Practice)

A propositions on : Engagement as a psychological state (e.g.,

involvement, commitment, attachment, mood), performance
construct (e.g., organisational citizenship behaviour),
disposition (e.g., positive affect), or some combination of the
above

-not applicable-

2008

Maslach & Leiter

(Journal of Applied
Psychology)

Identifying early predictors of burnout and engagement.

1.Burnout is a state of mental weariness; 3 dimensions which
are exhaustion, cynicism, lack of professional efficacy.
2.Engagement as the opposite of burnout; 3 dimensions which
are energy, involvement, efficacy all are opposite of burnout
dimensions)
3.Organisational risk factors (6 domains of worklife): workload,
control, reward, community, fairness & values.

Employees in business & administrative services division of a

large North American university
-Time 1: 992 out of 1140 (87% response rate)
-Time 2: 812 out of 1128 (72% response rate)
-466 employees have data that linked Time 1 and 2

2008

Van den Broeck,

Vansteenkiste, Witte,
Lens (Work & Stress)

This study examines whether satisfaction of basic psychological

needs serves as a mediator in the relationships in the Job
Demand-Resource (JD-R) model; that is to see if need
satisfaction can explain the relationships between different
types of job characteristics (job demand & resources) and
employees well-being.

745 out of 1450 employees of Dutch-speaking part of Belgium

among 17 organisations (51% response rate)

32

Year

Author (Source)

Context

Measure (Participants)

2008

Salanova & Schaufeli

(International Journal
of Human Resource
Management)

The aim of this study is to show that job resources (i.e.,

situational cues) have an indirect impact on proactivity through
work engagement, which is considered to be an indicator of
intrinsic work motivation

-2 samples: Spanish employees in ICT area (624 out of 800 =

78% response rate) and Dutch managers of a telecom company
(338 out of 420 = 80% response rate)

2009

Xanthopoulou, Bakker,
Demerouti, Schaufeli
(Journal of
Occupational and Org.
Psychology)
Chen & Kao (Journal
of Air Transport
Management)
Cao, Xu, Liang &
Chaudhry (Information
Tech. Management)

The study investigate how daily fluctuations in job resources

(autonomy, coaching, team climate) are related to employees
level of personal resources (self-efficacy, self-esteem,
optimism), work engagement and financial returns

3 branches of Greek fast-food company

Survey for 42 out of 45 employees (93% response rate)

This study investigates how work engagement and job tenure

moderate the effect of burnout on job performance of flight
attendants
This study investigates if team task and job involvement
enhance the overall work efficiency through transfer of tacit
knowledge between e-business virtual teams

305 usable Taiwanese flight attendant responses were collected

using a self-administered questionnaire

2012

Li, Sanders & Frenkel

(International Journal
of Hospitality
Management)

2013

Alfes, Shantz, Truss &

Soane (International
Journal of Human
Resource
Management)

This paper provides insights into the relationship between

leader-member exchange (LMX) and employee job
performance. An integrative model that includes work
engagement and human resource management (HRM)
consistency, defined as the extent to which various HR practices
are viewed as consistent with one other, explains this
relationship
Drawing on social exchange theory, the study posits that the
effect of perceived HRM practices on both outcome variables is
mediated by levels of employee engagement, while the
relationship between employee engagement and both outcome
variables is moderated by perceived organisational support and
leadermember exchange

2012
2012

Source: Authors compilation

33

Working professionals in China, all of whom were also MBA

students at a certain university
260 questionnaires were distributed and 211 of them were
acceptable for use (81.2% response rate)
298 employees (survey data) and 54 supervisors in a large luxury
hotel in southern China

297 employees in a service sector organisation in the UK

(328 out of 540 employees questionnaires were completed: 61%
response rate)

2.5 Strategic Human Resource Perspectives

Strategic HRM emerged in the 1980s and drew explicit connections between business
strategy and HR strategy. It sought to explain the effects of HRM on strategy
implementation and strategy making (Colbert & Kurucz 2011). At the core of HRM
research are issues related to HR practices, workforce behaviour such as employee
engagement and subsequently organisational performance outcomes, with the basic
assumption that HRM matters. This section begins by critically reviewing the role of
HRM in relation to the significance of studying employee behaviour and subsequently
their engagement level by explaining the HRM transition and the misalignment of
intended versus actual HR practices. The review elaborates on three trends in strategic
HRM studies and the significance function of multilevel perspectives. It then moves on
to review significant HR-related theory in understanding employee engagement by
looking at the resource-based view and institutional theory.
One of the major transitions in HRM is the move from the unitarist to a pluralist
perspective, often represented as what is good for the employee is good for the
employer, and the other way around (Boxall & Purcell 2011). A growing number of
authors (Boxall & Purcell 2011; Keenoy 2003; Paauwe 2004) reject this unitarist
perspective and accentuate the differences of interests between employers and
employees. In the unitarist perspective, there is also the danger of conflation between
organisational and managerial goals (Coopey & Hartley 1991). A range of interest
groups exists in an organisation and thus values and goals may differ as senior
management are only part of the picture. Using a pluralist frame of reference to
recognise that people in organisations have different goals and values is seen as a more
plausible metaphor of reality at work (Morgan 1997).
Paauwe and Boselie (2006) claim that there is a misalignment between how employees
perceive HR practices and the goals of the organisation. Thus, scholars in the HR field
emphasise the importance of including workers perceptions in research. Van den
Berg, Richardson and Eastman (1999) assert that organisations may have an
abundance of written HR policies, and top management may even believe they are
practised, but these policies and beliefs are meaningless until the individual perceives

34

them as significant to his or her organisational well-being. The workers voice was
somewhat neglected in some of the early research on HRM and its absence has been
cited as a major issue in some of the more critical writing about HRM (Guest 2011).
Thus, researchers such as Wright and Boswell (2002) insinuate that there is a need to
open the black box in exploring HR processes with a greater focus on the employees
role in HRM. This study contends that exploring employee engagement experiences
will add a new breadth of knowledge in understanding the complexity of HRM
practices.
HRM theories draw concepts and theories from companion disciplines such as
organisational behaviour, strategic management and industrial relations. Boxall et al.
(2007) use the notion of analytical HRM to emphasise that the fundamental mission
of the discipline of HRM is not to propagate claims about best practice in excellent
companies but to identify what managers actually do in HRM and how they go about
it, and to understand why they do it and consider who benefits from their actions. Far
more important is the issue of whether they have any effect on employees engagement
behaviour at work.
In the past, research in HR was conducted primarily from a micro-perspective that
focused on a specific function with little coordination across disciplines (Wright &
McMahan 1992). For example, researchers in the area of the appraisal process became
extremely specific in studying the techniques for effective appraisal. Strategic HRM
encompasses an effort to demonstrate the association between HR practices and
performance (Delery & Doty 1996; Huselid 1995), to understand the process through
which this relationship takes place (Guest 1997, 2011; Becker & Huselid 2006).
Strategic HRM has also recently included an interest in a multilevel approach to
strategic HRM (Wright & Nishii 2007). Numerous theories of strategic HRM have
been proposed (agency theory, resource-based view, cybernetic models and
institutional theory, among others). From the proposed theories, three pertinent trends
can be observed: (1) the demonstration of links between HR practices and
organisational performance; (2) a consideration of the mechanism through which this
relationship takes place; and (3) the adoption of a multilevel approach to understanding
strategic HRM.

35

A key feature of HR research has been the multivariate analysis of large-scale

quantitative research to test the relationship between HR policies and performance
(Cooke 2001). Table 2.2 below contains a list of the most prominent and frequently
cited works in the area. The table is provided to demonstrate that a thorough
examination of past studies was conducted to conclude that the majority of the work
has been cross-sectional studies, the results of which were based on the quantitative
findings of the relationships between the HR dimensions and their linkages to the
outcomes. The table shows that there is a need to examine the mechanism where the
HR-performance relationship occurs. For example, early studies on HRM in the 1990s
were highly focused on productivity as an outcome. Huselid (1995), MacDuffie (1995)
and Huselid, Jackson and Schuler (1997) looked into HRM issues in respect of
training, HR policies and recruitment, and their effects on organisational productivity.
However, studies in the early 21st century have covered a broader range of HR
elements such as union involvement, performance-based pay and self-managed teams,
and their effects on performances. These studies accentuate that HRM leads to better
performance. As there have been numerous demonstrations of the relationship between
HR policies and practices leading to better performance (Huselid 1995; Delery & Doty
1996; Guest, Michie, Conway & Sheehan 2003), the area of this study is restricted to
the last two trends: an examination of the mechanism where this relationship occurs by
studying engagement, and an acknowledgement of the multilevel effect on
engagement. Ferris, Hochwarter, Buckley, Harrell-Cook and Frink (1999) stated:
More specifically, if there is indeed an impact of HRM systems on firm
performance, how do these effects occur? What are the mechanisms
through which these effects manifest themselves?...These questions call for
theory refinement and the development of more comprehensive models of
the HRM-firm performance relationship that included intermediate
linkages and boundary conditionsthis type of research should be given a
high priority by HRM scholars.

36

Table 2.2: Prominent studies in HRM and performance

Author (Source)

Year

Sample

Huselid
(Academy of
Management
Journal)

1995

Heterogeneous firms in
US (968 senior HRM
professionals)

MacDuffie
(Industrial &
Labor Relations
Review)

1995

62 automotive assembly
plant managers

1996

US banks (216 Senior

HR managers & 114
presidents)

1996

1996

Delery & Doty

(Academy of
Management
Journal)
Becker &
Gerhart
(Academy of
Management
Journal)
Delaney &
Huselid
(Academy of
Management
Journal)
Huselid, Jackson,
& Schuler
(Academy of
Management
Journal)

1997

Method

Outcome

Survey

Productivity

Survey

Productivity & Quality

(1)Internal promotion (2) Training (3) Appraisal

(4) Profit-sharing (5) Security (6) Participation
(7) Job specification (8) Strategies measures

Survey

Return on Assets & Return on

Equity

Meta-analysis

27 HRM issues

Narrative

Performance

590 profit & non-profit

heterogeneous US firms

(1) Staffing selectivity (2) Training (3) Incentive

pay (4) Decentralisation (5) Internal promotion

Survey &telephone
interview

Organisational & market

performance

(1) Strategic HRM (teamwork, empowerment)

(2) Technical HRM (training, recruitment)

Survey

Productivity

Heterogeneous firms in
US (finance,
manufacturing, etc.),
(293 HR executives &
line managers)

HRM dimensions
(1) Skill &structures (quality of work life,
training, communications, grievance procedures)
(2) Motivation (performance appraisals,
promotion on merit)
(1) Work systems index (work teams, problemsolving groups, employee suggestions, Job
rotation, Decentralisation) (2) HRM Policies
index (recruitment & training, contingent
compensation, status differentiation, training
new employees, training of experienced
employees)

37

Author (Source)

Ramsay,
Scholarios,
Harley (British
Journal of
Industrial
Relations)

Bae & Lawler

(The Academy of
Management
Journal)
Cappelli,
Neumark
(Industrial and
Labor Relations
Review)
Zachratos,
Barling, Iverson
(Journal of
Applied
Psychology)

Year

Sample

2000

Number of
questionnaires sent out
to management &
employees not stated
(return rate of over
80%)

2000

138 heads of HR from

firms in Korea

2001

2005

2,516 establishments in
the manufacturing
sector and 1,847 in the
non- manufacturing
sector (Plant managers
& business site
managers)

Study 1: 138 HR
directors, and Study 2:
191 employees

HRM dimensions

Method

Outcome

Survey

Work performance &

employee experiences
(Labour productivity,
financial performance, quality
of product/service, absence
rate, turnover rate, change in
labour costs)

Survey

Firm performance

(1)Manager computer use, worker computer use

(2) Benchmarking (3) Meetings (4) Job rotation
(5) Self-managed teams (6) TQM (7) Cross
training (8) Teamwork training (9) Pay skill (10)
Profit sharing

Survey
(Longitudinal study)

Labour costs & efficiency,

productivity

High Performance Work System

Survey

Safety performance

(1) Downward communication (2) Upward

communication (3) Performance-related pay
(4) Profit-sharing schemes (5) Employee share
ownership (6) Problem-solving groups
(7) Consultative committees
(8) Representation/union involvement
(9) Employee consultation (10) Job control
(11) Formal team (12) Team autonomy
(13) Formal training (14) Investors in people
accreditation (15) TQM (16) Internal labour
market (17) Recruitment & selection (18)
Induction (19) Performance appraisal (20) Job
security (21) Harmonisation (22) Diversity
management (23) Family-friendly management
(24) Grievance procedures
(1) Extensive training (2) Empowerment (3)
Highly selective staffing (4) Performance-based
pay (5) Broad job design

38

Author (Source)

Year

Sample

Combs, Liu,
Hall, Ketchen
(Personnel
Psychology)

2006

38 studies

Macky & Boxall

(International
Journal of
Human Resource
Management)

2007

424 employees

Subramony
(Human
Resource
Management)

2009

65studies

2011

22 government
authorities (119
managers& employees)

Messersmith,
Patel, Lepak
(Journal of
Applied
Psychology)

HRM dimensions
(1) Incentive compensation (2) Training
(3) Compensation level (4) Participation
(5) Selectivity (6) Internal promotion (7) HR
planning (8) Flexible work (9) Performance
appraisal (10) Grievance procedures
(11) Teams (12) Information sharing
(13) Employment security
(1) Performance-based pay (2) Teams
(3) Participation (4) Reduced status differentials
(5) Internal promotion (6) Formal appraisal
systems (7) Developmental appraisal
(8) Communication program (9) Use of
employee surveys (10) Job security (11) Formal
training (12) Formal grievance (13) Targeted
selection (14) Merit-based promotion
(15) Formal job analysis
3 HRM bundles: (1) Empowerment (2)
Motivation (3) Skill-enhancement

High Performance Work System

Method

Outcome

Meta-analysis

Performance

Survey

Job satisfaction, Trust in

management, & Commitment

Meta-analysis

Business outcomes (retention,

operating performance,
financial performance)

Survey: Manager &

employees

Departmental performance
(with mediation of job
satisfaction, commitment&
employee psychological
empowerment)

Source: Authors compilation

*Note: Recent studies were not included since the focus is on prominent and highly cited studies.

39

Responding to Ferris et al.s (1999) argument, many studies have attempted to

investigate the potential factors that may add substantially to the understanding of HR
and performance linkages. Although numerous studies have revealed consistent
relationships between these two variables, there does not seem to have been much
contribution to our theoretical understanding of how these two measures relate (Wright
& Nishii 2006). Becker and Huselids proposed model indicates that a firms strategy
dictates the design of the HR system. The study shows that the HR system influences
employee skills and motivation, which, in turn, affect productivity, creativity and
discretionary behaviour. This behaviour ultimately affects organisational performance.
It would seem that employee behaviour plays an important role in influencing a firms
performance. Most research models of strategic HRM have focused on this link but are
mainly devoted to the concepts of job satisfaction and, generally, employee motivation
(Petrescu & Simmons 2008; Kashefi 2009). In the hope of increasing our knowledge
of how HR practices influence employee behaviour and ultimately performance, this
study suggests that the engagement of employees plays a crucial role.
Finally, numerous studies examining the relationship between HRM and outcomes
have taken a micro-approach, investigating a single HR practice such as training or
appraisal and the effects of this practice on organisational outcomes. Nonetheless, it
must be noted that HR policies and practices do not exist in an organisation in
isolation. The contribution of this study is to take a macro-approach to look at these
variables as a bundle of practices, particularly in the Malaysian context. In
proposing this model, the study by no means argues that all relevant variables have
been identified. Rather, the study proposes to explore employees perceptions to allow
the researcher to recognise some of the relevant HR practices that can shed light on the
sub-processes through which HR practices result in employee engagement.
It is important to acknowledge the multilevel nature of HRM that may affect
engagement. Many scholars argue that the business environment in which businesses
operate is shaped by a broad range of institutional and cultural factors at the
international, national and organisational levels (Cooke 2008a; Clark & Mallory 1996;
Rowley & Benson 2002) (Figure 2.2). At the international level, an organisation may
be influenced by politics, regulations and pressure from international bodies. At the
40

national level, the role of government and its legal systems, the labour market and the
political economy are all pertinent institutional factors that could determine the
business environment. At the societal level, individuals attitudes, lifestyles and
religious backgrounds may explain how HR policies and practices differ from one
country to another.

Figure 2.2: An analytical framework of business environment and organisational

strategy
International insititutional context
-The influence of international
bodies (e.g., ILO, APEC, WTO)
-The influence of multinational
firms

National institutional context

-The role of the government
-Legal system
-Labour market
-The role of unions
-Technologicy and innovation
system
-Political economy

Business & competition

environment

Corporate strategy

Innovation
strategy

Socio-cultural context
-Attitudes/values
-Demographic
-Lifestyle changes
-Religiousity/faith

Marketing
strategy

HR Strategy

High-Performance
Work Practices

Leadership
practices

Source : Adapted and expanded from Cooke (2008a, p. 6)

Having understood the nature of strategic HRM and the importance of multilevel
perspectives, the section that follows presents the theoretical viewpoint for the research
and looks at how these theories, i.e., RBV and institutional theory, help explain HR
practices and their impact on employee engagement.

41

2.5.1 Resource-based view

Despite advances in recent decades in the discussion of whats inside the black box
of an organisation, issues concerning the nature of an organisation remain at the
forefront of debate in many HR and economics studies. Central to this debate is the
resource-based view (RBV henceforth) theory which has developed into a dominant
paradigm in strategic management studies. Its central proposition is that if a firm is to
achieve a state of sustained competitive advantage, it must acquire and control
valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources and capabilities (Barney
1991, 2002). RBV assumes that the resources and attributes of a firm are more
important to sustained competitive advantage than the industry structure and
competitors actions. This is where RBV has been criticised for failing to take
sufficient notice of the external forces that may influence organisational behaviour.
However, one of the pertinent aspect of RBV is the best fit strategy which takes the
position of an inside-out perspective. The inside-out view focuses on issues that
affect internal decisions such as recruitment, compensation plans and training, among
others. These are certainly significant in influencing performance and employee
behaviour (Boxall & Macky 2007; Boxall & Purcell 2003) and, in particular,
engagement (Alfes et al. 2013).
Barney (2001) defined resources as the tangible and intangible assets a firm uses to
choose and implement its strategies. These comprise human, financial, organisational
and physical resources. RBV theory argues that resources such as technology,
economies of scale and natural resources are increasingly available and easy to copy,
while valuable human resources are rare, and difficult to imitate and replace.
According to RBV, organisations derive competitive advantage from their human
resources, i.e., employees. However, a competitive advantage does not actually comes
directly from HR policies and practices per se but from the human resources that the
organisation attracts and retains (Delery 1998). It is the uniqueness and important
roles of these human resources that motivate the researcher in exploring the
importance of people at work. At least five issues have emerged from the application
of RBV to HR: leaders and workers as the key resource; a focus on people, practices
and processes; the importance of path dependency; tackling the neglect of institutional

42

forces; and lastly, the viability and industry leadership (Marchington & Wilkinson
2005).
In a study of nearly one thousand firms, Huselid (1995) examined two measures of HR
practices,the first being employee skills and organisational structures and the second,
employee motivation. The results of his study indicate that when these two measures
are regressed individually towards productivity, both measures are found to be
significant. However, when entered simultaneously, only the motivation measure
remains significant. The findings exemplify the importance of employee motivation in
a firms performance. As such, to compete effectively, organisations must not only
recruit top talent but must also inspire and engage employees to apply their full
capabilities to their work. Employee engagement becomes critical for realising
organisational vision and goals. Consequently, management behaviour and response
make a difference as well (Leiter et al. 2010). Employees responses to organisational
practices, policies and structures affect their potential to experience engagement.
Nevertheless, Bailey (1993) claimed that human resources are frequently underutilised.
Employees frequently perform below their potential due to the adopted HR practices.
Indeed, HR practices could influence employee motivation and skills through
organisational arrangements that provide employees with the ability to control how
their roles are performed.
According to the notion of RBV, employees need to be continually and fundamentally
heterogeneous in their roles in order to gain competitive advantage. In order to
compete, a firm first needs to identify the employees strengths. Secondly, Wernerfelt
(1984) argued that the future strengths of the firm are determined by todays
capabilities. One question that needs to be asked, however, is whether an organisation
has the right system to drive these strengths and capabilities. That is, one of the
critical arguments about RBV is its operational validity (Priem & Butler 2001; Connor
2002). It is silent as to how resources and capabilities are maintained and controlled as
valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable. This study contends that in order for
an employee to sustain this uniqueness, i.e., being valuable, rare, inimitable and nonsubstitutable, a proactive approach needs to be taken. A proactive approach includes
going the extra mile, developing new knowledge and responding quickly to unique
43

opportunities. In other words, employees engagement is required through their actions

at work. By being engaged, employees go beyond existing within the confines of the
job scope to mould their job into something that vigorously adapts to the everchanging environment at work. The reality is that employees are expected to adapt to
new environments with greater demands and fewer resources. Bakker and Schaufeli
(2008) argued that engagement can be accomplished through the different forms of
capital possessed by the organisations and employees, one of which is the material
assets of the organisation, that is, the knowledge, experience and expertise of
employees. Unfortunately, many work situations fail to provide the resources,
leadership or guidance that would permit employees to fulfil their aspirations. These
gaps between potential and reality reduce an organisations capacity to fulfil its vision
and mission while discouraging employees dedication to their roles (Leiter et al.
2010).
Locket, OShea and Wright (2008), in an interview with Wernerfelt, found that one of
the problems facing scholars of RBV is to address the problems associated with the
generalisability of the ideas. RBV resides where we know very little about resources
because it is difficult to conceptualise and therefore operationalise. They further
argued that many resources are known indirectly, such as group resources. What
exactly is it that makes one group of people better at doing something? It is for this
reason that the researcher delves further in studying employee engagement within the
scope of the financial sector in trying to comprehend the factors that may play a role in
sustaining this group of resources.
Evidence from these continuing debates has caused the reassessment of the RBV of the
firm (Barney 2001; Priem & Butler 2001; Marchington & Wilkinson 2005). The
debates indicate an important limit to the applicability of RVB. While RBV is useful in
understanding existing differences between firms in the same industry, it tends to
neglect forces for similarity between organisations in the same industry. It holds only
as long as the rules of the game in an industry remain relatively fixed (Barney 2002).
In volatile environments where new markets and technologies emerge and the value of
resources continuously changes, there is a need to go beyond RBV to clarify how HR
practices may or may not affect employees and ultimately a firms performance. Oliver
44

(1997), in her seminal paper, argued that the prospective for applying RBV is limited
because it centres on internal resources and does not observe the social context within
which resource selection decisions take place (e.g., firm traditions, regulatory
pressures, network ties). Another limitation is that it fails to address the process of
resource selection, that is, how firms actually make, and fail to make, rational resource
choices in pursuit of economic returns. If an employees attitude is important in
determining the success of the firm, then perhaps it is crucial to look deeper into what
kind of resources could affect an employees behaviour.
In theory, the goal of designing and implementing HR practices is to do so in a way
that leads to positive outcomes. The question of interest, then, is whether HR practices
successfully do so as intended. The constituents that explain the variance in the success
with which they do so need to be uncovered. To sum up, this section illuminates the
limitations of a purely RBV perspective and proposes the value of exploring
alternative theoretically grounded perspectives. This study offers an alternative
theoretical base for exploring employee engagement institutional theory and
highlights how this alternative theoretical lens can suggest new models for
understanding the dynamic between HR practices and employee engagement.
Institutional theory is discussed next.

2.5.2 Institutional perspectives

This thesis makes a case for an institutional approach in understanding employee
engagement. In doing so, the body of literature on institutional theory is reviewed.
Essentially, the argument is centred on adapting the multilevel conceptualisation of
engagement by examining the relational interplay of the variables and contextual
elements. The aim is to develop a framework that bridges the macro- and microinstitutional levels of analysis in understanding employee engagement.
This study seeks to contribute to the conceptual development of employee engagement
by introducing the institutional theory as a macro-framework for representing a model
of employee engagement. While the RBV theory provides important avenues for
exploring the strategic HR process in employee engagement, other theories in strategic
HRM have relevance as well, in particular, the institutional model. The
45

implementation of HR practices and managerial practices is not easily addressed

because of the obstacles that exist at both the institutional and individual levels. Due to
the fact that individuals realities are in part socially constructed, exploring HR
practices as objective realities apart from the social context misses important
determinants of employee behaviour. Further, while there is little doubt that there has
been a convergence of HR practices, national particularities persist (Mellahi & Wood
2004b). Individuals perceptions of HR and managerial practices should also be
determined, in part, by how employees experience engagement within the social and
societal context. This reflects the nested nature of social institutions.
This study was carried out by considering the four institutional emphases predicated by
Scott (2007, 2001, 1987). First, institutionalisation is a process of instilling value. The
major emphasis is that institutionalisation serves as a means for supplying intrinsic
worth to a structure or process which promotes stability. This persistence of a structure
over time is lacking from the resource-based view. Second, institutionalisation is a
process of creating reality. The argument is that social order is based fundamentally on
a collective social reality, which, in turn, is a human construction, being created in
social interaction. Social order occurs as individuals take action, interpret that action
and share their understandings with others. These understandings classify the
behaviour into categories that enable the individuals to respond in a similar fashion.
The process by which actions become repeated over time and are assigned similar
meanings by self and others is defined as institutionalisation. Institutionalisation
transpires when there is a reciprocal typification of habitualised actions by the actors
involved (Berger & Luckmamn 1967). Third, institutional systems are a class of
elements. The prominent features of this class are cultural elements such as symbols,
cognitive systems and normative beliefs. It is characterised by the elaboration of rules
and requirements to which organisations must conform if they are to receive support
and legitimacy. Organisations conform to beliefs because doing so will increase their
legitimacy, resources and survival capabilities (DiMaggio & Powell 1983b; Meyer &
Rowan 2006). In the modern world, the forms and sources of social beliefs have
themselves becomes rationalised; traditions and customs have given way to laws and
regulations, and traditional authority is replaced by the nation-state and professional
bodies. Fourth, an institution is a distinct societal sphere. Social institutions refer to
46

relatively enduring systems of social beliefs and socially organised practices associated
with varying functional areas within societal systems such as religion, work, family
and politics (Scott 1987).
Recently, the emergence of new institutionalism has accentuated the importance of
actors who build particular institutions (Meyer & Rowan 2006). For the most part,
the actors are viewed as being motivated by self-interest, values and cultural beliefs
which arise in the context of the institution. While the older forms of institutionalism
were built around simple descriptive data, new institutionalism tries to address bigger
issues such as power and conflict. This development has heightened attention to the
issues of change, power and efficiency in institution building (DiMaggio & Powell
1991). These institutional matters concern the support of powerful alliances between
members of organisations to produce the most efficient institutional arrangements.
Consequently, what this means is that there are needs for political change and for a
distribution of power with greater societal emphasis.
The new institutionalism also puts much emphasis on economic markets as
institutionally embedded, and thus it is much affected by institutionalised forms of
property, security and modes of enforcing contracts that are developed by states and
legislated in civil society (Meyer & Rowan 2006). For example, an individual is not
considered an autonomous author of their preferences; rather, the formation of their
preferences takes place within the constraints of the preferences imposed by the
institutional environment. Further, the older form of institutional analysis sees
institutions as formal legal structures that are developed over long periods. The new
form of institutionalism, however, is seen as man-made rules which provide the basic
building blocks of an institution. Consequently, individuals construct meaning within
the institutionalised setting using language and other symbolic presentations.
Ultimately, in order to survive, organisations must conform to the rules and belief
systems prevailing in the environment, because institutional isomorphism, both
structural and procedural, will earn the organisation legitimacy (Scott 2001, p.136).
Economic choices are controlled not only by factors such as technology and
information and by the constraint of income that neoclassical models highlight, but
47

also by the socially constructed boundaries that are distinctly human in origin, such as
norms, habits and customs. This theory submits that human motivations extend beyond
economic optimisation to social justification and social obligation (Zukin & DiMaggio
1990). It would seem that conformity to social expectations may contribute to
organisational success and survival (DiMaggio & Powell 1983b; Scott 1987) and,
perhaps, play a substantial role in engaging employees at work.
One thing that is certain is that institutions rely heavily on the role of social influence
and pressures for social conformity in shaping organisations actions (Dacin et al.
2002). Oliver (1997) argued that in order to sustain competitive advantage,
organisations should pay attention not only to the attributes of the firms resources but
also to how the resources are developed, managed and diffused. Drawing on Olivers
(1997) argument, this study contends that resource selection and sustainable
competitive advantage are strongly influenced at the individual and organisational
levels by the institutional context. At the individual level, the institutional context
includes leaders norms and values; at the organisational level, the context includes the
HR practices of the firm; at the societal level, the context includes the organisational
culture, religion and politics, public and regulatory pressures, and industry-wide
norms. Essentially, the main argument put forth in this study is the limitations of the
mainstream single-level conceptualisations of employee engagement, which fail to
capture the relational interplay of the contextual and multilevel conceptualisation of
engagement (Table 2.3).

48

Table 2.3: Reviews of theories and their relations to employee engagement

Conservation of
Resources Theory

Resource-Based
Theory

Institutional
Theory

Conceptualisation

The assumption that

various resources are
salient factors in
gaining new resources
and in enhancing wellbeing.

If a firm is to achieve a
state of sustained
competitive advantage,
it must acquire and
control valuable, rare,
inimitable and nonsubstitutable resources
and capabilities.

Driving forces /
Models

Job demand-resource
model

Implications for
engagement study

Job resources increase

engagement while job
demand reduces
engagement. But focus
on internal factors
within the organisation

Employees as assets
that are rare, difficult to
imitate, valuable and
difficult to trade, with
capabilities that bestow
a firms competitive
advantage
RBV neglects forces
for similarity between
organisations in the
same industry. It only
holds as long as the
rules of the game in
an industry remain
relatively fixed. The
theory has limitations
in studying
engagement

Examines the role of

social influence and
pressures for social
conformity in shaping
organisations actions.
This theory suggests that
the motives of human
behaviour extend beyond
economic optimisation to
social justification and
social obligation.
The role of individual,
organisational, and
societal factors

Relational interplay
between macro and
micro-institutions levels
of analysis in
understanding
engagement

Source: Authors compilation

This study proposes a framework that bridges the macro- and micro-institutional levels
of analysis in understanding employee engagement. The study does this by
incorporating three multilevel factors in the institutional context (see Figure 2.3): (1)
individual level leaders behaviour, norms and values; (2) organisational level the
adoption of new forms of HR systems known as high-performance work practices; and
(3) societal level the role of cultural context, in particular, religiosity. All of these
will be elaborated next.

49

Figure 2.3: Multilevel factors in the institutional context

Institutional level of
analysis

Individual level
(micro)

Empowering
leadership behaviour

Organisational level
(micro)

High performance
work practices

Societal level
(macro)

Religiosity

Source: Authors construct

Individual level:the role of leaders as micro-institutional environment

Although engagement with work is an individual experience, it does not occur in
isolation. A thorough consideration of the sources, experiences and consequences of
engagement goes beyond the individual to consider the social dynamics among
individuals as well as the larger institutional dynamics reflecting an organisations
culture. The within-person view explains why one person feels engaged at work while
other people do not. Mintzberg (1994) observed the differences between espoused
strategy (what leaders say the strategy is) and the realised strategy (what the leaders
are actually doing). There may be a disconnection between these factors due to a
number of reasons, which may be political or institutional. Bringing these concepts
into the strategic HRM literature recognises that while there may be a designed or
intended HR system determined by leaders, the system is rarely faultlessly applied by
those charged with its execution. It is therefore important to review the literature that
encompasses the leadership roles in the organisation.
Managerial resources refer to the leadership roles that have the potential to exert a
great influence on employees and ultimately on organisational performance. This
social context reflects the social architecture of an organisation (Barney 1991;
50

Mueller 1996). Leaders have the role of disseminating the appropriate values and
information to their subordinates. Based on institutional perspectives, managers make
rational choices that are bounded by their social judgement, historical limitations and
the inertial force of habit. Leaders who encourage discretionary behaviour and reward
good performance may have a positive impact on HR policies and practices. The study
first looks at changes in the role of leader. It then elaborates on the concept of
empowering leadership and how it may affect employee engagement.
The role of a leader has undergone some changes in recent years. Managers have been
spending less time on controlling and directing work, and many of their traditional
functions have been delegated to empowered, self-managed individuals (Den Hartog &
De Hoogh 2009). As proposed by Bandura (2002), self-efficacy or competence (and
thus empowerment) can be increased by providing emotional support, through words
of encouragement and positive persuasion. Consistent with the new trend to the
attendant expansion of employees' autonomy, empowering leaders behaviour has
assumed special importance (Pearce & Sims 2002; Manz & Sims 1987; Conger 1989).
Given this interest, it is assumed that conditions have been established that promote
employees' participation in the achievement of organisational goals, increase
employees acceptance and freedom, and assist in developing a cohesive environment
(Bass 1999). The present study acknowledges this emerging trend of interest in
changing leadership roles an area that formerly received considerably less attention
(Konczak et al. 2000), particularly in articulating its relationship to employee
engagement.
The roots of empowering leadership begin with the concept of power sharing (Vroom
& Yetton 1973) and the notion of delegation of work, as encompassed in situational
leadership theory (Hersey et al. 1969). However, the notion of power sharing is
deemed to be deficient due to the fact that it includes no motivational effect of
empowerment on subordinates (Conger & Kanungo 1988). Consequently, various
scholars have extended the theory by focusing on intrinsic motivation (Thomas &
Velthouse 1990), team membership (Kirkman & Rosen 1997) and the role of an
external work-group leader in leading others to lead themselves (Manz & Sims 1987).
The fundamental difference between the traditional leaders behaviour and the current
51

empowering counterpart is the shift in control from the leader to individuals. This is
reflected in Arnold, Arad, Rhoades and Drasgows (2000) study that identified five
major characteristics of an empowering leaders behaviour: (1) showing concern, (2)
leading by example, (3) coaching, (4) participative decision making and (5) informing.
While intuitively obvious and possibly supported by anecdotal data, these
characteristics lack verifiable supporting data to indicate their associations with
engagement. The present study advances the interpretation of Arnold et al. (2000) of
empowering a leaders behaviour by focusing on the leaders actions. The study hopes
to identify the behaviour of an empowering leader that has a profound effect on
employee engagement. Identifying this behaviour might assist managers to determine
the most appropriate empowering roles and how these roles enhance employees
engagement and thus potentially employees job performance.
Preliminary work on participation undertaken by Vroom and Mann (1960) found that
participation in organisational decision making satisfies important psychological needs
for responsibility and autonomy at work. Decades later, numerous studies have
provided a similar conclusion: that such participative power satisfies employees
humanistic needs and gives them the fundamental right to extend a degree of control
and to psychologically experience ownership of the organisation (Han et al. 2010;
Vermeersch 2004; Marchington & Kynighou 2012; Timming 2012). People work
harder and more responsibly as a result of increased autonomy. In addition, they work
smarter, since they are encouraged to increase their skills and competence (Pfeffer &
Veiga 1999). It would seem that, by having an opportunity to participate in decision
making, employees become more dedicated to their jobs a facet of employee
engagement.
Carmeli, Sheaffer and Halevi (2009) found that participation in the decision making
process among top management teams is positively associated with decision
effectiveness. However, this yields positive outcomes only if leaders welcome such a
participatory role. For an autonomous environment to work, a leader must motivate
employees to participate in attaining organisational goals (Yang & Huang 2008;
Laschinger et al. 2009). When managers share control, they demonstrate trust in and
respect for their employees. Consequently, employees feel valued when involved in
52

decision making, because it affirms their worth in the organisation (Tyler & Lind
1992). Social exchange theory (Blau 1964) may serve as a useful theory in
understanding this phenomenon. Sharing and delegation of control are seen as social
rewards by employees (Whitener et al. 1998). These rewards represent an initiation of
exchange of social benefits between a leader and an employee. As a result, employees
feel important and exert more effort after participating in decision making. Sharing
control, including participating in decision making and delegating control, seems to be
a pertinent source of employee engagement. Thus, when leaders share and delegate
control, they are likely to be promoting engagement.
Support from the boss is a particularly important factor when trying to change
behaviour or instil new skills (McCauley & Martineau 1998). A supportive leader
provides guidance to subordinates, treats them fairly and with respect, and values their
inputs (Bass 1985b). By showing appreciation for their subordinates and
demonstrating a general regard for employees well-being, supportive leaders actions
may nurture employees engagement (Bakker et al. 2005; Leiter & Maslach 1988;
Bakker et al. 2007). Showing concern in this case also prompts the social aspect of the
relationship and helps to engender a meaningful relationship. In turn, this could lead to
a higher level of employee engagement. This study conjectures that, in exchange for
their leaders support, employees may feel that there is a need to return the favour' to
their leader by becoming more engaged in their jobs, which could contribute to higher
organisational performance. Ultimately, it can be argued that supervisors in most
organisations are in a strategic position to make or break employees determination as
well as their motivation to perform.
Hermalin (1998) presented a model of leadership in the presence of asymmetric
information between leaders and followers where a leader can induce others to follow
suit either by example or by sacrifice. A leader who sacrifices his or her time by
putting in longer hours may convince followers that he or she considers the effort to be
worthwhile. In this case, the need to convince the workers increases the leaders
motivation. Thus, the leader tries to work harder in order to set an example.
Empowered leaders are expected to demonstrate to their subordinates that they are
actively taking part in realising the organisational goals, as well as ensuring that they
53

do walk the talk (Roy 1998; Johnson et al. 2012). For example, a leader who
preaches the value of creativity should demonstrate this value when setting
organisational goals. According to Hogan and Kaiser (2005), the existence of bad
leaders perpetrates unhappiness in those subject to their domain. This unhappiness
represents a negative association with absorption, a hedonic facet of employee
engagement. A leader who does not lead by setting a good example could lower the
level of engagement of his or her employees (Rothbard 2001). Thus, leading by
example is an important means to influence the behaviour of others (Guth et al. 2007).
This study argues that, as employees see their leaders being active in exemplary roles,
they may be inspired to become more vigorous, dedicated and absorbed at work.
Leadership is partly about transmitting information to followers (Bisel et al. 2012;
Hermalin 1998). Information given by leaders helps employees to achieve assigned
goals. It represents a form of job resource that facilitates the personal development and
motivation of subordinates. Subordinates pay attention to the information given since it
is in their interest to do so and they also believe that the leader has superior
information. Thus, information dissemination by leaders is necessary for engaging
employees; when lacking, it serves as a factor in increasing burnout (Leithwood &
Jantzi 1999). Effective communication of the organisational vision as established by
the leaders could provide clear directions to employees and ultimately lead to
organisational growth (Baum & Locke 2004). Uncertainty is reduced when employees
know where they are heading. The present study is designed to find whether there is
empirical support that informing leaders engenders a higher level of vigour,
dedication and absorption among employees. By leaders carrying out their informing
roles, subordinates become convinced that their work is worthwhile and feel that they
are aligned to the organisations goals, and ultimately they have a higher level of
engagement.
According to Apps (1991), employees constantly need to learn something new. The
worst thing that can happen is that leaders leave employees to make decisions and
learn without information or support, and expect employees to internalise
engagement without encouragement. An important aspect of employee engagement
is how accessible employees feel that their leaders are to guide them in their work.
54

Studies by Hakanen, Bakker and Schaufeli (2006) and Saks (2006) showed that
supervisory guidance relates positively to work engagement. Coaching and mentoring
are essential in preparing subordinates to assume more responsibility and ultimately
take on some leadership responsibilities, particularly within an autonomous
environment (Bass 1985a). Additionally, Agarwal, Angst and Magni (2009) found that
managers' coaching intensity positively influences the performance of their
subordinates. This study submits that coaching is a pertinent aspect of increasing an
employees level of engagement. Having presented the arguments above, it could be
hypothesised that such connections may exist between empowering leadership
behaviour and engagement. Therefore, the discussions presented above lead to the
following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Empowering leadership behaviour will significantly predict the variance
in employee engagement among employees in the financial sector in Malaysia.

Organisational level:high-performance work practices as micro-institutional

environment
Another element of the institutional theory arguments is the role of organisationallevel determinants. The study examines this emergent concept in HR practice, its role
and its relevance in todays organisation. In the past two decades, there has been a shift
in the understanding of human resource practices in organisations. A new model of
organisational reform, High-Performance Work Practices (HPWP henceforth), has
been popularised by Appelbaum and Batt (1994). It encompasses post-Taylorist
practices, which denotes a set of management practices that embrace employee
involvement and responsibility. Research on the effect of HPWP on organisations and
employees has shown that it has a mainly positive relationship to firm performance
(Appelbaum 2002; Becker & Huselid 1998), while the effects on employee outcomes
are mixed and still unclear (Kalmi & Kauhanen 2008; Ramsay et al. 2000). The
distinctive nature of HPWP stands on three grounds: (1) work organisation, (2) skills
and (3) motivation (Appelbaum 2002).
First, the systematic nature of HPWP distinguishes it from previous approaches to
work organisation by an increased emphasis on participative decision making (Harley
2005). The common aspects of work organisation suggested by Ramsay et al. (2000)
55

are information sharing, management-employee meetings, employee surveys, formal

teams and problem-solving groups. This new form of work organisation allows
employees to voice their views, enabling employees to feel empowered. Konrad
(2006) proposed that participation generates engagement by affecting beliefs, attitudes
and behaviour. The author further claimed that high involvement in a job generates a
positive attitude. When people participate in the new system, they become personally
invested in making the system a success. Additionally, HPWP could produce
behaviour that is indicative of highly engaged employees due to the fact that
participation is encouraged. Employees seem to go beyond their job requirements in
order to contribute to the organisations success. Subsequently, as employees devote
more effort, knowledge and time to this system, it would over time generate a culture
of highly engaging employees, as claimed by Konrad (2006).
Second, increasing emphasis has been given to enhancing the skills of employees (Prahalad
& Hamel 1990; Appelbaum 2002). In HPWP, workers are characterised as having a high
level of skills to facilitate participative work organisation. These skills are achieved by
comprehensive training, induction programs, and sophisticated recruitment and selection
for employing appropriately skilled employees (Ramsay et al. 2000). When employees
have the required skills, this affects how they are engaged at work. For instance,
comprehensive training provides employees with the necessary skills to perform their jobs
in a more effective manner, which probably causes them to become engaged.
Third, incentives are given as an aid to motivation to help prepare for the successful
implementation of HPWP. In contrast to the old reward systems that incorporated
job-evaluated grade structures and seniority, the concept of reward systems in HPWP
focuses on the notion of a fit between rewards and an individuals effort, skills and
contribution. Appelbaum (2002) argued that incentives should include intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards, and give a long-term stake in the organisation. For example, highdiscretion jobs could provide a form of intrinsic reward and performance-related pay
could provide an extrinsic reward. These rewards are likely to induce engagement as
employees see the presence of HPWP as beneficial to them.

56

Combining these three components, usually termed a bundle of HR practices, is

necessary to create HPWP within an organisation. Empirical evidence that establishes
an association between HPWP and performance abounds (Becker & Huselid 1998;
Huselid 1995; Luther 2000; Zang 2008). Nevertheless, the effects on employee
outcomes have turned out to be mixed, with some researchers finding positive effects
and others finding adverse effects (Danford et al. 2004; Kalmi & Kauhanen 2008;
Ramsay et al. 2000; White et al. 2003). The present study seeks to advance this
discussion by acknowledging the association between the bundle of HR practices and
employees experiences. The assumption is that, if HPWP are properly configured,
they may contribute significantly to employee engagement.
To date, there has been no uniform view about the specific set of practices to make up an
HPWP bundle. The study has summarised the bundles according to its reviews of
prominent high-performance work studies (Becker & Huselid 1998; Boxall & Macky 2007;
Huselid & Becker 1997) (Figure 2.4). Most of the high-use HPWPs include comprehensive
recruitment, training, employee involvement programs, performance reward systems,
developmental performance appraisal, formal grievance system and job security policies.

Figure 2.4: The relationship between high-performance work practices (HPWP)

and employee engagement

HPWP

Comprehensive employee recruitment and

selection procedures
Performance reward system
Developmental performance appraisal system
Extensive employee involvement and training
Formal grievance or complaint resolution system
Job security policies

Employee
Engagement

As with the social exchange standpoint, it is proposed that employees will be

motivated to engage in their jobs when the jobs are based on a fair and balanced
system of exchange (Blau 1964). Due to HPWP, employees may find that their needs
are being met by the opportunities and benefits these practices provide (Huselid 1995).

57

In return, satisfied employees feel an obligation to put in more effort at work and to be
more enthusiastic and loyal to the organisation (Takeuchi et al. 2009). Enthusiasm and
loyalty reflect the concept of engagement in that engagement requires employees to be
dedicated to and enthusiastic about their job. Consequently, HPWP dimensions are
expected to induce a higher level of engagement among employees since the bundle
of HR practices is regarded as being rewarding and fulfilling. Consequently, the
following is hypothesised:
Hypothesis 2: High-performance work practices will significantly predict the variance
in employee engagement among employees in the financial sector in Malaysia.
On another note, although it has been argued that research in organisational level
studies seeking high-performance HR practices leads to improved employee and
organisational performance (Francis & Keegan 2006), Thompson (2011) argued that
the trouble with HR practice is that there are so many unproven or weak links between
high commitment and performance outcomes that it is difficult to know where
conceptual configurations will lead. This nave optimism, as Thompson and Harley
(2007) put it, also stems from a neglect of context. Approaches to constructing factors
in HPWP in which researchers combine their perceptions of best practice without
regard to the specific context are therefore fundamentally contentious (Boxall &
Macky 2007). It is this role of context that we will turn to next.

Societal level:the role of culture and social setting as macro-institutional

environment
The third level of institutional context constitutes the societal level, which includes
societal expectations (rules, norms and standards related to product quality and
management systems, occupational safety and environmental management) that define
socially acceptable organisational conduct and the social pressures common to
organisations in the same sector (DiMaggio & Powell 1983b). This claim requires
consideration of the international aspect of HRM. Thus, this section is further
supported by points of view from international HRM, which comprises three major
domains: country-specific HRM practices, multinational stakeholders perspectives,
and cross-country comparative HRM. For the purpose of this study, only the first

58

domain is considered because the study essentially looks into Malaysias specific HR
practices and their effects on employee engagement.
Organisations operating in different countries experience varying institutional
environments and face diverse pressures. Some of those pressures in local institutional
environments appear to exert fundamental influences on competitive strategy
(Martinsons 1993; Porter 1990) and HR practices (Rosenzweig & Singh 1991). Boxall
and Purcell (2003) argued that some firms have an immediate advantage in
international competition because they are located in societies that have much better
educational and technical infrastructure than others. Thus, HRM is not just shaped by
managers and the internal HR system but also by external forces.
One controversy involving HR practices is whether there exists a set of best practices
that are universally effective across firms contexts and industries (Meyer 2006;
Becker & Gerhart 1996; Lepak, Takeuchi, Erhardt & Colakoglu 2006). Boxall and
Purcell (2000) argued that the major problem in linking HR practice and performance
outcomes is in the examination of the link without considering the organisational,
industrial and national contexts. To broaden and comprehend HRM, scholars need to
develop less ethnocentric and more nuanced, context-responsive and hence more
suitable models of HRM that reflect practices not just in countries but also in wider
regions, such as Asia (Rowley & Benson 2002; Zhu et al. 2007; Cooke 2009). Much of
what has been discussed thus far has come from the Western contexts. Zhu et al.
(2009) confirmed the general trends of HR in terms of people management and
illustrated the underpinning factors such as traditional values and culture, historical
evolution, political and economic changes, and the characteristics of the society,
industry and firms in each country that eventually determine the formation of
management thinking as well as HR policies and practices.
As the field of HRM has developed, so have concerns about its relevance in the crossnational context (Meyer 2006; Tsui 2007; Budhwar & Debrah 2009). Classic HR
practices using US theoretical models have been subjected to significant criticism in
the European context due to the fact that the models were grafted on to management
thinking rather than taking root (Sparrow & Wu 1998). As Hofstede (1993) put it,
59

there is a need for considerable historical and cultural insight into local conditions to
understand the processes, philosophies and problems of national models of HRM. A
critical review by Rowley (1998) on HRM across a variety of Asia Pacific economies
concluded that convergence, and modern variants universalism should be
questioned.
Cultural and institutional theories are often labelled divergent theories, as opposed to a
universalistic theory, which is convergent (Rowley & Jackson 2011). Cultural theory
highlights culture as a factor that makes peoples behaviour and economic activity
different in dissimilar cultures. Cultures are developed within countries as a product of
national patterns and the formative influences of education, language, religion and
geography (Derr & Laurent 1989). Adler and Gundersen (2008) defined culture as: (1)
something shared by all or almost all members of a given social group, (2) something
older members of a group pass on to younger members and (3) something (as in the
case of morals, laws and customs) that shapes behaviour or structures ones perception
of the world. Cultural values are considered to be deep-seated and enduring, and
culture is considered to be immutable. Thus, the economic activities of countries of
different cultures should remain divergent. Institutional theory emphasises that a
nations economic activities are influenced by its social institutions, key institutions
being the state, the legal system, the financial system and the family. The theory
acknowledges the pertinence of culture but allows for the possibility of cultural
modification. As an example, Cooke (2004), in a study of a toy manufacturing
corporation, found that the local institutional and cultural context was important in
influencing HR practices. Both cultural and institutional theories are viewed as the
opposite of the universalistic theory, which claims that economic activities around the
world are convergent towards best practice (Whitley 1999).
Asia, in particular, is a complex region with many variations in terms of its societal
factors, values, economies and management. Consequently, Asian HRM is
underpinned by Asian values on the basis of spatial and cultural proximity (Benson &
Rowley 2003). Cooke (2008b), in her study of 30 private enterprises in China, found
that the HR configuration was largely of a paternalistic nature, with the enterprise
culture typical of that of Chinese values. In another study of diversity management,
60

Cooke and Saini (2012) conducted qualitative interviews with Chinese and Indian
managers and found contextual differences in political, economic, cultural and social
aspects between China and India and between these two and the Western context.
Although it is clear that context matters, there has been little discussion about HRM in
Malaysia and how the contextual setting may play a dominant role in HR practice. The
next section elaborates further on this contextual issue, with specific emphasis on
cultural values and religious elements.

2.6 Cultural Values and Religious Elements

The integral part of this research is to argue that the cultural element has an important
role in the HR practices of an organisation and depends on the national context. Meyer
(2006) asserted that it is crucial to investigate moderating contextual factors in
establishing why results vary and what additional variables are important. In terms of
culture, institutional theory focuses on the deeper and more resilient aspects of the
social structure. It considers the processes by which structures, including schemas,
rules, norms and routines, become established as authoritative guidelines for social
behaviour (Scott 2005, 2008). There is substantial evidence that firms in different
types of economies react differently to similar challenges. DiMaggio and Powell
(1991) defined this emerging perspective in organisation theory and sociology as the
new institutionalism', which rejects the rational-actor model of classic economics.
Instead, this perspective seeks cognitive and cultural explanations of social and
organisational phenomena by considering the properties of individual units of analysis.
Malaysian HRM should be comprehended in the context of the nature of its Asian
culture. Although Malaysians comprise people of different religions, rituals and
symbolic expressions, they have common values such as respect for the elderly,
collective orientation, harmony, concern for face-saving and a religious orientation
(Selvarajah & Meyer 2008). Similar to China, the culture in Malaysia is generally
characterised by traditional values such as collectivism, with an emphasis on harmony,
respect for hierarchy, reciprocity, loyalty and the important of face and guanxi
(Abdullah 2001; Sloane-White 2011; Kaur & Metcalfe 1999). The concept of guanxi
places high importance on interpersonal relationships and the reciprocity between
subordinates and their superiors. Abdullah (2001, in press) called for a high degree of
61

sensitivity to local culture and demanded flexibility in managing HR issues in

Malaysia. Her focus was to Malaysianise Western-based management practices so
that they would harmonise with local ways of doing things. For most Malaysians, the
idea of development means being able to retain and preserve the richness of their
ethnic heritage and still be able to incorporate work values which can promote
productivity in the workplace.
Figure 2.5 illustrates the general difference between the Eastern and Western
paradigms in contributing to economic progress. Most of the demonstrated values
reflect Hofstedes collectivist versus individualist principles. The Eastern paradigm
reflects values such as modesty, humility, collaboration, face and respect for status,
which characterisethe collectivist culture. The Western paradigm, on the other hand,
values things such as achievement, competitiveness, winning, pride and respect for
results, which is a representation of the individualistic culture. In 1997, Hofstede
conducted a study on 50 countries and found that Malaysia, among other ASEAN
countries (Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand), scored very high on power
distance, which accentuates the notion of status. Such a value seems at odds with the
newly introduced concept of HPWP, where the major emphasis is on a participative
and egalitarian work climate (Othman & Teh 2003; Lawler et al. 2000). It would seem
that the hierarchical nature of Asian cultures hinders the effectiveness of HPWP. The
harmonious relationship may militate against innovation and change. The nature of the
cultural affect on organisational outcomes, particularly on employee engagement, is
still unclear. The study explores this cultural effect to elucidate the ongoing debates.

62

Figure 2.5: Eastern and Western goals of economic progress

Common Goal of Economic Progress

Eastern Paradigm

Western Paradigm

-Selfactualisation
-Individualism
-Guilt culture

-Harmonious
relationships
-Collectivism
-Shame culture

-Modesty
-Humility
-Collaboration
-Face
-Respect for status
-Respect for elders
-Time is life
-Being
-Humanistic

-Achievement
-Competitiveness
-Winning
-Pride
-Respect for results
-Respect for competence
-Time is money
-Doing
-Mechanistic

Source: Abdullah (2001)

The interweaving of HR policies with organisational strategy has been reinforced by
the intensification of market competition at national and global levels (Ali 2010). The
spread of capitalism and the integration of developing countries into the global
capitalist system have challenged the Eastern paradigm practices. In developing
countries, Muslim nations have faced the dilemma of adopting Western management
practices while maintaining religious prescriptions and norms. The recent past has
witnessed increasing interest in Western nations concerning the issue of religiosity
(Sedikides 2010). There has been a renewed focus on business and management
processes in Islamic countries and their political and cultural contexts. Evidence has
shown that foreign ways of doing things often do not sit comfortably with Western
management thought and that there is a need for understanding the national context in
which management is practised (Branine & Pollard 2010) .

63

Although the field of HRM often emphasises that cultural issues play a dominant role
in shaping HR practices in different countries, the issue of religiosity, part of the
cultural component, has not emerged until recently. This has occurred because when
authors have ventured into issues such as spirituality, feminist perspectives, national
and regional HRD and societal development, they have often been met with scepticism
and, even worse, animosity (McLean 2010). Such subjects are deemed contentious.
Recommendations for refining the issue of religiosity may seem irrational and may
impinge on cultural sensitivities. In academic psychology, for instance, the study of
mental entities has a higher prestige than the study of a life domain such as religion,
and thus the concept of religiosity has been excluded from enquiry by the leading
academic departments (Sedikides 2010). Moreover, academics have mainly formed the
false impression that religiosity is a rare and marginal phenomenon (Stark &
Bainbridge 1985). All these tendencies may have tainted the study of religiosity as a
potential antecedent and moderator of employee engagement.
Surprisingly, despite the fact that 85 per cent of people worldwide report having at
least some religious belief (Zuckerman 2005) and 82 per cent claim that religion
constitutes an important part of their daily life (Crabtree 2009, 2012), the potential
association between religious beliefs, management practices and organisational
outcomes has been clearly ignored in mainstream management research (Mellahi &
Budhwar 2010). Religion has been deemed not worthy of study due to the scepticism
about religion having any significant impact on individual behaviour at work. Hofstede
(1991, 2010), a prominent scholar in cultural studies, claimed that culture precedes
religion, which downplays the role of religion. He argued that religion is the result of
previously existing cultural value patterns. A serious weakness in this argument,
however, is the discrepancy in its contention; religion may actually precede culture.
Hume (1757), in The Natural History of Religion, insinuated that every enquiry in
regard to religion is of the utmost importance, and the questions which challenge our
attention concern its foundation and its origin in human nature. Blooms (2012) review
of literature on religion showed that religion is an evolution and a solution to the
problem of bringing together communities of people; religious beliefs and practice
exist to instil cooperation and group feelings, to motivate kindness and compassion to
other members of ones tribe. He further asserted that religious beliefs motivate how
64

people think and act. This suggests that religion is related to human nature and guides
the way people live. This would then question Hofstedes claims. Blooms (2012)
interpretation of the evolution of religion suggests that religion may very well precede
culture, that religion does have an effect on individuals in a society and, plausibly, that
policy implications follow from this.
In the past few years, there have been strong signs of the relinquishment of this insular
attitude. The positive psychology movement and the intensification of the debate
between religious and secular circles have contributed to this change (Sedikides 2010).
Religiosity, according to Sedikides (2010), is an orientation, a behavioural set and a
lifestyle which is considered significant by the large majority of people worldwide.
Hence, the issue of religiosity can no longer be ignored in the field of HRM research.
The premise of institutional theory is that the behaviour and actions of individuals can
be explained by recognising the cultural setting and, accordingly, the religious context.
Indeed, work behaviour motivated to some degree by religiosity may result in
employee engagement and consequently greater performance at work. As in the
sociological perspective, work is seen as meaningful, which is a critical feature of
being religious. Religion facilitiates an implicit form of self-regulation among
individuals who are intrisincally committed to their religion, and this allows those
individuals to strive for high standards in continuing to uphold their emotional wellbeing (Koole et al. 2010).
Malaysian HR practices should also be understood in the context of Malaysias multiethnic society where there is a mixture of Islamic, Confucian and Western values
(Mansor & Ali 1998). Since the majority of the population is Muslim, most work
values are underpinned by the Islamic prescriptions based on the Quran (Al Habshi &
Ghazali 1994) and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (Ali 2010). Such ethics
advocate work to give meaning to life and state that economic activity is an obligation,
with dedication to work a virtue (Yousef 2000). Further, prayer in the form of
meditation can act as a coping mechanism (Baker 2008). In an experimental study by
Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek and Finkel (2008), it was found that meditation
practices increased the daily experience of positive emotions and, in turn, produced a
65

rise in personal resources such as mastery and self-acceptance eight weeks later. This
form of resource may be an important factor in employee engagement at work.
This study contends that, in the context of Malaysia, religion play a pertinent role in
guiding employees behaviour. Malaysia introduced Islamisation into government
even before the 20th century. However, it was not until recently with the rapid
increase of Islamic places of worship, the inclusion of Islamic teachings in schools and
universities, and the attention given to youth groups that draw upon Islamic values
that there were many changes in the countrys development. The institutionalisation of
Islam began in the 1980s with the introduction of Penerapan Nilai-Nilai Murni (The
Application of Pure Values) as a policy guideline for the incorporation of Islamic
ethics in governance. A study by Yousef (2000) found that Islamic work ethics have
positive relationship with employee behaviour such as organisational commitment,
satisfaction and loyalty. In this context, this study intends to show the limitations
inherent in trying to adopt existing HR practices that have been used successfully
elsewhere without analysing how well they can be predicated in different situations.
The study argues that employees attitudes to work are very much affected by their
religious resources, and thus how much employees are engaged is very much
predicated by the amount of religious belief they hold. This leads to the development
of the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Religiosity will significantly predict the variance in employee
engagement among employees in the financial sector in Malaysia.
Ali, Gibbs and Camp (2000) found that HR issues in organisations have their
foundations in religion. For instance, all religions call for justice in treating employees.
The ten commandments in Christianity urge management to treat employees equally
and reward them accordingly (Hashim 2008). Similarly, Islam urges all Muslims to
promote and practise justice. This is a significant element in Islamic teaching and
should be applied in daily life, as stated by the Holy Quran, the religious text of Islam.
The Quran also requires leaders to be consultative and just. In Islam, an individual
must continually struggle to work towards attaining Gods satisfaction, and this belief
guides individual behaviour. Economic and social activities undertake moral and
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spiritual dimensions as a means for doing good to oneself and to society by following
Gods direction on wealth generation, ownership, equality and social justice (Branine
& Pollard 2010a). In order to maintain an organisation of justice and equality, there
should be a sense of humility among leaders. Employees should be treated and
rewarded equally and justly. Islam further urges leaders to treat their subordinates with
respect and courtesy, and certainly not to ignore their views and suggestions. Leaders
should not be guided by personal emotions that might deviate them from the path of
righteousness and trustworthiness, which are central to effective management (Dirks &
Ferrin 2002). A recent study by Ali and Kazemi (2007) discovered that Islamic work
ethics are positively related to loyalty among employees in Kuwait. This loyalty may
also provide a foundation towards an employees level of engagement at work.
Leaders are also expected to seek advice and consult others before making decisions
(Branine & Pollard 2010). Being involved in discussion and providing suggestions are
key leadership values in Islam and, in fact, are the characteristic of leaders that
employees most welcome. Thus, as leaders coach and communicate with employees,
those employees who are placed high on Islamic values may become more engaged at
work. Participation, therefore, infuses trust and creates a culture of cooperation
between employers and employees, ultimately creating an engaged workforce. From
the viewpoint of Islamic religiosity, being religious has a significant effect not only on
economic and political organisations but also on human relationships (Metcalfe 2007).
Employment relationships go beyond what is written in the psychological contracts
with the presence of a religious element.
Studies on Islamic management have found relationships between organisational
commitment and Islamic management styles (Hashim 2010). This shows that when
leaders demonstrate ethical and religious behaviour, employees commitment
increases. For a Muslim leader, it is essential not only to know but also to apply the
Islamic approach in managing employees (Hashim 2010). Thus, employees seeing
their leader displaying rightful behaviour are motivated to go further. Employees
who are religious and welcome this behaviour may disclose higher levels of
engagement. This leads to the following hypothesis:

67

Hypothesis 4: Religiosity moderates the relationship between empowering leadership

and employee engagement. Empowering leadership behaviour has a stronger and more
positive relationship with employee engagement among employees who exhibit a high
level of religiosity than employees who exhibit a low level of religiosity.
According to Branine and Pollard (2010), the application of Islamic principles to work
values is not the same worldwide, and the local context has a substantial effect on their
implementation. Indeed, the cultural setting of each country in which Islam is practised
and interpreted differs, so much so that, in some instances, national management
practices actually conflict with the teachings of Islam. In Malaysia, Islamic teachings
are also fused with the presence of other teachings such as Confucian principles and
the influences remaining from being former colonies of European powers. This
mixture of cultural legacies and Islamic teaching must be understood, particularly by
MNCs operating in Malaysia, for it obviously affects how HRM systems are practised.
In a study of Malaysian organisations owned by Muslims, Hashim (2008) revealed that
HR practices were based on Quranic guidelines. The study revealed that among the
HRM functions most commonly practised in Malaysian organisations based on the
Islamic approach are compensation, selection and training. Contradictorily, Hashim
(2009), in another study, found that even in the case of Malaysia, which has purposely
attempted to strengthen the Islamic approach in business and government conduct,
many employees are still not sure about Islamic HRM practices. Instead, Western
HRM practices have been widely adopted (Chew 2005). Thus, the relationship
between Islamic religiosity and HR practices is still unclear and its impact on
employee behaviour at work remains uncertain.
The argument put forth in this study is that, when the mission of the organisation and
its HR practices align with an employees concept of religiosity, the positive impact of
HPWP on employee engagement is likely to be enhanced. In the absence of such
alignment, however, the impact of HPWP might be diminished as the employee tries to
work around their job duties and pursue their religiosity despite the organisations
emphasis on other priorities. Such a situation is also likely to prompt the employee to
search for other opportunities and organisations that may be more supportive of their
68

belief. Indeed, if HPWP is appropriately established, that is, provided with justice and
delivered using the ethical elements, employees who are highly religious may be more
engaged at work. The development of the following hypothesis is based on the
impression that religiosity would moderate the relationship between HPWP and
employee engagement:
Hypothesis 5: Religiosity moderates the relationship between high-performance work
practices and employee engagement. High-performance work practices have a stronger
and more positive relationship with employee engagement among employees who
exhibit a high level of religiosity than for employees who exhibit a low level of
religiosity.
The above arguments and discussions illustrate the basic processes that seemingly
have to take place in order for organisational factors to impact on employee
engagement (Figure 2.6). However, it is the linkages between the different processes
that provide avenues for examining significant issues that may assist to enhance our
theoretical and empirical understanding of the process through which HRM impacts on
employee engagement. Exploring these linkages elicits a number of questions which
are not addressed in the strategic HRM literature.

69

Figure 2.6: Research framework

Religiosity
H3
H4
Empowering
leadership
behaviour

H1
Employee
Engagement

H5
H2

Highperformance
work practices

Source: Authors construct

2.7 Summary
This chapter focused on conceptual issues as they relate to employee engagement.
Specifically, the chapter discussed the different theoretical perspectives in
understanding engagement. Together, these debates present insights into the macro and
micro-institutional contexts which need to be taken into consideration in a setting that
differs from those in the West. The central argument is the limitation of the
mainstream single-level conceptualisations of employee engagement, which fail to
capture the relational interplay of the contextual and multilevel conceptualisation of
engagement. Having set the theoretical point for the study, the next chapter provides
details of the Malaysian institutional setting.

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CHAPTER 3: MALAYSIA IN CONTEXT

_____________________________________________________________________

3.1 Introduction
With a population of 29.2 million and a literacy rate of 88.7 per cent, Malaysia is
reported to be the third largest economy in South East Asia and thirtieth in the world
with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 453 billion in 2011 (Central Intelligence
Agency 2012). Malaysia has become transformed economically, socially, culturally
and politically since its independence in 1957. Economic growth has been dependent
on the state and capitalists markets, the countrys natural resource endowments, and its
cultural and political preconditions (Kaur & Metcalfe 1999). The data for this research
have been drawn from professional, middle-management employees in the financial
sector in Malaysia. In the discussion of human resource development and its relation to
employee engagement, it is important to understand the contextual issues, such as
history and the roles played by the stakeholders in the various institutions. The aim of
this chapter is to provide contextual information and clarification in regard to the
people of Malaysia, the political and economic background, human resource
management in the Malaysian setting, the financial sector, the high-performance
approach, the role of the Central Bank, the role of trade unions, labour trends and the
role of religiosity. The chapter begins by reviewing the people of Malaysia through a
historical lens.

3.2 The People

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation with the Malays being the
dominant group. In 2010, Malaysias population was an estimated 28 million, divided
along three major ethnic lines with approximately 67.4 per cent Malays, 24.6 per cent
Chinese, 7.3 per cent Indians and 0.7 per cent others (Department of Statistics,
Malaysia 2012) (Figure 3.1).

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Figure 3.1: Ethnic groups in Malaysia

Ethnic groups
0.7%
7.3%
24.6%
Malay
67.4%

Chinese
Indian
Other

Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia (2012)

It is generally known that these three ethnic groups are of different faith or religion.
The Malays are Muslims; the Chinese observe a syncretic religion relating to
Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity; and the Indians are mainly Hindus
(Gomes 1999). This cultural plurality has been long recognised and the infamous
divide and rule policy of the British colonial administration prevented the
socialisation of the different groups. The important thing to acknowledge from this
history is the segregation of the three races. Each race had a distinctive position within
the social and economic framework. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Malays
remained in the rural areas as subsistence farmers or peasants, engaging mainly in rice
farming, fishing and some trading of forest products (Gomes 1999; Smith 1990). The
colonial period from 1850 to 1957 witnessed a radical social transformation of the
country with the immigration of large numbers of Chinese and Indians to work in the
tin mines, rubber plantations and other enterprises. Subsequently, the Chinese settled
in the mining areas which had developed into urban and commercial centres. The
Indians, on the other hand, were confined to the plantations and served as indentured
labourers.

72

3.3 Politico-economic Background

Malaya achieved independence from the British in August 1957. The modern state of
Malaysia was formed in 1963 by the union of the Federation of Malaya. The system
reflects the political dominance of the Malays and their control of the administration as
indigenous masters of the country (Kheng 1999). The Malaysian Constitution
guaranteeing special rights to the Malays or Bumiputera (sons of the soil) was
approved by the Chinese and Indian leaders as part of the historic bargain. Under the
bargain, the non-Malays accepted the distinctive position of the Malays, with Malay as
the national language, Islam as the official religion and the Malay rulers as
constitutional monarchs. In return, the non-Malays acquired citizenship, freedom of
worship and the right to use their own languages. Consequently, the non-Malays
strived to find their own special position by acquiring much wealth to gain a better
prospect for protecting their future and families. During this period the Malays realised
that they had lagged behind. The Chinese, particularly, having settled in the
commercial centres, had fared better economically and were reported to have acquired
a disproportionally large amount of the countrys wealth (Kheng 1999). This
circumstance awakened the Malay people and indirectly forced them to change their
way of life to strive for a better position economically. Fortunately, times have
changed. Today, the Malays are just as competitive and competent as the other ethnic
groups (Ariff 2012). Essentially, it was during the regime of Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamed, Malaysias longest serving Prime Minister, that attitudes to the non-Malays
changed. Mahathir sought to accommodate much of the non-Malays demands and
recognised their rights, culture and roles in Malaysian society. Under Vision 2020, he
strove to unite Malaysian society by promoting a full and fair partnership made of one
Malaysian race. After gaining independence, the government was determined to
resolve any ethnicisation and introduced two major policies; the New Economic Policy
(NEP) and the National Culture Policy (NCP) (Kheng 1999). These policies claim to
foster ethnic peace and social justice in Malaysia. One of their major aims is to
eradicate poverty by raising income levels and increasing employment opportunities
for all Malaysians, irrespective of race. Another major objective is to restructure
Malaysia to correct economic imbalance.

73

The preservation of the countrys unity and the welding of a unified nation have
preoccupied Malaysias leaders since independence (Kaur & Metcalfe 1999). In 1991,
the prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, introduced his Vision 2020, whereby he
envisaged Malaysia to be an advanced industrialised country by the year 2020. The
key elements of Malaysias path to modernisation would be to sustain economic
growth and a united society. The vision needs to be seen in the context of the countrys
natural and historical heritage. The current society, irrespective of ethnic background,
appears to have a common vision for the future that is, to become an industrialised
and united nation (Gomes 1999). A united society is deemed to be more pragmatic,
innovative, rational and tolerant to prepare for the challenges of the new century. The
new society is also expected to be confident and prepared to take on the rest of the
world, guided by the national motto Malaysia can do while being urged not to
forsake their culture. As a result, culture has emerged as an important commodity in
Malaysia. The notion that culture determines achievement was very much advocated.
Gomes (1999) elucidated that the obsession with culture and morality could be seen as
an attempt to arrest the decline in morality and Asian values stemming from the
countrys rapid industrialisation and the growing influence of Western cultures.
Although there is a convergence in the way HRM is being practised, national
particularities persist. Mahathir Mohamed played a pivotal role in introducing the
Look East Policy in 1981 to re-orient Malaysia to Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese
models of economic and socio-cultural development. The reason for this was to move
away from being dependant on Western practices and policies. It seems that Western
practices may not be ideal in a multicultural setting and in a mainly Muslim society.
Thus, many of the countrys developments were assigned to firms from Asian
countries which may be more alike to the Malaysians, in the hope that they would
provide training for the local Malaysians. Additionally, the government tried to instil
the values of thrift, hard work and high productivity from these countries into the
Malaysian workforce (Kheng 1999). In doing so, the government attempted to
incorporate formal Islamic principles into government policies and the private sector
by measures such as the creation of the Islamic Bank.

74

3.4 Human Resource Management in Malaysia

The importance of HRM as a competitive advantage has long been embraced by
organisations in the West. However, in many South East Asian countries, the value of
HRM for competitive advantage has yet to be observed. In the case of Malaysia, the
history of human resource development is still unclear due to the lack of empirical
evidence. In fact, the relationship between HR practices and organisational
performance in Malaysia has mostly been published only recently (Lo et al. 2009;
Osman et al. 2011; Abdullah et al. 2009; Yahya & Goh 2002). This is due to the fact
that people management practices in Malaysia were characterised as being more
personnel management than HRM, so that recognition and development of the HRM
concept by Malaysian companies was rather slow and cautious (Rowley & AbdulRahman 2007). This is particularly true for the locally-owned companies operating in
Malaysia. However, Malaysian managers, along with the government, have come to
realise that HRM is crucial in bringing about organisational change, stability and
harmony (Cheah-Liaw et al. 2003). Essentially, Malaysia can no longer compete on
the basis of low labour costs, as other Asian economies such as China are competing
more efficaciously on this basis (Rowley & Abdul-Rahman 2007). Hence, a focus on
developing human resources and HRM programs is warranted.
The importance of HRM in Malaysia was first realised when the government of
Malaysia introduced human resource development strategies in the Sixth Malaysia
Plan in 1991. It was not until the 1990s that some organisations began to re-assess their
corporate vision and mission in favour of regarding people as assets. The changes in
the perception of HR as an important aspect of a countrys development were further
illustrated in the establishment of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Act in
1992, which later initiated the HRD Council (Rowley & Abdul-Rahman 2007). The
Council was responsible for coordinating and developing HRD programs, particularly
for the private sector. The Act introduced the Human Resource Development Fund
which requires employers in the manufacturing and services sectors to contribute the
equivalent of 1% of their payroll to the Human Resource Development Fund (Zin et al.
2002; Zin & Smith 2005). This contribution is used to subsidise the training expenses
of the contributing firms. Such investments are an integral part of HR development and
the recognition of human resources as an asset to organisations.
75

Due to the historical links between the UK and Malaysia and the influence of British
policy, most Malaysian organisational practices reflect those used in the UK (GouldWilliams & Mohamed 2010). Chew (2005), in his study of personal care companies in
Malaysia, claimed that HR practices in Malaysia are an artefact of both indigenous and
Westernised practices dating back to British colonisation in the 19th century.This
milieu of cultural and value pluralism of people management exhibits a number of
distinctive features in the Malaysian business environment regulatory policies (Mellahi
& Wood 2004b). The pressure along neoliberal lines exhibits a number of distinctive
features of HRM which include targeted affirmative action policies, paternalism (at
both governmental and firm levels) and active state efforts to promote the
competitiveness of selected areas of industry (Mellahi & Wood 2004b).
The Asian 1997 financial crisis had a fundamental impact on management practices in
Malaysia, one of which was the introduction of hard HRM measures such as
retrenchment (Zhu et al. 2007). New technology and advanced automation systems,
along with restructuring, have required changes in the employment arrangement.
Short-term fixed contract systems were adopted and reward systems were linked with
outcomes of performance. Group-based and individual-based performance systems
were adopted, in contrast to the traditional seniority-based system. Performance-based
pay systems were reinforced by an increase in performance-based promotion. Training
employees in new competencies was aided by restructuring to flatter structures, teambased design and professional development through comprehensive training (Rowley
& Benson 2003). According to Zhu and colleagues (2007), although hard HRM
emerged, the soft part of HRM was maintained in accordance with key aspects of
Malaysian cultural and value systems. An example is the practice of managerial
concern in helping employees and employee compliance with new managerial
measures. This form of paternalistic behaviour by management is deep-rooted in the
Asian culture (Aycan 2006). An important question to address is what form of HR
work systems would be most effective in this Malaysian context, specifically in the
financial sector under study.
As mentioned in Chapter 2, the field of HRM often emphasises that cultural issues
have a dominant role in shaping HR practices in different countries. Yet the issue of
76

religiosity did not emerge until recently. The recent past has witnessed increased
interest in Western nations concerning the Islamic world (Branine & Pollard 2010).
There is a renewed interest in the business and management processes in Islamic
countries. However, in the wake of the financial crisis, most of the focus is on
developing Islamic economies and Islamic banking. Due to this, there is very little
creditable empirical research that has explored HRM practices and employees
behaviour in relation to religiosity. Hashim (2010), in her study of organisations in
Malaysia, revealed that the Islamic approach to HRM is frequently practised in all the
HRM functions. The findings also provided evidence that the Islamic approach to
HRM increases the level of commitment among employees. If religiosity is important
to the Malay Muslims, then the adoption of the best practices of Western HRM may
not be suitable in the Malaysian setting, as they neglect this issue.
In terms of labour trends, there is a reasonably fluid market in Malaysia, and employee
turnover has been found to be very high due to the tight labour market (Chew & Tan
1999; Smith 1983). The patterns of job mobility in the Malaysian labour market are
also remarkably similar to those in Western developed countries (Smith 1990).
According to a study by Smith (1990), labour market turnover in Malaysia peaks early
in a career (between 5 and 10 years of experience). Hence, most employers are
somewhat reluctant to train workers, knowing full well that employees will not stay in
their organisation. The case is very different in a country like Japan, where lifetime
employment prevails, and thus it makes sense to train workers since they do not job
hop. In Malaysia, it appears that many employers resort to labour poaching to
acquire new employees, so much so that employees are expected to be tolerant to job
mobility. Chew and Tan (1999) claimed that it makes economic sense to have some
other organisation train the employee and bear the risk of the loss of the investment in
employee training, while they pay a premium to the employee without incurring the
risk of loss. It would seem that in such conditions, market failure in skills training is
unavoidable. If all employers waited for each other to have their workers trained, then
the level of training in the industry would grow at a slow rate. Employers would be
reluctant to invest in comprehensive training due to concerns of losing highly skilled
and trained employees to another organisation.

77

3.5 The Financial Sector

Malaysias rich history of financial sector reforms provides an interesting context for
this research. Since the 1970s, a series of financial restructuring programs aimed at
improving the financial system has been launched. Financial development in terms of
the emergence of more financial institutions and financial instruments has improved
tremendously (Ang 2009). After the Asian financial crisis of 199798, a series of
macro-economic policy responses such as capital controls, reflationary policy and
restructuring of the banking sectors took place (Ang & McKibbin 2007).
Services provided by the financial sector are essential drivers for innovation and
growth, and make an important contribution to the Malaysian GDP (Tham & Loke
2012). Four service subsectors made the largest contribution to GDP in 2009: (1)
finance, insurance, real estate and business services; (2) wholesale/retail trade and
hotels and restaurants; (3) transport, storage and communications; and (4) government
services. The financial sector, however, has grown substantially over the past 30 years,
from around 20 percent in the 1970s to over 30 per cent recently, making it now the
largest contributor to total services (Tham & Loke 2012).
Fundamental shifts are taking place in the Malaysian financial industry, driven by
changes in both supply and demand. The supply side is influenced by the
internationalisation of local banks, the increasing legitimacy of capital markets and
radical deregulation. In contrast, the demand side changes are influenced by the
expansion of middle-class society, rapid economic growth and the rise of consumerism
(Foyston & Almeida 1992). Figure 3.2 demonstrates the evolution of the Malaysian
financial sector from 1997 to 2011.

78

Figure 3.2: Evolution of the Malaysian financial sector

1997

2011

Pre-Asian Financial
Crisis

Key Achievements

Fragmented banking
system with 71
domestic banking
institutions
Less developed bond
market
Over-reliance by
corporations on the
banking system for
financing
Lack of effective risk
management and
corporate
governance
Rigid and prescriptive
rule-based regulation
and supervision
Limited prominence
of Islamic finance
Rigid price
mechanisms
Gaps in access to
financing

Consolidation & rationalisation of banking

industry (9 domestic banking groups and
rationalisation within groups)
Diversified financial sector with a deep and liquid
debt securities market
Strengthened corporate governance and risk
management practices
Strategic alliances with foreign institutions
Efficient delivery channels for financial products
& services
Enhanced outreach of financial services
Robust regulatory, supervisory and surveillance
frameworks
Comprehensive mechanisms for consumer
education & protection
Malaysia as an international Islamic financial hub
Enhanced access to financing especially for SMEs
and micro-enterprises
Greater market orientation
Greater regional cooperation

Source: Central Bank of Malaysia (2011)

The countrys Central Bank (Bank Negara Malaysia) was formed in 1959 to promote
monetary stability and financial stability conducive to the sustainable growth of the
Malaysian economy (Meow-Chung & Kwek 2012). The Central Banks regulatory
authority extends to the countrys financial institutions, comprising banking and nonbanking financial institutions. The banking institutions include the commercial banks,
finance companies, Islamic banks, merchant banks and money market institutions. The
non-banking financial institutions include development finance institutions, provident
and pension funds, insurance companies, savings institutions and a group of other
financial intermediaries (Table 3.1).

79

Table 3.1: Major financial institutions and the workforce

Number of institutions
Banking institutions
Commercial banks
Investment banks
Islamic banks

2008

2009

2010

2011

22
15
17

22
15
17

23
15
17

25
15
16

Non-banking institutions
Insurance companies
Development finance institutions
Number of employees
Banking institutions
Commercial banks
Investment banks
Islamic banks

42
n.a.

40
13

39
13

37
13

99,593
8,561
6,702

98,846
8,129
7,829

103,089
8,972
7,829

105,887
9,505
9,233

Non-banking institutions
Insurance institutions
Development finance institutions

24,152
n.a.

23,449
n.a.

24,233
17,565

25,496
18,023

Source: Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report, Central Bank of Malaysia
(2011)

3.6 High-performance Plans and the Role of the Central Bank

The central bank launched a Financial Sector Master plan in 2001 to revamp the
finance sector following the Asian Financial Crisis. The master plan calls for emphasis
on Islamic banking, of which Malaysia has become a centre. In 2011, a new 10-year
Financial Sector Blueprint was established to reinforce the governments initiatives to
drive Malaysia to become a fully developed nation. The financial sector has a key role
in spurring new areas of growth and facilitating economic transformation (Ministry of
Finance 2012). This 10-year Blueprint is a strategic plan that charts the future direction
of the financial system as Malaysia moves towards a high-value-added, high-income
economy. Part of this high-value-added economy is a focus on human resource
development and engendering talent. The quality and productivity of the workforce
represents an essential element in the development of a dynamic financial system.
Thus comprehensive education, learning and training programs have resulted in
different platforms tomeet the diverse needs of financial services professionals at
varying stages (Figure 3.3). The 10th Malaysian Plan (RMKe-10) in 2011 charted the

80

increment in talented and knowledgeable employees in Malaysia from 28% in 2011 to

33% in 2015 and 50% in 2020.

Figure 3.3: Human resource development and enrichment

Source: Financial Sector Blueprint, Central Bank of Malaysia (2011)

In the pursuit to reach the status of a developed country by the year 2020, the
Malaysian government has put much emphasis on retraining and upgrading the skills
of the workforce. This emphasis is essential to increase the intensity of knowledge of
employees and to equip them with up-to-date skills as work techniques become
81

progressively automated and business increasingly competitive. Retraining and

upgrading of skills are also of paramount importance in enhancing the ability of the
workforce to adapt to the changing business environment (Financial Sector Blueprint
2011). In 1993, the government implemented the Human Resources Development Act
1992, which led to the establishment of the Human Resources Development Fund
(HRDF). This fund is administered by the Human Resource Development Council
(HRDC), which is now known as Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad (PSMB).
According to a study of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries
conducted by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand
(2007), the rate of adoption of HPWP tends to be higher in more developed economies.
This is reflected in the presence of factors that favour the use of HPWP in a firm such
as a highly educated workforce, high use of technology, managers high educational
level, corporate rather than family ownership, multinational presence and larger firms.
Many of the Asian countries studied (Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand) actively
promote the notion of HPWP. For the most part, the main objective is to increase
employee productivity by raising employee skill levels and motivating and engaging
workers more effectively. Like other Asian countries, these nations may be under great
pressure to catch up because of being latecomers as global economic players and thus
are more ready to accept HR practices as a progressive given and adapt accordingly
(Cooke & Saini 2010b). Essentially, the Malaysian government also hopes to raise
socio-cultural and economic development by adopting the high-performance road in its
practice.
In Malaysia, the strategic challenges that Malaysian leaders face are how to maintain
organisational growth and renewal and pursue excellence, and how to best prepare for
the next millennium within the context of its people a multiracial and multi-religious
society (Yeoh 1998). The Financial Sector Blueprint clearly plans to transform
financial institutions by using a high-commitment high-performance program for
enhancing organisational performance to respond to market pressure. Nevertheless, as
mentioned in the Introduction to this thesis, a major question is whether the HRM
concepts that are applied in the Western countries are applicable in Malaysia. And to
what extent are the concepts in the Malaysian context similar to or different from those
82

prescribed in the existing job engagement model? The cultural perspective suggests
that, as each culture is relatively unique, it may require specific understanding to
identify appropriate HRM concepts. To date, there is no published research, at least in
the Web of Knowledge, in regard to the outcomes or issues arising when adopting
HPWP in Malaysia. While the Malaysian government appears to be fully cognisant of
the need for the execution of high performing entities, the success of the
implementation of the program is not so apparent. This study attempts to identify how
the high road plan is essentially executed in Malaysian firms, specifically within the
scope of this study, the financial sector. Thus, the question remains: for all the hype, is
adopting HPWP providing successful outcomes in Malaysia?

3.7 The Role of Trade Unions in Malaysia: a Formal Grievance

System
The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) is the national trade union centre in
Malaysia and was formed in 1949. Trade unions first emerged in the 1920s when the
Communist Party of Malaya encouraged unskilled workers to unionise (Baker &
McKenzie 1993). Both employers and employees have the right to form unions but
each union must consists of only employees or only employers and not both. The
current legislative instruments regulating trade union activities in Malaysia are the
Trade Unions Act 1959 and the Industrial Relations Act 1967, where the former
regulates trade union activities and the latter regulates employer-union relations.
The legal and institutional environment in Malaysia is not favourable to the
development of a strong trade union movement (Che Rose et al. 2010; Wad & Jomo
2013). In the Western setting, industrialisation did not take place under State direction
or patronage but in a laissez-faire setting. However, as in Singapore, Taiwan and
Korea, all unions in Malaysia have to be registered, which enables the government to
weed out unwanted unions and unionists (Chew & Tan 1999). In some cases, the
government has encouraged (some may say created) unions which the government
could control (De Silva 1998). This is often reflected in the right retained by many
Asian governments (e.g., Malaysia and Singapore) to intervene in collective
bargaining, in the restrictions imposed on bargainable issues, and in the right to
intervene in disputes through the arbitration process. Unions that are affiliates of the

83

apex federation are also required to have the approval of the government. This is done
to ensure that the state exercises control over the growth and character of the labour
movement. Chew and Tan (1999) further noted that Malaysias industrial relations
regime has been employer-driven in the sense that laws controlling unions activities
have been stringent. Generally, the government has officially encouraged in house or
enterprise unions rather than national unions (Ramasamy & Rowley 2011).
However, the pertinent aspect to acknowledge here is that a union only protects
employees in lower-level management, such as clerical staff and related employees,
and officers. A study by Peetz and Todd (2001) on unions in Malaysian banking found
that professional employees such as executives in the financial sector are not
unionised. Thus during the 1998 financial crisis, many non-unionised employees at
executive level received no bonus while all other clerical staff and officers in the
National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) and Association of Bank Officers
(ABOM) received a two-month bonus, because it had been guaranteed in the collective
agreement.

3.8 Religiosity and its Role in Malaysia

Given the fact that the majority of the population is Muslim Malays (Figure 3.4), Islam
has been the most important factor in Malay identity as a source of solidarity and a
form of ethnic differentiation from non-Malays (Gomes 1999). The prevalent Islamic
faith can be observed particularly by the rapid increase of Islamic places of worship,
the establishment of Islamic laws to replace the secular legal system, the inclusion of
Islamic teaching in schools and universities, and the attention given to youth groups
that are based on Islamic values. It is these values that form individual identity at work
and how work is perceived.

84

Figure 3.4: Religions in Malaysia

Religions in Malaysia
6.3%

3.4%

Islam

9.2%

19.8%

Buddhism
61.3%

Christianity
Hinduism
Others (Confucianism, Taoism,
no religion)

Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia (2012)

The potential association between religious beliefs, management practices and
organisational outcomes has been clearly ignored in mainstream management research
(Mellahi & Budhwar 2010). The facts that the majority of the population in Malaysia
are Muslims and Islam is the national religion may provide significant evidence as to
how religiosity may play a role in individual behaviour at work. Islam, an Arabic
word, means submission to the will of God in all aspects of life. In Islam, human
resource development refers to the development of both spiritual and human virtues
(Alam & Muzahid 2006). Striving to meet both types of virtues is seen as an obligation
of every individual. The term Islamism is frequently used for the ideology of political
Islam (Chernov-Hwang 2009). Islamism strives for a larger role for Islam in the
government, economy and society of a Muslim country such as Malaysia. The policies
advocated by the government aim to make the country more reflective of Islamic
values (Table 3.2). Unlike Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Yemen and
Bangladesh, which have experienced high uncertainty and destabilisation (ChernovHwang 2009), Malaysia has experienced stable and peaceful Islamic engagements. The
fact that Malaysia has a long history of peaceful activities coexisting with the peaceful
proliferation of Islamic activities has influenced the institutionalisation of the finance
sector. Indeed, a Muslim state can and does influence through its policies and
institutions the behaviour of its human resources.

85

Table 3.2: Malaysian government Islamisation policies

Year
policy
enacted
1974
1975
1978
1979
1981
1983
1983
1983
1984
1984
1988
1992
1995
1996
1997
2000
2000
2001
2002
2004
2005
2010

Details of policy
Government establishes Islamic Center to coordinate all national Islamic
activities
Ministry of Education increases the budget for training of Islamic school
teachers
Government declares plan to revise the national legal system to bring it
more in line with sharia (Islamic law)
Government announces plan to establish the Southeast Asian Islamic
Research Center
Government introduces compulsory course for Muslim university
students on Islamic civilisations
Government employees must attend courses on Islamic law, irrespective
of their faith
Islamic bank is established
Islamic insurance (Syarikat Takaful) company is established
Islamic Development Foundation is established
Official declaration of Islamisation of Government Machinery
Program is initiated to build Islamic villages in cities throughout
Malaysia
Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM) is established
Securities Commission establishesthe Department for Islamic Capital
Markets
Islamic law (sharia) Advisory Council established for the Department of
Capital Markets
Government makes Islamic Civilisation course compulsory for students
of all religions
Government increases monitoring at Friday sermons and mosques
Government proposes to standardise school religious curriculum
Finance minister launches plan to make Malaysia a hub for Islamic
capital market activities
Islamic Financial Services board to set international standards to ensure
the soundess and stability of the Islamic banking and insurance
industries and the Islamic capital market
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi conceptualises Islam Hadari as Islam
that is consistent with pluralism and democracy
Malaysia becomes the first jurisdiction in the world to put in place a
shariah-compliant (Islamic law compliant) deposit insurance scheme
Malaysia is closely involved in the establishment of the International
Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (modelled on the
International Monetary Fund) to address liquidity issues in the
international Islamic financial industry and facilitate the flow of Islamic
financial services
Source: Adapted and expanded from Chernov-Hwang (2009)

86

The religious as well as the cultural background of Malaysia may play an important
part in the interplay between HR practices and employee engagement. Since the
majority of the population are Muslim, most work values are underpinned by Islamic
concepts based on the Quran (Al Habshi & Ghazali 1994). These ethics advocate work
to give meaning to life and economic activity as an obligation, with dedication to work
a virtue (Yousef 2000). The recent phenomenon of Islam Hadhari (Civilisational
Islam), introduced by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, has contributed to the way
Malaysian organisations are managed (Hashim 2009). The institutionalisation of Islam
began in the 1980s with the introduction of Penerapan Nilai-Nilai Murni (The
Application of Pure Values) as a policy guideline for the incorporation of Islamic
ethics in governance.
This study contends that an employees attitude to work is very much affected by their
religious resources. Within this context, the study intends to show the limitations in
trying to adopt HR practices that have been used successfully elsewhere without
analysing how well they can be predicated in different situations or contexts. Thus, it is
anticipated that this research will produce theoretical and practical insights into
employee engagement in the Malaysian HR context.

3.9 Summary
This chapter has provided a broad overview of the Malaysian environment and cultural
background. It argues that societal context plays a major role in shaping HR practices.
Specifically, religiosity may have a significant effect on the way employees identify
with work and how they are engaged at work. Malaysia, like other Asian nations, has
been striving to adopt Western HR models, particularly in the governments
implementation of high performance. It is questionable whether these models are
appropriate in the Malaysian setting, and the task of this thesis is to examine this issue
in depth.

87

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

_____________________________________________________________________

4.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the research strategies and outlines the techniques used in this
study. The research questions in this thesis require data to be collected through both
qualitative and quantitative methods. Hence, the chapter discusses the mixed method
approach adopted for the study. The chapter is organised in the following manner. It
begins with a consideration of the research paradigm, the mixed method paradigm, and
the rationale for using the mixed method approach. This is followed by the research
context, methods, data analysis techniques and, finally, the ethical considerations.

4.2 Considerations of Research Paradigm

The notion of a paradigm as an all-encompassing framework which shapes peoples
approach to the world has become common since the publication of Kuhns (1962) The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Much of the debate in social science research has
been on the distinction between two dominant paradigms: the positivist, which
advocates the quantative approach, and the constructivist, which advocates the
qualitative approach. A controversy on the incompatibility thesis has raged for over
two decades (Teddlie & Tashakkori 2012). It is thus crucial for the researcher to
determine the appropriate paradigm to adopt in astudy. As Guba and Lincoln (1994)
argued:
Paradigm issues are crucial; no inquirer, we maintain, ought to go about
the business of inquiry without being clear about just what paradigm
informs and guides his or her approach (p. 116).
Tashakkori and Teddlie (2009) defined paradigm as a worldview, together with the
various philosophical assumptions associated with that point of view. Worldview
refers to the way the world is experienced, which is based on beliefs, morals, values
and aesthetics (Morgan 2007). A worldview consists of stances adopted on the
elements of ontology, epistemology, axiology and methodology (Creswell & PlanoClark 2011). Using these dimensions, Creswell and Plano Clark (2011) identified four

88

world views (Table 4.1) which are the worldviews most commonly agreed among
scholars.
Table 4.1: Elements of worldview and implications for practice
Worldview
element
Ontology
(What is the
nature of
reality?)

Postpositivism

Constructivism

Participatory

Pragmatism

Singular reality
(e.g.,
researchers
reject or fail to
reject
hypotheses)

Multiple
realities (e.g.,
researchers
provide quotes
to illustrate
different
perspectives)
Closeness (e.g.,
researchers visit
participants at
their sites to
collect data)

Political reality
(e.g., findings
are negotiated
with
participants)

Singular and
multiple realities
(e.g., researchers
test hypotheses
and provide
multiple
perspectives)
Practicality (e.g.,
researchers
collect data by
what works to
address research
question)

Biased (e.g.,
researchers
actively talk
about their
biases and
interpretations)

Multiple
stances (e.g.,
researchers
include both
biased and
unbiased
perspectives)
Participatory
Combining
(e.g.,
(e.g.,
researchers
researchers
involve
collect both
participants in quantitative and
all stages of the qualitative data
research and
and mix them)
engage in
cyclical
reviews of
results)
Advocacy and Formal and
change (e.g.,
informal (e.g.,
researchers use researchers may
language that
employ both
will help bring formal and
about change
informal styles
and advocate
of writing)
for participants)

Epistemology
(What is the
relationship
between the
researcher and
that being
researched?)
Axiology
(What is the
role of
values?)

Distance and
impartiality
(e.g.,
researchers
objectively
collect data on
instruments)
Unbiased (e.g.,
researchers use
checks to
eliminate bias)

Methodology
(What is the
process of
research?)

Deductive (e.g., Inductive (e.g.,

researchers test researchers start
a priori theory) with
participants
views and build
up to patterns,
theories and
generalisations)

Rhetoric
(What is the
language of
research?)

Formal style
(e.g.,
researchers use
agreed-on
definitions of
variables)

Informal style
(e.g.,
researchers
write in an
informal style)

Collaboration
(e.g.,
researchers
actively
involve
particiapnts as
collaborators)
Negotiated
(e.g.,
researchers
negotiate their
biases with
particiapnts)

Source: Creswell and Plano-Clark (2011)

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Postpositivism is closely identified with quantitative research. Researchers make

claims based on a cause-and-effect rationale, focusing on variables that can be
interrelated, conducting detailed measures of variables, and testing and refining
theories (Slife & Williams 1995). Postpositivists aim to test a theory and describe an
experience through observation and measurement in order to predict a claim. On the
other hand, constructivists or interpretivists are typically associated with qualitative
approaches. The main aim of this paradigm is to understand the world of human
experience, which suggest that reality is socially constructed (Mertens 2009). With this
form of enquiry, researchers find the meaning of a phenomenon through understanding
participants and their subjective views. Participatory worldview, often associated with
qualitative approaches, is influenced by political concerns. Heron and Reason (1997)
claimed that the fundamental quality of participatory worldview is that it is selfreflexive. It allows a human to know that everyone is a part of the whole rather than
separated, and to join others in collaborative forms of enquiry. The fourth worldview,
pragmatism, emphasises the consequences of research and is pluralistic in nature. The
pragmatic approach relies on abductive reasoning that moves back and forth between
induction and deduction (Morgan 2007) (Table 4.2). Pragmatists also use an
intersubjective approach, which captures the components of both subjectivity and
objectivity. Further, researchers with this view advocate the concept of transferability
and ask whether something that is learned in one context can be applied in another.

Table 4.2: A pragmatic alternative to the key issues in social science research
methodology

Connection of theory and data

Relationship to research
process
Inference from data

Qualitative
approach
Induction
Subjectivity

Quantitative
approach
Deduction
Objectivity

Pragmatic
approach
Abduction
Intersubjectivity

Context

Generality

Transferability

Source: Morgan (2007)

Strong supporters of the metaphysical paradigm such as Lincoln et al. (2011) have
explicitly stated that they have no objection to combining methods as long as there is
no attempt to combine paradigms. Embracing the single paradigm approach, as
advocated by Morgan (2007), Teddlie and Tashakkori (2012) and Creswell and PlanoClark (2011), and having understood the nature of each paradigm, the study adopts the
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pragmatism model with the mixed method approach. The choice of the mixed method
is driven by the questions that the researcher seeks to answer rather than arising from a
particular philosophical assumption. The pragmatic paradigm places the research
problem at the centre and applies all approaches to understanding the problem
(Creswell 2003). Researchers adopting this approach are encouraged to focus on the
what and the how of the research problem. The growth of mixed methods research
has been accompanied by a debate over the rationale for combining what was
previously regarded as incompatible methodologies. It seems that the paradigm war
has waned (Patton 2002), and there is a reconciliation between both methodological
communities where a mixed method approach is advocated (Tashakkori & Teddlie
2010).

4.3 The Mixed Method Paradigm

The conceptual interest in mixed method approaches to social inquiry has develop
dramatically over the last 20 years (Greene 2008) and the number of scholars
embracing it continues to expand (Tashakkori 2009). A resolution was found during
the 1990s where it was acceptable to mix qualitative and quantitative methods in
research (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2009). The ontological and epistemological positions
of researchers, whether implicit or explicit, generally influence the ways in which they
approach and craft their research. At the outset, researchers are confronted with two
broad streams of research designs quantitative and qualitative that they may
implement to uncover the intricacies that lie beneath a given phenomenon (Glaser &
Strauss 1967). It has been argued that the corroboration of findings revealed by one
method by findings based on another method can produce more comprehensive and
valid findings and meaningful answers to research questions (Greene 2006).
Quantitative methodology is generally associated with the positivist approach to social
phenomena, which demonstrates a concern with causal inferences based on statistical
associations. In order to proceed with research that is informed by this particular strand
of epistemology, quantitative-oriented researchers are encouraged to exploit the
potentialities of social observation in order to gain an inside view (Reiss 1971). Both
approaches are legitimate ways of understanding the world and thus can be integrated
(Haase & Myers 1988; Tashakkori & Teddlie 2009).

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Mixed method research allows for additional insights and understanding that might be
neglected when only a single method is used, and thus it produces the more complete
knowledge necessary to inform theory and practice (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004).
There are four purposes for mixed method research as identified by Greene, Caracelli
and Graham (1989): (1) triangulation (convergence and corroboration of findings from
different methods), (2) complementarity (elaboration, enhancement or clarification of
the findings from one method with the findings from the other method), (3)
development (results from one method help to develop or inform the use of the other
method) and (4) expansion (extending the breadth and range of enquiry by using
different methods for different enquiry components). The disposition of this study is to
triangulate and complement the qualitative and the quantitative findings. By
triangulating, the study increases the validity of constructs and enquiry results by
reducing the inherent method bias. Complementarity seeks elaboration of the results
from one method with the results from the other method, and this increases the
interpretability, meaningfulness and validity of results by capitalising on method
strengths.
Henry, Julnes and Mark (1998) went a step further by developing an emergent realist
paradigm which reflects those of the pragmatist paradigm. The emergent realists have
a tendency to think that whatever we believe now is only an approximation of reality
and that every new observation brings us closer to understanding reality (Blackburn
2005). Realism is plural with respect to methodologies and theories and, therefore,
offers a good platform from which to embark on integrated mixed-method research
(Olsen 2004). Althought this perspective is still relatively uncommon, except in
Europe (Creswell & Plano-Clark 2011), the similarity of its approach to that of the
pragmatists should be noted. Generally, it can be reasoned that in social science, mixed
method research is becoming increasingly articulated and attached to research practice,
and has been recognised as the third major research paradigm in conducting research
(Campbell & Fiske 1998; Olsen 2004). In attempting to answer the research questions
that have been formulated, this study adopts a mixed method research design, which
involves surveys and interviews. Following is a discussion of the epistemological
considerations that justify the use of the adopted approach.

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4.4 Epistemological Stance: Rationale for Using a Mixed Method

Approach
The central premise of a mixed method study is that the use of qualitative and
quantitative approaches within a study may offer a better understanding of a complex
phenomenon than either approach alone provides. Embracing the thesis of
complementary strengths as advocated by many scholars (Bryman 2003; Duffy 2007;
Olsen 2004), this study established two goals: (1) to explore and understand the
process by which employee engagement emerges using the qualitative method and (2)
to determine whether there are any associations between the predicted variables
demonstrated by the quantitative analysis. Consequently, the study used both
quantitative and qualitative techiques to access different facets of the same social
phenomenon.
Several contributions are made by employing these different techniques. They were
adopted to overcome the limitations of previous engagement studies that focused
solely on the quantitative method; to extend theory and practice to the strategic
management field; to significantly enhance the interpretation of the findings by
corroborating data from both methods; to increase the validity of the data; to take the
context of Malaysia into consideration; and to explore and test the different research
questions of this study.
First, employee engagement studies have been predominantly quantitative in nature.
This prevalence is reflected in the number of empirical articles using a quantitative
approach (Table 2.3 in Chapter 2). There has been little use of the qualitative method
to explore employee engagement. With the exception of Kahns (1990) seminal
qualitative study of summer camp counsellors and architecture firm employees and a
few other studies, most research has been conducted on the basis of predicted
relationships, i.e., it has been quantitative in nature. In order to contribute to the
understanding of employee engagement, this study adds the qualitative approach by
connecting with participants in the field to obtain inside views as to how they view
engagement at work. Thus, while the quantitative survey allows for the confirmation of
previous studies findings on employee engagement, the qualitative research allows for

93

the identification of emergent factors that may not have been discovered in previous
employee engagement studies.
Second, in relation to the strategic management field, Barr (2004) indicated that
although the use of the qualitative method in strategy research has lagged significantly
in comparison to quantitative approaches, significant contributions to strategy theory
and practice have been derived from qualitative studies. In regard to this, the study
attempts to bridge the chasm and explore the factors that may or may not affect
engagement by conducting not only a quantitative survey but also qualitative
interviews. The rather open and subjective nature of the questions in the semistructured interviews enables an in-depth comprehension of the HR practices and
leadership behaviour in these organisations which could not be obtained solely through
the use of a structured survey questionnaire.
Third, the mixed method is adopted to enhance the interpretation of the findings. Data
from both the qualitative and the quantitative analyses are corroborated with the hope
of presenting more comprehensive findings and a more insightful understanding of the
underlying phenomena. The central premise is that both methods may provide a better
consideration of the research problems than either approach alone provides (Creswell
& Plano-Clark 2011; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004).
Fourth, using mixed methods in this study may increased the confidence and validity
of the results. Stronger inferences can be made when both studies complement each
other. In the case where there are unexpected results, each set of data can provide an
extension or explanation as to why the phenomenon under study is significant or
irrelevant.
Fifth, Malaysia, with its multi-ethnic and religious identity, creates a unique and
complex context. Malaysia as a unique developing country calls for a methodology
that is holistic, reflexive and rigorous at the same time in order to understand reality.
Thus, a reflexive qualitative study and an investigative quantitative study are crucial in
searching for reality, particularly in a context where not much research has been
published.
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Finally, and most importantly, mixed method study was adopted to explore and test the
different research questions proposed in this study. The first research question relates
to how engagement occurs or emerges at work and this required a qualitative approach.
Investigating the predicted relationships between employee engagement and leadership
behaviour, high-performance work practices and religiosity required a quantitative
approach. According to Molina-Azorin (2007), from a resource-based view, the mixed
method approach is considered rare, valuable and difficult to imitate. The expectation
of this study is that, by utilising both methods, it may contribute to existing theory and
research, and make a valuable justification of employee engagement research.

4.5 Research Design Method

In designing a mixed method study, Molina-Azorin (2007) and Morse (2003) pinpoint
two factors: priority and implementation of data collection (Table 4.3). Priority refers
to the emphasis the researcher puts on the methods chosen for the study, which can be
equivalent status or the domination of one method. In terms of priority, the thesis gives
equal priority to both the qualitative (QUAL) and quantitative (QUAN) studies. Both
methods were used equally for understanding the phenomenon under study.
Implementation refers to the sequence used for collecting qualitative and quantitative
data. The data for this study were gathered at the same time, using a concurrent
triangulation design.

Table 4.3: Types of mixed-method designs

Equal
PRIORITY
Different

IMPLEMENTATION
Simultaneous
Sequential
QUAL QUAN
QUAL + QUAN
QUAN QUAL
qual QUAN
QUAL + quan
QUAL quan
QUAN + qual
quan QUAL
QUAN qual

Source: Molina-Azorin (2007)

Note: The dominant method appears in uppercase letters (QUAN, QUAL); the
complementary method is in lowercase (quan, qual).

95

Concurrent design allows researchers to triangulate the results from the separate
QUAN and QUAL components of the research, thereby allowing them to confirm,
cross-validate and corroborate findings within a single study (Creswell &Plano-Clark
2011). The quantitative survey took longer to process due to the difficulty in reaching
the required sample size (refer to Section 4.8.3 for an acceptable sample size). The
interviews took three months to complete and the survey took six months to complete.
However, while in actuality one research method may yield more dominant results
than the other, both methods were treated equally (Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1: Research methodology

Identify research
gaps
Gather facts and evidence
(Literature review)

Formulate research
Questions
Develop hypotheses
& methodology

Data collection
(Interviews)

Data collection
(Survey)

Analyse & evaluate

results

Analyse & evaluate

results

Triangulations &
theoretical
implications

Source: Authors construct

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4.6 Research Context

4.6.1 Target population
The unit of analysis in the study is professional employees working in financial
institutions in Malaysia. Financial institution refers to an individual organisation in
the financial industry such as the central bank, a commercial bank or an insurance
company (Tobin & Brainard 1963). There are a number of reasons for choosing the
financial sector for this study. First, in the context of development, the financial sector
has become an important pillar of strengh in the economy of Malaysia. As elaborated
in Chapter 3, the financial sector is one of the largest contributors to GDP in the
services sector, making an 11.8 per cent contribution in 2011 (Economic Report,
Ministry of Finance, Malaysia 2012). Second, the labour force in the financial sector
has grown. According to the Malaysian Economic Report (2012),the financial sector is
the source of employment for about 7 per cent of the workforce. This places the
financial sector among the four major sectors, which absorb close to 60 per cent of the
countrys workforce.
Researchers may be more likely to measure intended HR practices when HR
representatives are surveyed and more likely to measure actual HR practices when
employees are surveyed (Kinnie et al. 2006). Further, Kanter (1982) strongly
advocated the need to recognise the increased importance of middle management. The
roles and influence of middle managers have been studied in many areas such as
innovation (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995), strategy implementation (Huy 2002) and
strategy-making processes (Currie & Procter 2005). Despite their potential influence,
middle management employees in Malaysia have received little attention. In this study,
professional middle-management employees in the financial sector were selected for
participation in this research. Employees in professional roles (R&D executives and
managers, and banking and sales executives, among others) were chosen so that the
survey sample would reflect a broad range of responsiblities to assist in the
generalisation of results to other professionals although with caution. Additionally,
in 2005, the government introduced the High Performance Plan, which aimed to
enhance leadership roles and high-performing entities, and that set an appropriate
context for the aims of this research (Marsden 2008).
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Additionally, considerable evidence has shown that HRM practices vary systematically
according to an organisations size. Thus, only organisations consisting of more than
1000 employees were included in the study. This is because larger organisations are
more likely than smaller ones to adopt participative work practices (Lawler 1992),
intensive training and development procedures (Jackson, Schuler & Rivero 2006) and
a highly developed internal labour market (Baron, Davis-Blake & Bielby 1986), all of
which suit the context of this study.

4.6.2 Malaysia in context

As mentioned in the Introduction, past research on employee engagement has been
conducted primarily in the United States and European countries (Bakker, Demerouti
& Schaufeli 2005; Demerouti, Bakker, De Jonge, Janssen & Schaufeli 2001;
Montgomery et al. 2003; Seppala et al. 2009). Conducting a study in Malaysia would
contribute to the breadth of research in employee engagement and increase the
applicability of the construct. The sample for this study was drawn from three of
Malaysias major urban areas: Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Ipoh, as shown on the
map below (Figure 4.2). The selection of locations is based on important factors. First,
all three locations are well-developed urban areas where the financial sector plays a
prominent role. All three locations are deemed cities by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
(Sultan) of Malaysia. The requirements for a place to be named a city include having a
centre of business and industrialisation and having strong financial institutions (Local
Government Act 171 1976). Secondly, in terms of population distribution, these three
locations are among the most saturated ones and are acknowledged as three of the
largest cities in Malaysia (Department of Statistics, Malaysia 2012). The third motive
for choosing Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Ipoh was the large labour force in the
financial sector in each location: 47,600, 26,200 and 14,900 employees respectively
(Department of Statistics, Malaysia 2012). This large labour force is reflected in the
high number of financial institutions and insurance agencies which are concentrated in
these locations. The fieldwork took place in 2011.

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Figure 4.2: Study sites

Study site 1: Ipoh

Study site 2:
Kuala Lumpur

Study site 3:
Johor Bahru

Source: CIA World Factbook (2012)

4.7 Study 1: Qualitative Study

This section elaborates on the adoption of the qualitative method to explore an
employees work experience by the administration of a semi-structured interview.
Semi-structured interviews were adopted in this study as a means to get closer to the
subjects and see the world from their perspectives. Open-ended questions were used to
reduce the amount of tainting or leading the interviewee in a particular direction. This
allows each interviewee to tell their story in their own words without bias from the
researcher. Employees interpretations of their experiences at work should provide the
rich form of data that is relevant for this research. The qualitative approach
complements the quantitative insofar as it allows for in-depth insights into the process
through which associations involving employee engagement emerge. The aim of the
qualitative component of this research is to answer the following research questions,
which were introduced in Chapter 2:

99

What form of empowering leadership plays a significant role in engaging

employees at work and how does it occur?

Do high-performance work practices exist in Malaysian organisations? If so,

how have they impacted on the level of employee engagement?

What is the relative importance of religiosity in relation to the level of

engagement at work in this Malaysian context?

According to Hatch (2002), most qualitative study is rooted in the principles of

phenomenology. The philosophy of phenomenology focuses on subjective human
experiences and descriptions of meaning (Polkinghorne 1989). An important challenge
for a researcher conducting a qualitative enquiry is that they must possess the ability to
withhold previously preconceived ideas or stereotypes about the phenomenon under
study, and yet simultaneously remain reflective, fully present and engaged (Moustakas
1994). Essentially, the subjective meanings of experiences are not simply imprinted on
individuals but are formed through interaction with others (Creswell 2007, 2012). The
phenomenon of employee engagement fits well into this model since it is through the
interactions of participants in the workplace between colleagues as well as with
leaders that individuals have developed their views and sentiments about the
phenomenon under study. The sections that follow describe the sampling strategy, the
instrument utilised, the pilot study, the data collection procedures, the evaluation of
validity and reliability of the interviews, and data analysis procedures.

4.7.1 Sampling strategy

Purposive sampling is used in Study 1 to increase the transferability of the data.
Transferability refers to the generalisability of results from a specific sending context
in a qualitative study to another specific receiving context (Tashakkori & Teddlie
1998, 2008). The purpose is to select a small number of cases that will yield the most
information about a particular phenomenon, yielding a greater depth of information
from the carefully selected cases (Patton 2002). An appropriate sample size should
generate enough data for a qualitative study (Auerbach & Silverstein 2003). According
to Strauss and Corbin (1998), theoretical saturation occurs when the relationships
100

among categories are well established and validated, and no relevant data seem to
emerge regarding the variables. The total number of participants interviewed was
forty-one employees. Although saturation of data was found by the twenty-fifth
interview, further interviews were conducted to validate the data. Thus, although no
significant new concepts emerged after twenty-five participants had been interviewed,
sixteen additional interviews were conducted to add weight to the concepts and
provide stronger references to the emerging themes.
The participants were recruited using two means: random sampling and snowballing.
A simple random sample is one in which each unit in the accessible population has an
equal chance of being included in the sample, and the probablity of a unit being
selected is not affected by the selection of other units from the accessible population
(Tashakkori & Teddlie 2009). The research started with an e-mail list from the Central
Bank of Malaysia which provided a list of all the organisations in the financial sector:
banking and insurance. Each of the organisations listed was contacted by e-mail and
those that replied were further probed for the contact references of middle managers.
Each of the middle managers interviewed also provided further contacts; hence, the
use of the snowballing technique. Although the initial plan was to interview employees
in all three locations, as had been done with Study 2, no one from Ipoh agreed to be
interviewed. Most of the participants were from Kuala Lumpur (35 participants) and
the rest from Johor Bahru (6 participants).
This study acknowledges the potential difficulty of securing responses. Based on
evidence emerging from experience in many countries, the non-response rate to an
interview request seem to have risen over time (Smith 2007; Hansen 2007).
Unfortunately, very low response rates also seem to correspond with South East Asian
countries (Harzing 2000). One approach to resolving this problem and increasing the
response rate is to provide incentives (Singer & Couper 2008). Incentives are
particularly important in gaining responses in the Malaysian culture (Wirakusuma
2006). Helgeson, Voss and Terpening (2002) reported that a monetary incentive has a
significant effect on response rates. Each invitation in the e-mail was accompanied by
a statement, Each of the participants for the interviews will be given a Jusco or

101

Metrojaya store voucher worth RM50. This invitation was accompanied by a

statement indicating that the respondents anonymity would be protected.

4.7.2 The instrument: semi-structured interviews

The interviews performed as part of this research were in-depth, open-ended, semistructured questions. A structured interview involves asking each participant the same
questions and is very much like a questionanire (Sommer & Sommer 1992). On the
other hand, unstructured interviews are conducted without a pre-determined set of
questions and typically appear to be lengthy conversations with occasional prompts by
the researcher (Patton 2002). A semi-structured interview falls between structured and
unstructured interviews. It is generally organised around a set of predetermined openended questions, with other questions emerging from the dialogue between the
researcher and the participant.
Thus, the interview agenda in this study began with broad topic areas such as the
demographic profile of the employees and enquiries about leaders behaviour, HR
practices and personal resources. These constructs were tentative but flexible enough
to allow new research themes to emerge for theory-building purposes (Yin 2003).
Participants were prompted to describe their beliefs as to why specific behaviour of
leaders assists in engagement or in what way certain leadership behaviour inhibits
engagement. Further, in order to assess the processes by which HR practices affect
engagement, participants were asked questions about the role HR plays in their
organisation and how this may influence their engagement level. To gauge the
responsiveness of the financial sectors role in HR practices, the interview questions
included questions on training availability, reward issues and appraisal systems, among
others (See Appendix D for list of questions asked). Participants were also probed in
regard to their personal resources relating to engagement. In order to avoid bias, direct
questions on religiosity were not asked. However, each participant was asked to talk
about their personal resources as a means for higher engagement at work. Most, as will
be elaborated in Chapter 5, referred to religiosity as their personal resource.
Participants were then probed on how religiosity impacted on their level of
engagement.

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Pilot study of the semi-structured interviews

In order to review the suitability of the questions for the interviews, a pilot study was
carried out in January 2011. The aim of the pilot study was to assess the validity,
language and relevance of the questions included in the interview protocol. Four
participants from the financial sector were consulted to review the semi-structured
questions. Comments were made to improve the structure as well as the clarity of the
questions. The questions were amended according to the feedback received. The final
interview protocol is listed in Appendix D.

4.7.3 Data collection procedures

Contacts with participants were first established in January 2011 through e-mail. Each
respondent who indicated a willingness to participate was personally contacted to
arrange the time and date for an interview. The interviews took place according to the
preference of respondents: either in a consultancy or meeting room at the respondents
organisation or at an off-site location. Each interview took between thirty minutes and
one and half hours and was recorded. Boyce (2006) asserted that interviews allow for a
more relaxed atmosphere for collecting information since people feel more
comfortable having a conversation with the researcher about their experience at work
than completing a questionnaire. The most pertinent aspect of an interview is that
people answer the questions honestly and privately. At the outset, interviewees were
assured of the confidentiality of their responses. This is necessary to allow peace of
mind and to create a comfortable environment in which the interviewees can readily
answer the questions posed to them and volunteer their honest opinions (Singer et al.
1992). The value of the research was also impressed on the respondents at the
beginning of the interviews.

4.7.4 Data analysis procedures

Responses were transcribed verbatim for content analysis. NVivo software was used to
process and manage the data. To ensure that all transcripts were generated
systematically, the transcripts included mispronounciations, slang, grammatical errors
and nonverbal sounds (McLellan et al. 2003).

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Reliability and validity of the interview data

According to Denzin and Lincoln (2011), interviewing is a robust qualitative method
which aims at a clear description of individual experiences. Validity concerns the
soundness, legitimacy and relevance of a research theory and its investigations or
practice (Kitchin & Tate 2000). In optimising the validity of this study, much effort
was made to ensure that the elements and sample were sufficiently representative to
produce valid conclusions. Data were collected from three sub-sectors of the financial
sector. The data were coded following suggestions by Miles and Huberman (1984) to
ensure intra-code reliability. This required the researcher to code some segments of
data at two different periods to confirm that the coding of data from the first round was
similar to the coding during the second round.
Specifically, the interview content was coded to develop rubrics in the light of the
insights specific to the topic of this research. Theoretical saturation (Corbin & Strauss
2008) was reached early in the process, as there was no need to adapt the major themes
after half the analysis had been done. For each of the themes identified, example
quotes were chosen from the transcripts to illustrate the points made and to facilitate
clearer insights (Figure 4.3). In respect to comprehensiveness, it should be noted that
the interviews were conducted in both Malay and English according to the comfort of
the interviewees. As English is the second language of Malaysia, many interviewees
were quite comfortable in answering the questions in both English and Malay.

Method of analysis
The reliability and validity of the data were further enhanced by an appropriate process
adapted from Miles and Huberman (1984) and Gioia and Thomas (1996). As
suggested by these authors, the analysis process was based on categorisation and
themes which utilised three major phases. The first phase involved repeated reading of
all the transcripts. Descriptive codes that originated from key areas of the studys
interest were used to group segments of the texts. The main categories were leadership
issues, HR issues and personal resources. In the second phase, the main categories
were segmented to identify themes for the second-order group. The first-order groups
were repeatedly visited and grouped into new segments. For example, transcripts that
involved leadership issues were further grouped into different categories such as
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coaching, participative decision making, showing concern. The final phase assembled
the second-order group into the major themes of the study. Figure 4.3 illustrates the
different phases of the analysis.

Figure 4.3: Phases of categorical analysis for the study

First-Order Codes

Second-Order Codes

Leadership:He is a good
leader because he always guide
me and forever willing to help.

Coaching

Leadership: He does show

concern and quite fatherly as
well as patient.

Showing concern

HR Practices: The training is

internally and externally
implemented, depending on the
course.

Training

HR Practices: .Our KPI is

closely tied to performance.

Appraisal

Categories

Empowering
leadership
behaviour

HPWP

Personal resource: .I work

because it is part of my worship
to God.

Moral obligation
Religiosity

Personal resource: I feel more

energised to participate after
attending religious programs
prepared by my employer.

Being proactive

Source: Adapted from Gioia and Thomas (1996)

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Reflexivity
Studies that involve qualitative approaches require the researcher to explore a
phenomenon that occurs in the real world without excluding its intricacies. This
suggests that it is important to acknowledge the researchers role in the construction of
interview participants presentations of their experiences. Patton (2002) argued that
reflexivity requires qualitative enquirers to be attentive to and conscious of the
cultural, political, social, linguistic and ideological origins of their own initiatives and
voices as well as the voices and perspectives of those they interview and report on. In a
multi-racial country such as Malaysia, the researchers personal creed and colour may
have influenced what the employees chose to tell in the interviews. The researchers
presence as a Malay was received better by organisations headed by a Malay than by
organisations headed by a non-Malay hence the large number of Malay participants
compared to other ethnicities. This issue seems not to be a crucial matter since one of
the major objectives of the study was to explore the religiosity of the Malay Muslims
experience at work.
Further, due to the researchers identical ethnicity and religiosity to the participants, it
was relatively easy to break the ice, particularly when the researcher began the
introduction in the Malay language. Generally, the participants were very open in
sharing their personal information and opinions about their experiences and were quite
often blunt and sincere in discussing their responses to these experiences. Had it been
another researcher of a different ethnicity and religion conducting the interviews, these
participants may have disclosed less information about their personal experiences and
instead focused more on the concrete details of their job.
It is also necessary to acknowledge the possible influence of the researchers
background on the way the data have been interpreted. The organisation of knowledge
and discussions certainly occurs from the point of view of a researchers personal
experiences, social contexts, academic training and theoretical preferences, and this
can well influence the research outcomes (Cunliffe 2003). But as Weick (1995)
argued, ontological uncertainties are a necessary part of sense-making because, in
acting within multiple realities, no one can be an ontological purist. As shown in
Appendix D, all the questions asked were in reference to the general subjects of
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leadership behaviour, HR practices and personal resources. For example, in terms of

personal resources, the researcher did not asked specifically whether employees were
engaged due to religiosity but the issue was raised genuinely by the participants
themselves. Thus, while the researcher feels that her background and identity may
have influenced the findings, she is confident that the way the data were collected
avoided bias or partiality and that the discussions are a valid representation of the data.

4.8 Study 2: Quantitative Study

Following Hussey and Hussey's (1997) assertion that the behaviour of human beings
can be objectively measured, the study assessed the extent to which empowering
leadership, high-performance work practices and religiosity are associated with
employee engagement. The aim was to test the relationships between a defined set of
variables by using a survey (Strauss 1998). Inputs from the survey were used to
complement the interview data. The survey questionnaire is a suitable tool for a
quantitative study as it enables a large amount of data to be gathered to identify the
factors that may or may not affect engagement. The aim of the quantitative component
was to answer the following research questions, which were introduced in Chapter 2:

Does empowering leadership play a significant role in engaging employees at

work?

Do high-performance work practices have any impact on employee

engagement?

Does religiosity moderate the relationship between empowering leadership

behaviour, high-performance work practices and employee engagement?

The following sections describe the sampling strategy, controlling for common method
bias, pre-power analysis, the data collection procedure, the instrument utilised and the
data analysis techniques.

4.8.1 Sampling strategy

Probability sampling was used in Study 2 to increase external validity. External
validity refers to the generalisability of results from a quantitative study of
populations, settings, times and so forth (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2010). The purpose is

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to select a large number of cases that are collectively representative of the population
of interest and will lead to a breadth of information (Patton 2002).
Organisations in the financial sector were targeted for the study. The sampling strategy
for Study 2 involved simple random sampling. Initially, a list of 125 organisations in
the financial sector was gathered from the Central Bank of Malaysias directory in
2010. They included banking institutions, insurance organisations and takaful (Islamic
insurance) operators. Each of the listed organisations was mostly the headquarters of
the institution. These institutions were contacted by e-mail and those that replied were
then contacted by phone as a courtesy and an introduction to the study. Where there
was no reply, the organisations were contacted with a phone call to gain access to top
managers, who were briefed on the nature and aim of the study and how their
companys contribution might play a vital role in the outcome of the research.
Consequently, ten senior managers (top management) from different organisations
gave approval and selected liaison persons to ensure a smooth process of survey
distribution. One thousand surveys were distributed to their offices in the three
locations: Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Ipoh. A total of 278 questionnaires received
were usable, yielding a response rate of 27.8%. This number is sufficient considering
the sample size consideration in pre-analysis (see Section 4.8.3).

4.8.2 Controlling for common method bias

Scholars have begun to consider the validity of the cross-sectional method of study,
particularly in regard to the concerns about common method bias and the interpretation
of causal inferences (Rindfleisch et al. 2008). Some scholars (e.g., Podsakoff & Organ
1986; Ostroff et al. 2002; Podsakoff et al. 2012) have asserted that common method
bias is a problem and researchers need to do whatever they can to control it. This bias
can either inflate or attenuate relationships, and the validity of relationships between
measures could be threatened (Spector 2006; Nunnally & Bernstein 1978).
To control for common method bias, the study adopted several techniques proposed by
Podsakoff and colleagues (2003, 2012). First, the questionnaire was designed to
minimise task difficulty so that respondents would be more likely to respond
accurately. The questionnaire items used clear and concise language that would be
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easily understood by middle managers in Malaysia. Further, all the scale points were
labelled, instead of just the end points, as advocated by Podsakoff and colleagues.
Secondly, to maximise respondent motivation and the likelihood of answering
accurately, a cover story was provided, stating the purpose of the study and explaining
how the information would be used and how it would benefit the organisation (e.g., by
mentioning that the data would help organisations in the financial sector to improve
working conditions for employees). The respondents self-expression was enhanced by
explaining that their opinions were highly valuable to the study. Additionally, to avoid
respondents socially desirable bias, the respondents were assured that their responses
would remain anonymous. They were advised that there were no right or wrong
answers and requested to answer the questionnaire as honestly as possible. The
researcher further advised them in the covering letter that people are likely to have
different opinions about employee engagement. Lastly, the study attempted to reduce
common method bias by using questionnaires with good psychometric properties (see
Section 4.8.5) for questionnaire selection.

4.8.3 Pre-analysis (power analysis in determining sample size)

In order to determine the sample size required for a study, a prior power analysis must
be conducted (Cohen 1992). Statistical power is central to regression analysis as it can
affect the robustness and generalisability of the research results. Sample size is the key
component in determining adequate power. Achieving sufficient power is vital in
reducing Type II errors, which occur when the significant differences that exist in
hypothesised relationships are mistakenly overlooked (Mone et al. 1996). According to
Green (1991), there are four issues relating to statistical power: effect size, alpha level,
sample size and number of predictors. For this study, Greens (1991) approach was
used to determine the sample size. This approach is an improvement on Harriss
(1985) approach and was developed as a two-step rule of thumb from Cohens (1988)
power analytic approach.

Greens (1991) approach

According to Cohen (1988), the minimum number of cases necessary for one
independent variable is 53. However, Green (1991) found results to be more accurate
when studies contain medium effect sizes with a smaller number of predictors (IV <7).
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The addition of predictors conservatively increases the sample size. The formula was a
revision of Harriss (1985) approach. As recommended by Tabachnick and Fidell
(2007), the following formula can be used to obtain the sample size:
N = 50 + 8 IV
There are several limitations in using this approach. First, this formula breaks down
when samples are small (Tabachnick 1989). If the sample contains fewer than 100
cases, the width of the errors when estimating correlation in small samples will always
produce an unacceptably low power no matter what the ratio is. Second, this measure
does not account for effect size. According to Cohen (1988), for regression analysis
with differing effect sizes, the number of subjects required varies. Third, this method
does not account for the significance level. Thus, using this method can result in
substantial bias.
Green later revised the formula and developed a two-step rule of thumb from Cohens
(1988) power analytic approach (Green 1991). The first step determines lambda (L).
For each additional predictor from 2 to 10, L rises by 1.5, 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, 1.1, 1.0, 0.9,
0.8 and 0.7, respectively. For each additional predictor after 10, L rises by 0.6. The
number of independent variables is represented by m1 < 11 and m2 = m-m1.
Step 1 : L = 6.4 + 1.65 (m1) 0.05 (m1) + 0.6 (m2)
Inthis research, there are three independent variables, one moderator variable and
seven control variables:

Empowering leaders behaviour treated as one independent variable (5

dimensions)

High-performance work practices treated as one independent variable (7

dimensions)

Religiosity as moderator and as control variable one independent variable +

one manifest variable

Control variables (age, gender, ethnicity, educational qualification, tenure, job

position, income) 7 control variables

Therefore, L = 6.4 + 1.65 (10) 0.05 (10) + 0.6 (1) = 18.5

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For regression analysis, the effect size is represented by f and R (Cohen 1988), where
f is R / (1- R). For small, medium and large effect sizes, R values are 0.02, 0.13 and
0.26, and f equates to 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35, respectively. Effect size is the researchers
estimate of what the expected difference might be in the size (magnitude) of the
anticipated relationship, association or amount of explained variance on the outcome
variable(s). Estimating the effect size is the most difficult aspect of sample size
planning (Duffy 2006). The smaller the anticipated effect size, the larger is the
necessary sample size (see Table 4.4). Thus:
Step 2 : N = L / f

Table 4.4: Effect size for the study

Effect size

N = L / f

For a small effect size

N = 18.5 / 0.02 = 925 cases

For a medium effect size

N = 18.5 / 0.15 = 123 cases

For a large effect size

N = 18.5 / 0.35 = 53 cases

The relationship between

employee engagement

and empowering leadership

variables, high performance work practices and religiosity is expected to have a

medium effect size due to the fact that research on these issues has not been largely
tested in previous work. Therefore, the researcher used the conservative way to define
the effect size for the research. That is, this research expected to obtain a medium
effect size, as indicated by Cohen. The expected sample size was an average of 123
cases. Consequently, this power analysis assisted in determining how large a sample
was required for statistical judgments that would be accurate and reliable, and how
likely the statistical test would be to detect the effects of a given size in a particular
situation.

4.8.4 Data collection procedure

In this study, the self-administered survey method was used. Contact was made with
top managers from the organisations, who were asked if they would endorse the study.
Ten organisations supported the study objectives and permitted access to their
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employees. Questionnaires were sent out in mid-April 2011. Respondents were given
approximately two weeks in which to respond. An e-mail reminder was sent to the
liaison officer who had been selected by the top management. The liaison officer was
expected to use the companys internal e-mail during the second week to encourage
non-respondents to take part in the survey. After one month, the number of employees
responding to the study was still low and a second e-mail reminder was sent during the
fifth week by the liaison officer. E-mail reminders are crucial in gaining a higher
response rate (Sheehan & McMillan 1999).
The survey took six months to complete due to the initial low response rate from all
three locations. To overcome this problem, various strategies were implemented. First,
to increase the response rate and conform to accepted ethical procedures, respondents
were assured of the confidentiality of their answers. It is imperative that respondents
feel comfortable when answering the questions and can give their honest opinions
(Singer et al. 1992). Second, since top management had approved the study, an e-mail
from the management supporting this research was sent to employees. This can be
extremely helpful since return rates can be increased by support from top level
management (Schmidt et al. 1991). The significance of the research was also addressed
in the covering letter. Respondent anonymity was assured. Third, as an incentive, the
survey came with an offer, You will be entered in a draw for an iPod. Participants
were informed that they were not required to give their work e-mail address but could
give any e-mail address for contact in case of winning. Thus, they could use an
anonymous e-mail address to ensure confidentiality. This form of incentive was given
approval by the RMIT Ethics Committee. Although access to some organisations was
denied, the researcher was granted access to major banks and insurance organisations
in Malaysia. Findings from these banks and insurance organisations can evidently be
generalised for Malaysias overall financial sector.

4.8.5 The survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire was developed in accordance with the conceptual framework
introduced in Chapter 2 (Figure 2.6 in Chapter 2). The questionnaire incorporated 84
items and comprised five sections consisting of:

Demographic data of employees

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Employee engagement

Empowering leadership behaviour

High-performance work practices

Religiosity

This section of the thesis elaborates first on the instruments for the four major scales
that were incorporated in this study, followed by the control variables, the issue of
language, and the pre-test and pilot study.

4.8.6 Measurement scales

Employee engagement scales
As indicated earlier, there are three significant elements of employee engagement:
vigour, dedication and absorption. For this study, engagement was measured on the
Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) developed by Schaufeli, Salanova,
Gonzalez-Roma and Bakker (2002) and consisting of three subscales: vigour,
dedication and absorption. Previous psychometric studies have verified that the job
engagement scale has reasonable construct validity and that the construct is distinct
from burnout (Schaufeli et al. 2002; Seppala et al. 2009) and job involvement
(Hallberg & Schaufeli 2006). Other studies have established the (cross-national)
validity, reliability and stability of the construct (Schaufeli & Bakker 2004). Vigour
was assessed by six items (e.g., At my work, I feel as if I am bursting with energy).
Dedication was measured by five items (e.g., I find the work that I do to be full of
meaning and purpose). The assessment of absorption included six items (e.g., When I
am working, I forget everything else that is around me). These items were rated on a
7-point Likert scale, ranging from (0) Never to (7) Always.

Empowering leadership practices

Leadership

was

measured

by

using

the

ELQ

(Empowerment

Leadership

Questionnaire) developed by Arnold et al. (2000). The measure includes five scales:
participative decision making, showing concern/interacting with the team, leading by
example, informing and coaching. Participative decision making was assessed by five
items (e.g., Encourages work group members to express ideas or suggestions).
Showing concern used five items (e.g., Shows concern for work group members
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well-being). Leading by example used five items (e.g., Sets high standards for
performance by his or her own behaviour). Informing used five items (e.g., Explains
company decisions). Coaching used five items (e.g., Teaches work group members
how to solve problems on their own). Items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale
from (0) Completely Disagree to (7) Completely Agree.

HPWP scales
In selecting which HR practices to include in an HPWP bundle, the approach adopted
by most researchers has been to derive the practices from prior research (Becker &
Huselid 1998). The present study does not depart from this strategy, although there is
disagreement among researchers as to which practices should make up such systems
(Becker & Gerhart 1996; Delery 1998). Because the lists of the practices that ought to
be included in a HPWS bundle overlap to some extent (Ramsay et al. 2000), the
approach used here is a normative one, only including HR practices commonly
referred to in the literature. The study looked at various aspects of HPWP and adopted
a common strategy that combined either single or multi-item measures of individual
HR practices in a unitary measure representing HPWP (Delery & Shaw 2001).
Consequently, several measures were used in the study. This study adopted items from
Snell and Dean (1992) that measure comprehensive training, developmental
performance

appraisal,

reward

systems

and

selective

staffing

variables.

Comprehensive training was assessed by six items (e.g., How extensive is the training
process for members of your work unit?). Developmental performance appraisal used
four items (e.g., How much effort is given to measuring employee performance?).
Reward systems used three items (e.g., The wages in this work unit are not very
competitive for this industry). Selective staffing consisted of three items (e.g., How
extensive is the employee selection process for a job in this unit?). Items were
measured on a 7-point Likert scale from (0) Completely Disagree to (7) Completely
Agree.
The study also included items that measured employee job security policy and
participation in employee participation programs (Macky & Boxall 2007). Employee
job security policy was assessed by one item (i.e., My employer has a formal policy of
avoiding compulsory redundancies.). Participation in some form of employee
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participation program used one item (i.e., Employees here have the opportunity to be
involved in the decision making on things that matter; for example, through quality
circles, business process project teams, or total quality management.). One question
(Do you have access to a formal grievance procedure or complaint resolution
system?) was developed for formal grievance or complaint resolution systems.

Religiosity scales
This study adopted the Muslem Attitudes towards Religiosity Scale (MARS)
developed by Wilde and Joseph (1997). The scales were later modified by Rusnah
(2005) and expanded by Khairul (2010) to 21 items. Samples of the items are Do you
consider yourself religious?, I read the Quran for inspiration and motivation,
Saying my prayers helps me a lot and Islam helps me lead a better life. One
additional item was included The fact that I am a Muslim is an important part of my
identity. Items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale from (0) Completely
Disagree to (7) Completely Agree.

Control variables
Certain variables may be associated with the variables under study and may distort the
results of the research since one could be the underlying agent that is actually causing
a change in the response variable (Kraemer 1987). One of the ways to deal with the
problem while seeking to establish causal relationships is to control for suspected
variables (i.e., control for confounding variables) (Sweet and Grace-Martin 2012). A
confounding variable influences, at least to a certain degree, the pattern of the initial
association of the studied variables (Rosenthal 1991). For example, it could affect the
size or the presence or absence of that association. Thus, for this research, information
on demographic background was collected and the effects of seven variables gender,
age, ethnicity, educational qualification, job position, tenure and annual income were
controlled.

Language
For this study, the questionnaires were provided in English as in the original scale.
English is the second national language in Malaysia and is used in the education
system. People who are generally educated, as in the sample of this study, were willing

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to answer in English and understood the language clearly, as was indicated in the pilot
study. Further, since there are no established and reliable questionnaires in the Malay
language, using the established English language items is more appropriate and
reliable. Harzing and Maznevski (2002) indicated that an accurate translation of a
survey is fraught with problems, and perhaps is impossible. Thus, translating the
questionnaire may cause problems in regard to the validity and reliability of the items.

Pre-test
A pre-test was conducted during the first week of January 2011 involving discussions
with five employees from the financial sector and four fellow academics who were
well versed in quantitative surveys in the Malaysian setting. The objective of the
pretest was to assess the validity, the scales and the measures. The questions were
distributed via e-mail. The academics and employees reviewed the questions and gave
feedback on the content, language, readibility and relevance of the questions.
Participants were able to understand the items in the English language and claimed that
there was no need to include the items in the Malay language. Participants were also
asked to identify items which they thought had no significant relation to the variables
and to suggest other items which they thought should be included. The participants
made two distinct suggestions in regard to the HPWP items. First, the developmental
performance appraisal item The performance targets in my work unit are mostly
fixed was deleted. Most respondents misunderstood this item and treated it as a
positive-coded item. The item was intended to imply that if a performance target were
fixed, there would not be much flexibility in deciding how far an employee could go in
performing at work. Thus, this would be a hindrance to HPWP. However, most of the
respondents did not understand the statement in this way and felt that the item referred
to the way that performance targets were always discussed and fixed before a project
was carried out. The second change was that the reward item The training process is
formal and/or structured was also deleted. This was a reverse-coded item which was
intended to imply that if a training process is formal and structured, it would be a
hindrance to HPWP. The respondents misunderstood the question and viewed it as a
positive item, that the training process was organised and coordinated appropriately
which is quite different from the intended meaning. Thus, this item was also deleted.
HPWP was left with 18 items.
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Pilot study
A pilot study was conducted in mid-January 2011 involving 23 employees from the
financial sector. In accordance with Churchills (1979) recommendation, refinement of
the scale requires the computing of reliability coefficients (Cronbachs alphas). The
Cronbachs alpha for all questions under each criterion must be above 0.70, indicating
that the questions deal with the same underlying construct (Spector 1992). The
Cronbachs alphas were computed for each of the variables as well as the dimensions
in the variables to ascertain the extent to which the items making up each dimension
and the variables had a common aspect. The reliability analysis ranged from 0.690 to
0.893. The dimensions were retained as they presented adequate reliabilities (Nunnaly
& Berstein 1994). The final instrument consisted of 82 items (see Appendix G).

Table 4.5: Reliability of scales for pilot study

Scales
Employee engagement
Empowering leadership behaviour
High performance work systems
Religiosity

Cronbachs Alpha ()
0.893
0.836
0.690
0.870

4.8.7 Data analysis techniques

Data analyses were undertaken in three principal stages: data screening, confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 18 and multiple regression using SPSS 18.0. As
part of the data screening process, data were tested for violation of statistical
assumptions. There are several assumptions that need to be taken into consideration
when conducting these analyses, as recommended by Pallant (2011). First, the
population from which the samples are taken should be normally distributed. The
distributions of scores in this study were checked using histograms and were found to
be normally distributed. Second, the samples were obtained from populations of equal
variances. The variability of scores for each group should be similar. Levenes test for
equality of variances shows whether the results are significant or not significant. A
significance value of lower than 0.05 results in a significance outcome which suggests
that variances for the groups are not equal and that the assumption of homogeneity of

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variance has been violated. In terms of sample size, the power analysis as detailed in
Chapter 4 required 123 cases for a medium effect size. The final sample for this study
was 278 cases, which exceeded the required number. Another assumption that exists
when conducting regression analysis is multicollinearity. Multicollinearity occurs
when the independent variables are highly correlated (above r=0.9). In this study, none
of the independent variables has a high correlation (r<0.9). Checking for extreme
scores is an important part of the initial data screening process. Outliers are those with
standardised residual values above about 3.3 or less than -3.3. In this study, no outliers
were found in any of the variables.

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

According to Russell (2002), researchers who have used Exploratory Factor Analysis
(EFA) to analyse their data have obtained clear predictions regarding the factor
structure of the measures. All the scales in this study were tested using EFA and had
good psychometric properties. As a result, conducting a direct test of whether the
proposed model fitted the data via CFA was more appropriate than conducting EFA
(Russell 2002; Schmitt 2011). Consequently, items from established scales were used
and CFA was conducted. CFA is used to test whether the existing and established
measures used in the study are appropriate for the population in the study and work
well in the new population (Harrington 2008). Before testing the hypothesised
relationship between the variables, the convergent and discriminant validities of the
scales measuring the variables need to be established. To establish convergent validity,
each item must contribute to only one dimension. To establish discriminant validity,
the dimensions underlying a construct should reflect distinct components and not be
equivalent to each other, although naturally related to a certain degree. The convergent
validity of the scales was established by performing CFA using AMOS 18.0. Model fit
measures were obtained to assess how well the proposed model captured the
covariance between all the items on the test. If the fit is poor, it may be due to some
items measuring multiple factors. It might also be that some items within a factor are
more related to each other than to other items. Thus, CFA was undertaken to specify
which indicators had loadings on which factors. A more detailed discussion of the
results of the CFA for each of the scales is presented in Chapter 6. The next phase
utilised the correlation matrix for the variables assessed in this study. Discriminant
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validity is established when the reliabilities of each scale are higher than the
correlations among the different measures (Campbell & Fiske 1959; Podsakoff &
Organ 1986).

Multiple regression analysis

The third statistical procedure involves multiple regression analysis to investigate the
underlying components of the independent variables and how these factors impact on
employee engagement. Multiple regression statistical technique is used to examine the
relationship between one dependent variable and several independent variables
(Pedhazur 1997). The strength of the relationship can be determined by the multiple
correlation coefficient. This coefficient explains the variance in equation and identifies
which independent variables make the most significant contributions. Thus, regression
analysis helps to test the hypotheses. Specifically, simple regression was used in this
study to test for the main effects.
The existence of a moderating effect implies that the relationship between two
variables, i.e., the independent and dependent variables, varies as a function of the
value of a third variable labelled a moderator (Zedeck 1971; Stone 1988). A number of
statistical procedures have been used to test for the presence of hypothesised
moderating effects, one of these being moderated multiple regression (Cohen et al.
1983, 2003). The moderator hypotheses (Hypotheses 4 and 5) were tested by using
moderated multiple regression (Aiken 1991). Moderated multiple regression was used
to test for interactive effects of predictors on the dependent variable. The results of the
regression analysis are presented in Chapter 6.

4.9 Ethical Considerations

This research followed the Ethics Guideline Procedures outlined by RMIT University
in the Ethics Review Process. Ethics approval was obtained before the data were
collected (see Appendices E and H). The major ethical considerations for both phases
were to protect the identity and confidentiality of the participants (including in the
publication of any results) and to ensure that participation in the survey and interviews
was completely voluntary and that participants could withdraw at any time or disregard
any questions that they did not wish to answer. The incentives used were also

119

approved. Only people who gave their informed consent are included and, even if
participants gave informed consent to participate, they could still withdraw from the
project at any time without giving a reason. Other ethical considerations included
providing participants with a debriefing sheet to explain the purposes of the survey and
research project.

4.10 Summary
In this chapter, the research methodology has been thoroughly discussed. By
demonstrating a clear understanding of the qualitative and quantitative research
paradigms, the chapter has shown why the mixed method was preferred for this study.
As with any mixed method research, the aim of the study was to determine whether the
combination of two methods would yield converging or contradicting results (Johnson
et al. 2007). The specific methods, techniques and instruments deployed were
discussed with justifications of the choices made. The next chapter presents the results
from the qualitative data, followed by the quantitative findings in Chapter 6.

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CHAPTER 5: STUDY 1 THE INTERVIEWS: THE

FOUNDATION OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
_____________________________________________________________________

5.1 Introduction
The data for this research have been drawn from the financial sector in Malaysia. The
objective of this chapter is to provide insights into employees experiences at work and
to understand the processes by which different levels of engagement emerge. Using 41
in-depth interviews with a sample of professional employees, this study was designed
to explore the sources of employees engagement. In particular, the study investigated
the process through which leadership roles, HR practices and personal resources such
as religiosity influence an employees level of engagement. Individuals were asked to
reflect on these three issues and the extent to which they felt they facilitated their level
of engagement at work. The analysis of the interview data was designed to answer the
following research questions, as mentioned in Chapter 1:
1. What form of empowering leadership plays a significant role in engaging
employees at work and how does it occur?
2. Do high-performance work practices exist in Malaysian organisations? If so,
how do they impact on the level of employee engagement?
3. What is the relative importance of religiosity as a personal resource in relation
to the level of engagement at work in the Malaysian context?
The findings of the qualitative study are based on data obtained through semistructured open-ended questions (see Appendix D for key questions). As detailed in
Section 4.7.2, the interviews began with enquiries about the broad topic areas of
leaders behaviour, HR practices and personal resources. These concepts were
tentative, but flexible enough to allow new research themes to emerge for theorybuilding purposes. The analysis process was aided by a software tool, NVivo 9 (QSR
International 2011), which enabled a structured and comprehensive analysis. The data
were analysed in an iterative manner, by going back and forth between the data and an
emerging structure of themes and categories (Corbin & Strauss 2008; Miles &
Huberman 1984; Gioia & Thomas 1996). To provide an overview of the analysis, the
interviews are reported in Section 5.2, which describes various aspects of
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employeesexperiences. The themes derived from the interviews and the supporting
statements made by employees provided complementary evidence from which the key
themes were induced. Three major themes emerged from the interview data:

The contribution of empowering leadership behaviour towards engagement

Experiences of high-performance work practices

Personal resources: religiosity as a driver for employee engagement

This chapter is divided into three sections. The analysis begins with the demographic
data of the employees interviewed. The second section describes the key elements that
emerged from the interviews. Data were analysed with an initial coding of categories
and subcategories. These initial categories were used to analyse the data and develop a
more detailed set of concepts that reflected the themes. The broad concepts were
analysed individually. The three emerging major themes were examined along with the
groups of concepts that shaped them. The presentation of each broad concept in this
section encompasses a discussion of its importance with supporting quotes from the
interviewees and an explanation of how the concept contributes to the major themes.
The third section involves a discussion of the analysis of the themes and concepts, and
their relationships with employee engagement, which provide the answers to the
research questions.

5.2 Interviewees Attributes

The sample consisted of 41 interviewees (see Appendix F for interviewees' profiles).
The sample distribution of the participating employees is presented in Table 5.1. Of
the 41 interviewees, more than half were females (61%) while 16 were males (39%).
Interviewees consisted of 93% Malay employees and 7% Chinese employees. As
explained in Chapter 4, the number of Malay participants could well have been
influenced by the ethnicity of the researcher, i.e., being a Malay, which may have
played a role in getting responses from the same ethnicity. However, the large number
of Malay respondents was advantageous as part of the study was to explore the concept
of religiosity and how it was perceived by this group of employees. As Islam is the
official religion of the country and Malay is the dominant Muslim population, the
sample in this study was deemed appropriate to answer the research questions. Three
Chinese employees were included in the study to serve as an indicator on whether their
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views were different or similar in terms of engagement issues and to examine whether
religiosity played a role in their engagement at work.

Table 5.1: Interviewees attributes

Categories
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Job position
Educational level

Tenure in the present

organisation

Type of organisation

Male
Female
30 and under
Between 31 and 40
Between 41 and 50
Malay
Chinese
Executive
Manager
Director
Diploma and below
Bachelors degree &professional
qualification (ACCA, etc. )
Masters degree
5 years and under
Between 6 and 10 years
Between 11 and 15 years
16 years and over
Commercial banks
Cooperative banks
Insurance agencies

Number of
employees
16
25
13
20
8
38
3
33
7
1
5
34

Percentage
(%)
39
61
32
49
19
93
7
80
17
3
12
83

2
16
9
9
7
25
10
6

5
39
22
22
17
61
24
15

In Table 5.1, the interviewees are grouped into three age groups. The young group
consists of those up to the age of 30, comprising 32% of the sample. The majority are
those from the middle group, aged between 31 and 40, which amounts to 49% of the
interviewees. The older group comprises those aged between 41 to 50 and makes up
19% of the sample. In terms of job position, the vast majority are at the executive level
(80%). Seventeen per cent of the employees have managerial positions while only one
employee is a director. Respondents were asked to clarify their job specification to
ensure that they were in middle management. References were cross checked with
employees job scopes. With the exception of one director, the rest (40 employees)
classified themselves as part of the middle management team, which consisted of
professional executives and managers.

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As Figure 5.1 shows, the majority of the interviewees (83%) have a degree and/or
professional qualification (e.g., ACCA: Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants). Five employees have a diploma or lesser qualification, and two
employees have Masters degrees. The distribution demonstrates that the sample in this
study is generally well educated.

Figure 5.1: Sample distribution by education level

Education level

5%

12%

Diploma and below

Bachelors degree /
Professional qualification
Masters

83%

In terms of tenure with the present company, the majority of the employees (39%)
have worked less than six years with the organisations (Figure 5.2). The same numbers
of employees (22% in each group) have worked for the organisations between 6 and 10
years and between 11 and 15 years. About 17% of the employees have worked for
more than 16 years in the same organisation.

Figure 5.2: Sample distribution by tenure

Tenure

17%

5 years and less

Between 6 to 10 years
Between 11 to 15 years
More than 16 years

39%
22%
22%

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The majority of the employees interviewed (61%) were from the commercial banks
(Figure 5.3). This is followed by 24% of employees from the cooperative banks and
15% of employees from the insurance organisation. These sub-sectoral organisations
represent a good proportion of the financial sector in Malaysia (Table 3.1 in Chapter
3). Although there were three sub-sectoral organisations involved in the study, the
results of the interview data across the three sub-sectors were not sufficiently different
to justify a comparison.

Figure 5.3: Sample distribution by sub-sector in the financial sector

Sub-sectoral organisations

15%
Commercial bank
24%

Cooperative bank

61%

Insurance

5.3 Results and Emergence of the Themes

This section highlights interviewees subjective experiences of work and is organised
based on how the themes and concepts were developed. The themes and concepts are
examined and discussed based on the strength of the relationship between the attributes
coded in the themes and concepts. The researcher evaluated the strength of a
relationship based on three aspects: (1) the number of sources (employees) who
mentioned something about the concepts (that ultimately form the themes) (Table 5.2),
(2) the number of references made to the concepts (how many times the attributes were
mentioned), and (3) the quality of the discussion of the relationships. The weight and
quality of these discussed concepts assist in answering the research questions.

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Table 5.2: Strength of discussion depending on the number of sources

Sources (no. of employees)
30-41
20-29
10-19
1-9

Strength
Extremely strong
Strong
Moderate
Weak

This research examined the concepts that relate to the themes and demonstrated
evidence of the relative importance of the themes from the strongest theme to the
weakest theme. Three major themes emerged in relation to employee engagement. The
majority of coded references1 focused on the leadership theme, specifically
empowering leadership behaviour (46%). This was followed by concepts related to
high-performance work practices (38%) and religiosity as a personal resource in
engagement (16%), as presented in Figure 5.4. It seems that leadership behaviour has
the greatest effect on employee engagement.

Figure 5.4: Major themes emerging in percentage of coded references

Major themes in relation to Employee Engagement

16%
Empowering leadership behaviour

46%

High performance work practices

38%

Religiosity

The major themes comprise a group of related dimensions which may influence an
employees level of engagement. The concepts within each theme outline the essence
of the theme. The concepts are also interrelated. The themes and concepts are listed
below and are discussed further in the next sections.

A coded reference is the number of contributions made by an employee during an interview about a
concept of interest to the study.
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Empowering leadership behaviour five concepts

High performance work practices seven concepts

Religiosity six concepts

5.3.1 Empowering leadership behaviour

The following set of concepts describes the nature of leadership behaviour that is
related to level of employee engagement. Five different set of concepts emerged
(Figure 5.5). These concepts reflect the nature of todays modern organisation. In most
cases, the financial sector under study revealed that the work system in Malaysia
promotes a somewhat flat organisation where an autonomous work system is being
practised. It seems that empowering leadership behaviour is promoted by leaders and
favoured by employees in Malaysia. The following set of concepts explains the
significance of empowering leadership behaviour. The concepts that form part of this
theme are:

Showing concern

Participative decision making

Leading by example

Coaching

Informing and communicating

Figure 5.5: Empowering leadership behaviour set of concepts in percentage of

coded references
Empowering leadership behaviour

13%
14%

Showing concern
Participative decision-making
Leading by example
Coaching
Informing

33%

18%
22%

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Showing concern
This concept was discussed by all of the employees interviewed (41 participants) and
generated 99 coded references. In essence, showing concern reflects leader behaviour
that shows supports, treats employees with respect, empathises and values employees
inputs. A close relationship with the supervisor provides serenity at work.
Supervisors motivate employees because they treat them as friends or family, not
solely as subordinates. Work is no longer seen as pressure but more as enjoyment. For
these employees, one of the aspects of showing concern is equivalent to being a good
listener. For example, an informant explained:
I handle complaints and there is no one else in charge of this task. So
sometimes when I have question about my job, I can actually bring the
question out beyond work hours. For example, during dinner at night. He is
a very informal person, humble and relaxed. It is not routine stuff or too
formal like we do not have to call him the boss, he is not like that. We can
just talk to each other on a friend-to-friend basis. He does not treat us as
employee but a friend. (#3, Male, 28, executive, cooperative bank, 5 years
tenure)
Showing concern is being concerned about employees personal issues. Eighteen
employees (44%) expressed that work and family matters are equally important.
Creating a culture that supports employees in both their work role and their family role
is pertinent for employee well-being (Odle-Dusseau et al. 2013; Rothbard 2001).
These employees sought a family-supportive environment at work, particularly from
their supervisor, so as to be engaged in their job. Employees also expressed the belief
that showing concern occurs when a leader treats subordinates as part of the family.
This goes beyond the work role of the leader. As in the case of a collective society, the
family is a major issue that needs to be taken care of for an employee to be mentally
prepared and ready for work. It seems that by exhibiting care and interest in
employees family matters, a leader indirectly nurtures engagement among employees.
Consequently, the dynamic role of the leader is not only to provide guidance at work,
but also to provide emotional support and understanding of the importance of family to
their employees. Thus, a leaders outlook on family issues plays a role in affecting
employees motivation at work. As an informant described:
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He does show concern. We understand that work is work, and personal

matters are other areas. But I know that some people do go to him to ask
for advice about personal matters and he does gives advice. He is quite
fatherly or should I say motherly. He is patient. He is very concern. To
me, he is a good leader because he knows how to deal or tackle anyones
problems or habits, according to subordinates personality. (#31, Female,
40, executive, commercial, 13 years tenure)
The majority of the employees (97%) expressed that they value a leaders effort in
showing that they care about the work employees do and empathise with them.
Showing concern is to have a mutual understanding about work and the conditions at
work. Leaders who take the time to understand employees circumstances are
appreciated. Considerate leaders show concern and respect for followers, look out for
their welfare and express appreciation (Judge et al. 2004), for example, recognising
that an employee is persistently willing to spend extra time at the office if necessary.
Therefore, in times of need, a leader is expected to have some flexibility and not be too
rigid about matters not relevant to work. Employees further elaborated that showing
concern is knowing how to help and support subordinates and having a good bond; this
shows teamwork effort. Employees do not commit to a leader who merely lives up to
the obligations of their job. Employees, more often than not, want more than that. They
want a leader who cares passionately about their job and the people they work with,
and makes an exemplary effort to be a team member. A leader who shows team effort
cultivates meaningful relationships with their subordinates and this helps to nurture
employee engagement. As one informant revealed:
We have many portfolios, so we have head, legal, and division. However, I
have one supervisor, so if there were anything I would report to my head
first. If you asked me, he is a very nice person, he is Malay and he is openminded. He is different from others. He is a team worker, so if we have a
problem, we can just talk to him directly and he would guide us as a team
to find a solution. So he wont let you go on your own. (#31, Female, 40,
executive, commercial bank, 13 years tenure)

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According to employees, performing well as an employee enhances a leaders concern

for them. Interestingly, three informants admitted that they were only treated with
consideration after they had performed excellently in the organisation. Immediate
leaders seem to be highly concerned about top performers and pay less attention to
those who do not perform well a utilitarian approach to handling employees.
Utilitarianism states that each behaviour is evaluated in terms of its potential to
produce the greatest amount of good for the largest number of people (Rallapalli et al.
1998; Mill 2007 [1861]). This use of power to achieve an end often results in treating
people as a means to an end rather than as ends-in-themselves. According to Foster
(1989) and Greenwood (2002), treating people as a means to an end is to dehumanise
them. In the case of this study, this approach may be relevant to those already
performing well, but would not be likely to increase the motivation of others around
them. For example, as one informant expressed:
To tell you the truth, my boss shows his concern once I have become a
champion [perform excellently in this organisation]. Before that he could
not care less. For example, since I have become an astounding performer,
when my wife deliver her baby, the gift was ready at the hospital by our
side. That is how fast he entertained us, and that is how important we are to
him. Very effective huh? (laugh). That is how well they take care of their
most prized possessions [employees] here. So it is much based on how
well you perform in the company. Just imagine, not only do they entertain
me, but they also entertain my family. My kids love lobster, so at times
they would take us out to dinner so that my kids could eat lobster. All paid
for. That's how much they take care of you if you are an important person
[performing well] at the company. (#13, Male, 36, manager, insurance, 8
years tenure)
A leader who shows concern also acts to some degree as a representative of his or her
group members. Having a voice in the organisation is extremely important to
employees. This is because most of the organisations in the study do not have unions
or other associations to represent employees. Employees, it seems, are without strong
institutional structures or power. Thus, having a leader who is concerned provides an
opportunity for the voices of employees to be heard by the top management.
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Management needs to pay more attention to who carries workers voices and interests
in the firms policy making.
Forty-one employees contributed to the concept of showing concern. Most employees
discussed this concept in great depth (35 participants; 85%). Informants talked about
showing concern in relation to family issues as well as work matters. A very small
number talked only about work-related matters. Employees emphasised the importance
of having a supervisor who is willing to let them go home on time instead of late at
night so they can spend time with family, who is willing to talk to them outside office
hours, and who talks to them about personal matters. Most supervisors seem to be
understanding (empathising) in terms of employees well-being, particularly when a
problem is related to family members.

Participative decision making

This concept was discussed by 39 employees and generated 67 coded references. The
culture of cooperative decision making and participative management is anticipated to
create a harmonious environment within an organisation. When subordinates and
supervisors work closely together in planning organisational projects, people work
harder and more responsibly as a result of increased autonomy. This study provides
evidence that flatter forms of organisational structure encourage employees to
participate in decision making. In the past, employees could not voice their opinions
because the structure was very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Employees as well as
management realised that things could not remain as they were because the culture was
changing. Some employees said that because of Generation Y coming in, the way
things were done at work had to change as well. The people born between 1977 and
1994, which spans a period of 17 years (Paul 2001), are generally known as
Generation Y. Generation Y want to be treated and managed differently from previous
generations. They want to participate and contribute to the group. As such, leaders
need to encourage this form of behaviour to instil engagement. As one informant
claimed:
He does encourage me to make my own decisions, by empowering me.
And yes in a way it does encourage me to be more engaged in my job.
Being in the insurance industry, there is always new challenges you face
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every day. You need to learn new things every day, and when there are
new things I would often have to refer to him. So there is the boundary of
whether I could make a decision on my own which he allows me to do or I
need to refer to him due to something new. (#11, Female, 36, executive,
insurance, 11 years tenure)
Employee involvement is considered part of a value-chain. When leaders welcome a
participatory role, employees are keen to get involved and bring ideas to the team.
Employees in these organisations believe that they do not work solo and any
organisational decision would have a large impact on them as individuals. Most
employees mentioned that they would often try to solve problems in an informal
setting rather than bringing them up in a formal setting. Employees felt that they need
to be continuously updated with organisation issues whether they work inside the
office or outside. Twelve employees who contributed to this concept stressed the fact
that they were not out there to get each other but to help each other. Thus, having a
good working relationship with co-workers is a pertinent aspect of the job for every
employee. Indirectly, having an opportunity to voice their opinions and to make their
opinions matter at organisational level increase an employees level of engagement at
work. One informant noted:
So yes, we can propose ideas by participating. For example, I was
discussing about bringing income and currently I may have 4 or 5 different
product in mind to sell. And I saw the other big bank may have a product
that can bring me a bigger income, additional income to me. So I can
propose to the management to sell this product and if they are okay, we can
do a paper on it, and if the group agrees on it, we can ask the branch to sell
it. So instead of having only 7 products to sell, maybe now we have 8. So
we do have the opportunity to voice out our opinion for the advancement
of the company, it would not be a problem. (#16, Male, 45, manager,
commercial bank, 21 years tenure)
Two employees emphasised that participative decision making is not about being right
or wrong but having the opportunity to voice ones opinions. In a sense, by getting
ones ideas out, one can learn from mistakes. Participative decision making may make
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positive contributions to both employee and organisational performance. Participative

decision making also requires employees to be proactive, and it involves empowering
employees and trusting them. The concept of empowerment seems similar to but it is
not identical with participative decision making. The former is about making your own
decisions and having the power to do so and the latter is about having a voice as a
member of a team. Both influence engagement. As one informant disclosed:
I like working so that makes me get up early and go to work. The first 10
years of my life in this bank, I love it because I had a great boss. He truly
empowers me, let me participate and believes in me and usually agrees
with what I have in mind. He does not really interfere with my decision
making or ideas. (#40, Female, 40, manager, commercial bank, 12 years
tenure)
Thirty-nine employees contributed to this concept. Participative decision making was
prevalent as a positive construct among these employees (32 participants; 82%).
However, the fact that some employees (8%) felt that they could not voice their
opinions suggests that the culture of participative decision making is still in a
preliminary stage in some organisations. There are opposing points of view about
participation. On one hand, employees felt that their leaders do let them participate in
decision making at departmental level. On the other hand, employees were not able to
participate in HR decision making in regard to setting up their key performance
indicators. This issue is examined further in Section 5.4.1.

Leading by example
This concept was discussed by 36 employees and generated 56 coded references.
Empowering leaders are expected to demonstrate to their subordinates that they are
actively taking part in realising organisational goals. Further, a leader who wants to set
an example must have the experience and the knowledge to be a role model for
employees. Evidence shows that a leader who has tremendous knowledge in the field
brings to the role his or her experience with different stakeholders. This makes the
leader more proficient in handling different type of stakeholders, a skill that employees
need to learn. For example, a leader who is process-driven would always see several

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steps ahead of their employees and lead their team towards organisational goals. As an
employee mentioned:
Yes he does lead by example. Because most of the things that he preaches
is actually through his experiences. Even though I have been here for quite
a while, my boss has more experience in terms of leadership. Insya Allah
(God willing), I will be promoted next year, so I need to learn more from
him to be a good leader. They think in terms of knowledge, it is most often
transferred during everyday communication. You do not need to go to
classes or learn from theory to learn about it. (#21, Male, 30, executive,
insurance, 3 years tenure)
Thirty-two employees claimed that a leader should not only be a role model by
showing positive characteristics, but should also ensure that they do the things that
they have preached. A leaders hypocrisy can lead to unfavourable subordinate
reactions (Greenbaum et al. 2012). The informants expressed that a leader who could
walk the talk and treats subordinates with dignity and respect has a strong role in
engaging them at work. This is because these leaders become a source of guidance and
inspiration for employees to be more motivated at work. For example, one informant
talked about their leaders caring characteristic as a source of inspiration:
I think if you talk about culture, this bank is known to be a very caring
organisation. We were born as an entrepreneur-run organisation and so the
Tan Sri (President) himself is very caring, give a lot to charity, although he
does not shout about it. But eventually every knows and admire him for it.
So he actually exercise this care and concern too, to a certain extent. (#30,
Female, 42, manager, commercial bank, 15 years tenure)
According to these employees, most leaders are extremely hard working and willing to
accommodate requests for meetings, even at weekends. Thirty-six employees
contributed to this concept. The concept predominantly arose in the discussion of the
positive aspects of leading by example (28 participants; 78%). There were only a few
leaders who did not conform to the notion of leading by example. Eight employees
(22%) claimed that these leaders directed and preached but did not practise what they
preached.
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Coaching
In the hectic-ness of the working world, empowering leaders are those who can still
provide guidance and are willing to be there. The essence of this concept is that
coaching plays a dominant role in engaging employees at work. This concept was
discussed by 27 employees and generated 44 coded references. Coaching also involves
on-the-job training and a leaders availability in guiding employees at work.
Supervisors act as mentors and share their knowledge and experience with
subordinates. A good coach wants others to gain knowledge, communicate with others
and be better at their job. According to these employees, coaching is an ability derived
from experience, and learning experience varies in coaching. A leader who has good
experience in the company is allowed to become a mentor to his subordinates. There is
also evidence that leaders use different approaches in relation to coaching. Some use a
soft-skills approach where continuous communication is adopted. Some use more of a
hard approach as in provoking employees to ensure that employees are always alert
and learn constantly. One informant described his experience:
He likes to provoke me because that is his way. He used to be an auditor,
so he is used to giving interrogation, so the way that he wants me to learn
is by provoking me. So for instance, there is an issue like fraud case, so he
will try to see my depth of knowledge on it because he has the knowledge.
But its actually a way of helping me learn. So I always have argument
with him but he always praises me at the end of the day (e.g.,You can
become management one day!). He just provokes me to see if I know
things well or not. (#19, Female, 42, executive, commercial bank, 13 years
tenure)
Coaching motivates individual performance and develops the individual at work. In a
sense, coaching helps prepare subordinates to assume more responsibility and take
greater chances at work, a trait that employees need in an autonomous working
environment. According to some employees, a good leader identifies individual talent.
The support, guidance and feedback given by a leader improves employees work.
Ultimately, this affects the KPI for each individual. Having a mentor at work seems to
increase an employees dedication to their job role. As one employee noted:

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For me, working in any department is of no importance to me, as long as

Im working with my current boss. I am willing to follow. I have been
working here for 5 years, before this I work with different branch. So I
have work with many different supervisors in the past, but my current
supervisor is different. The rest is just the typical manager (e.g. gives
order). But my current supervisor motivates me a lot and he is a committed
person and when I work with him, I can see myself going far [in this
career]. Because I know he can assist me in guiding me through my career
without actually wanting anything in return. It is not because he is the boss
that people should fear him, he does not instil fear. But he would truly go
all the way to help us so thats why we are more dedicated to our job. (#3,
Male, 28, executive, cooperative bank, 5 years tenure).
The importance of coaching must be brought to the attention of leaders to ensure that
employees have the support they need in the organisation. Twenty-seven employees
contributed to this concept. For the most part, coaching seems to have a significant
positive role in engaging employees at work (25 participants; 93%). Coaching allows a
leader to share information continuously with subordinates. As in the case with on-thejob training, a leader who coaches may nurture engagement.

Communicating and Informing

This concept was discussed by 26 employees and generated 40 coded references. The
essence of this concept is that leaders should communicate and be willing to share
information continuously. Misalignment between leader and employee perceptions of
HR practices can occur due to lack of communication and transfer of knowledge (Den
Hartog et al. 2012). As one informant described, communicating requires the leader to
have experience and extensive knowledge:
She has been with the group for a long time, over 20 years. So she has
grown with the group, she had the pain with the group, she knows and she
drove with the managing director and all that as peers. So the group
grows from an investment bank, then the acquisition of the merger with the
commercial bank. So she has been here, she has been part of it, so her
knowledge base is tremendous. So as a leader she brings her knowledge of
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the different stakeholders, how to approach different things with different

stakeholders, and so she brings back to the table, so it makes our work
easier in a sense. And because she is HR practitioner you dont have to
hard tell anything, nothing is new to her. It is always a question of how do
we get it executed as effectively as possible, the shortest time possible. She
is very open, and her door is always open and when it is open, it is really
open, its not that you cant walk in (laugh). Its absolutely easy to
communicate with her. (#30, Female, 42, manager, commercial bank, 15
years tenure)
Communication allows for transparency and a clear direction from top management.
As Kernan and Hanges (2002) implied, when managers are able to provide employees
with accurate and useful information about tasks and the organisation, this eventually
aids employees sense making and reduces uncertainty. On the other hand, 22
employees claimed that when communication is not taken seriously, it may cause
misunderstanding, which leads to a bigger problem at work. Other channels need to be
used to resolve misunderstanding. A leader who does not communicate well impacts
on an employees level of engagement and thus performance. For example, one
informant mentioned:
Yes, there are people who do not like him because he is not as open. If top
management say something, he will keep it quiet; he will not share with us.
But other department head always share with their subordinates. Our
supervisor does not share about whats going on. When we are doing some
urgent project, we dont get updates, so its hard. If it is departmental issue,
yes he shares information. But if its from outside, like top management,
he does not share, he thinks it will not affect us. So sometimes it
demotivates us because we found out later from other department. (#18,
Female, 27, executive, commercial bank, 3.5 years tenure)
Twenty-six employees contributed to this concept. It seems that high quality
communication assists employees in understanding their tasks and what is expected of
them. Further, it helps employees to understand the reasons behind organisational
decisions and actions, and this indirectly motivates employees to achieve
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organisational goals and be a part of the organisation. Overall, out of the 26 employees
who contributed to this concept, most spoke positively about their leaders
communication at their workplace (19 participants; 73%). Information communicated
by leaders helps employees to achieve assigned goals and this represents one job
resource that facilitates engagement among employees. Additionally, communication
from the leader plays a significant role in transferring leadership skills.

5.3.2 High-performance work practices

From the interview data, seven HRM concepts emerged. This theme seems similar to
the high-road approach to HR practices in the Western setting. As Macky and Boxall
(2007) asserted, the notion of HPWP should involved a coherent, integrated bundle,
which is a system of complementarities whose effect is greater than the sum of its parts
(Godard 2004). These seven bundles of practices are represented by different levels
of discussion in regard to the HR practices in an organisation and allow for different
level of engagement among employees. In this research, the second research question
asked whether HPWP exists in the Malaysian context. In general, the data
demonstrates that HPWP does exist in these organisations. The concepts that form part
of this theme, in order of importance (Figure 5.6), are:

Reward system

Training

Developmental performance appraisal

Employee participation program (Employee involvement)

Formal grievance system

Selection and recruitment

Job security

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Figure 5.6: HR practices set of concepts in percentage of coded references

HR Practices

9%

Comprehensive Training

17%

Developmental Performance Appraisal

Employee participation program
30%

17%

Formal Grievance system

Job security

11%

Reward system

15%

Selective staffing

1%

Reward systems
This concept was discussed by 41 employees and generated 130 coded references.
Reward is given not just for individual effort but for effective teamwork. Group
rewards seem to be an important performance management system in these
organisations. Thus, there is a risk-sharing system among employees and their leader
in contributing to organisational goals. One of the most imperative things for any
performance management system is to establish a link between individual effort and
consequences (Denisi & Pritchard 2006). From the interviews, most informants
acknowledged that rewards are directly tied to individual performance. Differences in
rewards represent differences in employees contributions. Further, employees with
higher responsibility and accountability may be rewarded more highly.
Yes, you can get 0 bonus or 0 increment if you are ranking jobs compared
to your peers. You can absolutely get 0 increment, this is already been
practised and if you are consecutively in the rank of 1, and 1 being low,
you do get put in the performance improvement program. So you are
highly scrutinised for a period of 3 to 6 months and if you dont shift up we
shipped you out. If you are put in the program you will be scrutinised by
the supervisor, they will help you out in your weak area because we want
to see at the end of 3 or 6 months, that there is an improvement in your
performance. Now this has nothing to do with disciplinary case and all
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that. It just shows that you are weak in your performance for whatever
reason it is. So more coaching, more development for you and hopefully
they will get off that program quickly. If he or she does not improve, then
we need to cancel that person out. So this has been done. (#30, Female, 42,
manager, commercial bank, 15 years tenure)
Unfairness in reward systems for employees still exists. Favouritism and network
connections can play large roles in career success. Like the concept of Guanxi in
China, the social network is important for making connections in organisations. A
meta-analysis by Luo and colleagues (2012) of the concept of Guanxi found that social
connections have an impact on economic as well as operational performance. The
social network has been identified as a powerful tool in helping organisations maintain
competitive advantage and superior performance if it is used in a positive way.
Nonetheless, the data from these interviews show that the use of social connections has
a negative impact on engagement. Thirty-nine employees claimed that this form of
social connection reduces their level of motivation and engagement. Social connection,
in this case, is used for getting a promotion, bigger bonuses and other benefits from the
organisation. As one informant revealed:
Thats what I said previously, they know that I do the job, but they cant
see it. Some are listed in the KPI, so by right they should assess on before
and after the job. But at the end of the day it is still based on favouritism.
Because the one that makes the final decision is the top level management.
So people who are very close to the top level... you know [will be
rewarded higher]. Every year they mentioned we will get a stretched
[increment in our reward] but for my bonus, I dont get a yearly stretched
[increment]. So its like that. (#19, Female, 42, executive, commercial
bank, 13 years tenure)
In many financial organisations, the system follows a bell-shaped curve in rewarding
employees. This system was viewed negatively by all 41 participants in the study. It
seems that the bell-shaped curve does not indicate justice for individual performers.
The system is seen as discriminatory because even when everyone receives the same
KPI points because they performed equally, some employees will be rewarded and
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others will be at the bottom of the reward curve. The system works on the expectation
that every year there must be a few employees at the bottom of the curve. Although
individuals have questioned this process, nothing has been done about it. Eventually,
employees realised that some people would get unlucky every year. Even if the whole
team performed well, some staff would receive either a low reward or no reward at all
during the particular year. This is regarded as a significant problem in the KPI system
of these organisations.
Further, although many scholars (e.g., Peltokorpi 2011; Hemmert 2008) have noted
that traditional seniority-based rewards have largely been replaced by performancebased rewards, some of the organisations in this study still use the traditional reward
system. In a recent study by Tan and colleagues (2012) on HR practices in Malaysia,
reward based on seniority was a significant means of discouraging employees from
moving to rival companies. As job hopping is rampant in Malaysia, this could be one
of the reasons that seniority-based reward is still being exercised in some of the
organisations in this research. For example, an employee explained:
In this industry, the pay is not much. But of course the longer you stay the
more you get, you just need to climb. Like myself it has been 17 years for
me to get to this level. But for managers, its different. Their salary is very
high due to tenure. But a new manager would not have that high of a
salary. So they do still depend on seniority system. (#9, Female, 37,
executive, commercial bank, 17 years tenure)
Eight informants claimed there was a lack of clarity in the reward system and raised
the issue of transparency. According to these employees, it is the obligation of the
leader as well as the HR department to explain the reasons for the decisions made. As
Premchand (2001) explained, transparency is not an end in itself, but an efficient and
comprehensive system that reflects a well-regulated framework for making and
executing policies which contribute to the responsibility of accountability. When a
reward system is not transparent, employees question its value and fairness. An
arbitrary or unreliable reward system causes a form of compensatory damage that
may have a huge detrimental impact on employee engagement. As an informant
complained:
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Another thing, when we do our KPI [between me and my immediate boss],

our top management will always have a right to override the KPI points.
They have the power to increase or reduce our total KPI points. We dont
have the opportunity to correct that points because it will never be shown
to us. So we dont know. The top management does not even know some
of us, they dont even know what we do daily, and yet they manage to
change peoples KPI points. By right they should just follow the immediate
supervisors recommendation on the KPI points. But the top management
have to follow the bell-shaped curve system and when they want to rank us
within the department or job level, they just change accordingly so that
they can come up with a bell-shaped curved. The thing is they dont even
know us! That is unfair and I have seen this for the 12 years that I have
been here. The KPI is not transparent at all because the top management
can always manipulate. (#40, Female, 40, manager, commercial bank, 12
years tenure)
The inconsistency of some HR practices also contributes to the way employees
perceived the HRM within their company. Lack of communication between the HR
team and individual employees causes employees to be dissatisfied. This
dissatisfaction affects their level of engagement at work.
I think the HR system here is out of order. You see I dont know how they
manage their employees. Sometimes we would get an email titled
Recalled. You know what I mean? Like they have mentioned about
bonuses but suddenly they recall it! And they would re-do it again, do a
different bonuses, and at times some of us dont even get. At times, its an
administrative mistakes, like sending the wrong file, so its the wrong sum.
Its in black and white already but they can recall it. For example, they can
send us a letter about increment for a certain date. But near the date, they
can actually send another letter saying that the budget has run out and we
have to wait for another round. (#31, Female, 40, executive, commercial
bank, 13 years tenure)

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Forty-one employees contributed to this concept. Employees viewed the reward

systems at their organisations positively as well as negatively. Generally, employees
claimed that pay and remuneration were based on performance and that pay
differences among members of a work unit did represent the differences in their
contribution to organisational performance. However, in many organisations,
employees were truly unhappy with the reward system. This was the case when the
reward system was based on favouritism and when there was a lack of transparency.
This situation creates unfairness and inefficiency in an organisational system.

Comprehensive training
This concept was discussed by 41 employees and generated 73 coded references.
Training is the process of developing skills and knowledge in employees that will
enable them to be more productive and thus contribute to organisational goal
attainment (Bramley 2003). Training is seen by informants as a means to transfer
knowledge and as part of learning. The informants in this study said that training is a
form of investment for the future and helps them to be more engaged at work. As an
informant observed:
The HR practices do help me in being more engaged at work. For instance,
the training that we receive improves or brush up my communication
skills. So the performance is based on our own motivation and our effort. It
is up to the individual to perform. We are responsible for our own
performance. (#24, Female, 42, executive, commercial bank, 15 years
tenure)
In these organisations, different forms of training are available. The training can be
conducted internally by the HR department or by external organisations. For example,
the Central Bank of Malaysia provides numerous training courses in Islamic banking
and financial issues. Some organisations go to the extent of providing online training
through their e-portal. In addition, organisations arrange formal internal training
(classroom training), online training, training by external consultants and spiritual
forms of training. The most striking finding was that the spiritual training (religious
training) was preferred by these employees.

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Training varies from technical as well as practical things such as attending

workshops. We also have an Islamic group, where an Ustaz/Ustazah [Islamic
teacher] would come over and give speeches. So this is another form of training
because it motivates you and helps you spiritually, so this helps us at work.
(#31, Female, 40, executive, commercial bank, 13 years tenure)
Training is clearly stated as part of the KPI. A certain number of hours of training is
required in order for an employee to be taken into consideration for promotion. Most
employees have a preference for on-the-job training instead of formal training. These
employees felt they could learn more in this form of training without wasting time
attending formal training. On-the-job training is the most effective for employees in
these organisations (stated by more than half of the informants). However, when only a
small percentage of training is considered as part of the KPI, training is then viewed as
a burden because it takes time away from actual duties at work. Employees then felt as
if they were forced to attend training, without their consent. Another form of burden
presented by the employees is in terms of the kind of training provided. The training
provided must match the needs of employees. As an employee commented:
Okay honestly, all the training that I have attended, I dont really learn
anything. I do think that training is needed but it must match what we need.
Sometimes the training last about one day. It should be compulsory but
somehow people do not take it as a serious matter. If our boss tell us to go,
then we go. Sometimes its about a course related to a project that we have,
then we would go. (#18, Female, 27, executive, commercial bank, 3.5
years tenure)
In many of these organisations, training is always available but it is up to the
employees own initiatives to attend. Support from immediate leaders is crucial. There
were a few cases where leaders were not supportive of their employees attending
training in view of the fact that it would affect the employees daily routine. In this
case, leaders did not see training as an investment. For instance, one informant
revealed:
I was a trainer at the banks training centre in Bangi for 4 years. Theres
training in KPI. We have to attend training every year its compulsory. But
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if your boss do not want to send you, theres no point as well. When you
submit the training form, the boss dont approve. So its difficult. So your
KPI will be affected. The boss do not let us go because he would say so
whos going to do the job? But this is part of our KPI, its such a problem.
(#40, Female, 40, manager, commercial bank, 12 years tenure)
The extant literature on training views training as a form of HR practice that develops
employees (Delaney & Huselid 1996; Tannebaum & Yukl 1992). Interestingly, this
study found that training is treated as a break from the office. At times it is viewed as a
short break from office life and influences the way employees are engaged at work
after completing the training (11 informants expressed this view). Indeed, a diary study
by Xanthopolou, Bakker, Demerouti and Schaufeli (2009) discovered that job and
personal resources may fluctuate from day to day and such fluctuations determine how
engaged employees are in their daily tasks. It would seem that training acts as a form
of job resource and promotes employees engagement at work but in a different form
from that suggested in existing literature. One informant expressed:
I view it as a break from work for me. You know my work is quite
stressful, so attending training helps to take my mind off work for a while.
So it helps me with recovery from work and allows me to go back to work
feeling energised. (#26, Female, 45, executive commercial bank, 20 years
tenure)
There seems to be a huge gap between departments within an organisation. Although
these departments hold the same objective and mission, employees in different
departments barely see each other or discuss anything together. For the most part, top
management conducts a meeting and discusses issues within the company and will
later communicate about the issues to their departments. The lack of interdepartmental
meetings may cause communication gaps and misunderstanding between departments.
Several employees (12 informants) voiced their concerns about this lack. Employees
want to get to know people from other departments, what they do, how they contribute
to the organisation, and what role they play in the significance of organisational
performance. Training should be seen as an institution which could strengthen the
relationships between members of different departments. In this way, training could
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play a pertinent role in enhancing employee engagement at work. Relationships

between organisational members, it seems, create a positive environment and thus
increase employees engagement at work. As one informant conveyed:
We also have our own team building session. During last March/April, we
have all the head office staffs, about a hundred over staffs, we went to Port
Dickson, sleep over there and do some activity to increase our motivation.
Further, we want to enhance the relationship among ourselves because we
work with different departments, so I am so busy with my own department,
I could not even make effort to see other people in other departments. So
during this teambuilding, we do blend together to make our relationship
closer. It is a good practice. If not we would just know each other face to
face, but not well enough because we dont have time to see each other.
The best part is that when we do team building, we can see that the part on
teamwork does improved, the relationship improved. (#16, Male, 45,
manager, commercial bank, 21 years tenure)
Forty-one employees contributed to this concept. The concept predominantly focused
on the positive aspect of training as an investment (33 participants; 80%). Generally,
organisations invest highly in training but employees seem to prefer on-the-job
training. Islamic training, surprisingly, is the most influential in engaging employees at
work.

Employee participation program

This concept was discussed by 39 employees and generated 22 coded references.
Employees were given projects and the employers expected employees to participate
in the plans and decisions made about a particular project. In essence, employees were
also empowered to make their own decisions. The level of participation in decision
making determined how much access or influence organisation members had on
decisions. Employee involvement in decisions can indeed produce an engaged
workforce (Bakker & Demerouti 2007). A popular form practised in the organisations
in this study is consultative participation, which refers to a situation where employees
engage in long-term, formal, direct participation concerning organisational plans. For
example, one informant described:
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Yes. We have our target given by our head sector. So in order to meet the
target, early in the financial year we will discuss what our action plan is,
what our spec is and what we want to do in order to get this kind of a
target. We will do this well, all the financial year starts in July, so for the
next financial year we are starting our action plan now for first quarter,
second quarter, etc. on what we want to do already. So when it comes to
the time, we just implement our plans. But along the way, if we think, say
in July, we have a good idea and we discuss with our boss, we propose to
our committee and if everyone is okay with it, we can implement it. (#16,
Male, 45, manager, commercial bank, 21 years tenure)

Developmental performance appraisal

This concept was discussed by 37 employees and generated 75 coded references.
According to Levy and Williams (2004), performance appraisal is a central human
resource activity in organisations because of its critical importance in enhancing both
employee and organisational performance. In the organisations studied, great emphasis
was placed on finding avenues for employees personal development. The
organisations invested in employees personal development to further their career,
using avenues such as offering scholarships to staff. The study also found that,
generally, salary raises and promotions were closely tied to performance appraisal.
However, employees were concerned about the unrealistic performance targets set by
the top management and the HR department. This showed that the development of KPI
was largely centralised. Unrealistic targets cause employees to be dissatisfied at work
and influence their level of engagement. In addition, the study found that, in many
cases, performance appraisal was being applied to all areas using the same criteria and
goals. The same objective and KPI were used for employees who held similar
positions, without regard to whether they were located in urban or rural areas.
Employees in a rural area expressed their concern as it is harder for them to capture a
market than it is for city employees; this affects their financial performance at the end
of the year. This, to them, is unfair and unrealistic. For example, one informant
claimed:
Depends. All the branch, even if you are in the rural areas, it depends
sometimes we have crazy KPI. If we work in the city, sometimes we
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can achieve more than the target set for us, but if we work in rural areas,
we cant get as much. But the target is the same, so its not fair. But
generally the benefit here is quite all right. (#4, Female, 33, executive,
commercial bank, 3.5 years tenure)
Peretz and Fried (2012) indicated that organisations in a collectivist society are likely
to avoid individual performance appraisal because of their potentially adverse effect on
group, unit, and organisational solidarity and morale. This study found that both
individual and teamwork effort affect performance. In essence, although team-based
assessments are still used, there is increasing evidence that individual-based
assessments are gaining popularity. Many factors can affect an employees KPI
assessment in addition to individual responsibility at work. For example, an employee
could also carry a small percentage of the team leaders KPI. One notable issue raised
by employees (40 informants) was the issue of manipulation by top management. Top
management seems to have absolute power in the final KPI results, which employees
consider unfair. Although the employees felt that the KPI does provide some justice in
the HR system, the practices of top management, on the other hand, present otherwise.
As one informant expressed:
But if you asked me, if you compare those that truly perform and those that
does not perform, we can see much differences in terms of their rewards.
So the KPI does work, but because of human factor (higher level
management giving points even though they do not know us), it got to be a
little unfair for most of us. (#37, Female, 33, executive, commercial bank,
7 years tenure)
The core of this concept is that organisations devote a lot of time and money to
develop employees knowledge, skills and motivation. Thirty-seven employees
contributed to this concept, which was discussed positively and negatively by the
employees. The methods used for evaluating employees personal development were
deemed biased. There was inconsistency between the leaders promises (evaluation of
the KPI) and HR applications because top management had the final say in KPI
evaluations and the power to change them.

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Formal grievance system

This concept was discussed by 37 employees and generated 46 coded references. In
most organisations, there were no trade unions or other representative bodies and
employees resorted to their leader as a mouthpiece in getting to be heard.
For my level, we dont have a union. For clerk, the lower level, they do
have a union. But theres none for us. But we have just started to form the
union. But it is still in process. They have told us, and they want to see
how many are interested in this. So yes, its only recently. But in terms of
grievances, we just voice out our grievances to the head of the department,
so we try to settle it informally. There are also formal ones that involves
letter from the HR department. Maybe about salary, etc. But it depends on
your head [leader]. If they fight for us, then good, but if your head is the
quiet type, that it ends there. So it depends how far our head would go and
fight for us. Its hard. (#31, Female, 40, executive, commercial bank, 13
years tenure)
At the executive level, a national union does not exist. Thus, each organisation relies
on its in-house union or association, if any. Even when a house union is available,
employees are often unaware of it as they are not informed and educated about it. One
reason is probably the lack of support by the top management. Top management
prefers problems to be solved at the departmental level and being heard is not
encouraged. Saving face is more important in Malaysian society. As one informant
revealed:
Yes there is an avenue and people do use it. We have town call session.
Our head sector will brief our sectors performance, our current position,
challenges and from there he will call on all staffs. So any grievances can
be voice out during this time. But in terms of individual, we can ask to see
him personally but from my experience, as a Malaysian, in our culture, if
we do have something going on, we hardly talk about it and we try to solve
it at our own level. If we do have grievances, mostly its not
communicated The avenue is there, but most of us are afraid to use it,
due to our cultural habit. For clerical level, we do have NUBE [National
Union Bank of Employees] associations. So if they want to request for
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anything, they can request from here. But for officer/executive level above,
we dont really have a union. (#16, Male, 45, manager, commercial bank,
21 years service)
Thirty-seven employees contributed to this concept and all of them had negative views
in regard to the formal grievance system in their organisation. It seems obvious that
trade unions are not well established for professional workers in the financial sector.
The ones that exist mostly protect workers in the public sector and those in lower level
management. Some employees feel that there is no one to protect them. They rely
largely on informal mechanisms to solve problems at work, that is, by having a
discussion with their leader. Most of these organisations do provide a forum so that
employees can voice their opinions in regard to work-related issues. Nevertheless, just
as with an in-house union, these forums lack the participation of employees. For the
most part, employees are afraid to express their opinions for fear of reprisal.

Selective staffing
Staff selection is carried out using many methods, one of which is the case study
method, which ensures that a candidate is experienced enough to solve the problem
presented. People who apply for a job are assumed to want the job due to interest.
However it should be noted that potential employees could randomly apply for a job
for other reasons to earn a living, to try something new, etc. This concept was
discussed by 36 employees and generated 38 coded references. The employees view
was that the selection process was quite rigorous in ensuring that the candidate who
was employed would have the right job fit. Selecting the right person ensures a fit
between the person and the job. The recruitment process is formal in that it differs
according to the employees grade and position. Employees also said that finding a
highly engaged employee is important. Therefore, being selective means being
rigorously cautious in selecting candidates. As an informant discussed:
In the interview, if you see the person do not have any passion, do not even
think about hiring them. When they come in front of you and they just
say,It doesnt matter, you just give me anything, Ill just do. So you need
to hire people with the right attitude and passion. Skills can be learned and
you must have confidence. And yes, there is a formal recruitment in place,
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there is the policy and process. Depending on the seniority of the position,
it could be 2 or 3 interviews. But we try to do so its not so much a
challenge for the candidate. And its also the first time for us to be with the
candidate and we want to project the right image. So we dont keep them
waiting, you dont have a panel of 10 people! At the most we would have
about 2 or 3 panel. And usually it is usually the rightful department
themselves doing the interview with a representative from HR department.
(#30, Female, 42, manager, commercial bank, 15 years tenure)
In Malaysian society, social connections at times take precedence over individual
ability and skills. Selection can be based on who you know. Four employees claimed
that they were employed because they knew their current boss. Interviews are carried
out informally at times, outside the office and office hours. As one informant revealed:
Usually only one interview is conducted here before they offer you the job.
But the different thing that I have to note for this organisation is that the
offering here is based on internal offers. So its more on who you know
and the recommendation from other people in the other organisation, not so
much of hiring new graduates. (#4, Female, 33, executive, cooperative
bank, 3.5 years tenure)
Thirty-six employees contributed to this concept. The employees predominantly
discussed the concept positively (35 employees; 97%). The selection process is
rigorous in ensuring a person-job fit and in ensuring that candidates will be highly
engaged employees.

Job security
This concept was discussed by only three employees and generated four coded
references. It seems that job security is not an important matter for these professional
employees. There is a reasonably fluid market in Malaysia and employee turnover has
been found to be very high due to the tight labour market (Chew & Tan 1999; Smith
1983). Job mobility is seen as something positive in the financial sector and employees
job hop to find a better career. Employers, on the other hand, tend to poach
employees from other organisations to avoid training cost. These two factors cause job
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security to be seen as an insignificant issue. This can be clearly seen among the
majority of the informants. A few stay in the same organisation due to the comfort
zone. As one informant explained:
No, its just a job. What is there for me here? The benefit maybe just
getting a housing loan for 3%, which I can only get for once. Not much
benefit. Its more of a comfort zone for me, thats why I stay. Its been a
long time since I work here and Im in my comfort zone, so I really do not
want to go out and start over because to me, everywhere is the same. And
since Im here for a long time, my annual leave has increased so thats a
benefit to me. If I go to other places, I wont get as much annual leave.
(#35, Male, 45, executive, commercial bank, 28 years tenure)
The professional employees were quite comfortable with their income and did not
worry about being unemployed. A plausible reason for the lack of worry is that most
professional employees are considered to be mobile. They do not mind changing jobs
since it is one of the gateways to a higher salary and a better position. Table 5.3
summarises the findings from this section.

Table 5.3: Nature of HR practices in the financial sector

The Nature of HR Practices
Mixture of technical skills, soft skills, leadership skills as well as
Forms of training

Job hopping
Reward system

Appraisal
Formal grievance
Job security

religious understanding
Religious form of training seems to have a greater effect on
employee engagement
Job hopping will get an employee a promotion faster than staying in
the same organisation
Tendency to poaching
Convergence towards Western-style HR practices such as pay-forperformance
Risk sharing between employers and employees where employees
are rewarded based on a team effort
Intangible form of reward recognition is highly important
The need for transparency
Lack of management consultation on performance measures and the
evaluation of employees
In-house unions among professional workers are not well established
Employees are afraid to speak up or complain for fear of reprisal
Vast majority of the employees are not worried about staying in their
job, which reflects earlier findings concerning the culture of job
hopping

Source: Compiled from interview data

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5.3.3 Personal resource: religiosity

In Malaysia, employees behaviour is also found to be governed by the religious
beliefs that they hold at least, for the Malay Muslims who were interviewed.
Religiosity seems to be evident in the moral reasoning and the management of
behaviour of these employees. Six sub-themes were found important (Figure 5.7). In a
study by Mitroff and Denton (1999) on religiosity and spirituality in the workplace, it
was found that those who believe in the higher power of God feel more empowered
while at work. In essence, employees who view religion as integral to their identity
tend to have a holistic view of life, that is, their faith is related to everything they do in
life, including at the workplace.

Figure 5.7: Role of religiosity in employee engagement

High internal
control and
consciousness
Concept of
ummah
connecting
with others

Focus on
positive
matters

Religiosity
role in
engagement

Being
proactive

Work as moral
obligation

Being happy

Source: Compiled from interview data

This concept was discussed by 23 employees and generated 43 coded references.
These employees explained that being religious helps them to focus on positive matters
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and to be better equipped to cope with challenges at work. Eleven employees further
claimed that being religious assists them in maintaining high internal control and
consciousness. This form of control eventually aids them to be more engaged and less
stressed at work. The more religious these individuals think they are, the more they
emphasise the social justice aspect of work and, to them, working is a virtue.
Religiosity, it seems, brings happiness to these individuals. Thus, these employees
seem happy at work and try to be proactive in decision making. Fundamentally, work
is seen as a moral obligation to God that must be fulfilled to earn a place in this life
and the hereafter. According to Brewer (2001), the highest nature of work obtains
when individuals work because of God and express their true selves at work rather
than working to earn fame or money. As one informant described:
Another thing that makes me engaged at work is my ibadah [moral
obligation to God]. If we are talking about pay, Im at the maximum pay
already, unless if I got promoted to a new level. But that doesnt slow me
down because to me I come to work, to be engaged in my job and to be
engaged with people (pause) to make a different, I try to do that for
myself as well as for other people. Its more of ibadah. (#34, Female, 40,
executive, commercial bank, 17 years tenure)
According to nine employees, the notion of work should include the concept of
ummah, that is, connecting with others. In Islamic religiosity, ummah represents the
worldwide community of Muslim believers. Ummah, as mentioned in the Quran,
refers to people and specifically to Muslim people with a common ideology and
culture. (Denny 1975; Hassan 2006). Khatab (2004) argued that the term ummah has
been the driving force of Muslims political, social, economic, intellectual and moral
lives. Islamic values put much emphasis on building good relationships with other
people. Thus, working with colleagues provides satisfaction as it increases the sense of
ummah.
In nine out of the ten organisations studied, religious forms of training (how to pray
accurately, building spiritual habits, etc.) are treated as an investment, and some
organisations begin work with a morning prayer ritual. In the Malaysian setting, unlike

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the Western setting, religious forms of training, even if not related to issues at work,
are seen as significant form of motivation. As two informants revealed:
She will brief us for a week on that particular issue. We have morning
briefing, my branch has been practising this for 17 years. First we will start
with a prayer, then we have to update everyone on the circular, e-mails,
new product because we have new product often. And if things that do not
run smoothly, our leader will brief us for the whole week. (#5, Female, 38,
executive, commercial bank, 17 years tenure)
For me, the training helps a lot. Because when we attend, there are many
things we learn. And from being stress at work, the training does motivate
us. But it depends on the type of training as well. I have gone for two types
of training program. The first one is the induction. The second one is on
religious praying program. And when I attend this religious program, I felt
the effect after the training. Like when we do not know in great detail
about certain thing, particularly in this case, on Islamic prayer, and when I
learn, I truly feel spiritually refreshed [to go back to work]. The training
here is not necessarily about improving your technical skills, but also in
terms of motivation, team building, etc. (#4, Female, 33, executive,
cooperative bank, 3.5 years tenure)
Consistent with some studies (Yousef 2001; Branine & Pollard 2010; Rokhman 2010),
this study found that Islamic religiosity has consequences for management practices,
work-related values and employee behaviour. The Islamic work ethic emphasises
working hard as enhancing personal growth, self-respect and satisfaction. This study
provides evidence that religiosity provides a context in which some employees,
particularly those with rewarding jobs, come to think of their job in spiritual terms, not
just in secular terms. As reviewed in Chapter 2, life without work has no meaning and
engagement in economic activity is considered an obligation to God. The Quran puts
great emphasis on discouraging laziness, which explains, at least partially, why
religious employees are generally engaged in their activities at work.

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In contrast, the non-Muslims interviewed (three Chinese employees) gave no

indication that religiosity may play a large role in their job. Nevertheless, deeply
rooted within the Chinese culture is the belief in Confucianism (Cooke 2009), which
explains why their outlook on HR practices and leadership behaviour is somewhat
similar to that of the Malays. The Malaysian culture is deeply embedded in expected
employee behaviour, such as saving face, respect for others, a sense of group
orientation and humility. These norms are also values that prevail in Confucianism,
most of which are in line with the Islamic values. Although the Chinese employees did
not relate their religiosity to work, the culture that derives from their beliefs is
obviously embedded in their mindset.

5.3.4 Who is engaged?

The tables below illustrate which groups of employees are in general most engaged.
The coded references represent whether employees seem to be happy and engaged at
work and talk about positive things, or otherwise. In general, the employees
interviewed in this study are engaged (231 coded references) as opposed to disengaged
(125 coded references). The individual categories, however, need to be treated with
caution as the number for each group differs.
It can be seen that in terms of gender, females seemed to have a lot to say on both
engagement and disengagement while the men spoke little about disengagement at
work (Table 5.4).

Table 5.4: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on gender

Gender
Male
Female

Number of sources
Engagement
Disengagement
16
11
25
22
Total
41
33

156

Coded references
Engagement
Disengagement
81
22
150
103
231
125

In terms of age, the younger generation (aged 30 and under) and the older generation
employees (between 41 and 50) were generally more engaged at work than those
between 31 and 40 (Table 5.5). Although those between 31 and 40 expressed their
engagement at work, many also spoke of their dissatisfaction over issues arising at
work such as nepotism and unfairness in the reward system, which, among other
issues, contributed to lower their engagement level or cause disengagement at work.

Table 5.5: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on age

Number of sources
Engagement
Disengagement
30 and under
13
10
Between 31 and 40
20
17
Between 41 and 50
8
6
Total
41
33
Age

Coded references
Engagement
Disengagement
68
24
111
86
52
15
231
125

In terms of educational level, there was no significant differences between the groups
in regard to their level of engagement (Table 5.6). Those educated with a diploma and
below seemed to be highly engaged at work. Similarly, interviewees with bachelor's
degrees, professional qualifications and master's degrees seemed to be engaged as
well.

Table 5.6: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on education level

Educational level
Diploma and below
Bachelors degree &
professional
qualification
Masters degree
Total

Number of sources
Engagement
Disengagement
5
3

Coded references
Engagement
Disengagement
30
8

34

28

193

114

2
41

2
33

8
231

3
125

In terms of tenure, Table 5.7 demonstrates that those who had worked in the
organisation for less than five years were more engaged than the other groups. Those
who had worked for less than five years were more enthusiastic in meeting new
challenges at the new workplace, highly dedicated in receiving new job duties and felt
that they should put in more effort in order to be highly rewarded by the organisation.
Those who had worked in the organisation for more than 16 years were more engaged
than those who had worked for between 6 and 15 years. Those interviewees mentioned

157

that the reason for their high engagement was that the organisation had been a part of
them and made them feel like family. Those who had worked between 6 and 10 years
and between 11 and 15 years had mixed views on their level of engagement. Although
most expressed their engagement at work, many also discussed low engagement and
disengagement due to many issues arising at work.

Table 5.7: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on tenure

Tenure
5 years and less
Between 6 and 10
years
Between 11 and 15
years
More than 16 years
Total

Number of sources
Engagement
Disengagement
16
12

Coded references
Engagement
Disengagement
81
27

50

37

56

48

7
41

5
33

44
231

13
125

In terms of sub-sectors, there were no significant differences in the levels of

engagement among employees in different sub-sectors (Table 5.8).

Table 5.8: Sample distribution of employee engagement based on sub-sectors

Number of sources
Engagement
Disengagement
Commercial banks
25
21
Cooperative banks
10
7
Insurance agencies
6
5
Total
41
33
Sub-sector

Coded references
Engagement
Disengagement
143
106
52
11
36
8
231
125

Two features of the demographic data, ethnicity and job position, are not discussed as
there was an insufficient number of employees from each group to make a distinction.
The description of the main themes and the use of the coding process enabled the
analysis to move from the raw data consisting of vague ideas towards the
comprehensive analysis presented in the next section.

5.4 Discussions
5.4.1 Why are employees engaged?
The following sections discuss the overview of the thematic categories and the
relationships that resulted from the coding process. It appears that the availability of
158

personal resources increases work engagement. However, two other distinct concepts
empowering leadership behaviour and high-performance work practices are even
more important.

Empowering leadership behaviour

The results of this study indicate that being concerned and showing it, encouraging
participative decision making and leading by example are the most highly endorsed
forms of leadership behaviour in relation to employee engagement (Table 5.9). In
comparison, coaching and providing information received relatively modest
endorsements by the employees.

Table 5.9: Ranking of empowering leadership behaviour in relation to

engagement
Ranking

1
2
3
4
5

Empowering leadership
behaviour

Showing concern
Participative decision making
Leading by example
Coaching
Informing

Number of
sources

Percentage
in terms of
sources
(%)

41
39
36
27
26

100
95
88
66
63

Percentage
in terms of
coded
references
(%)
33
22
18
14
13

Percentage of employees who contributed to the discussion about the concept

Percentage of contributions made during the interview by employees about a concept
of interest to the study
The national culture of Malaysia, like that of many developing countries, has been
characterised by high collectivism. Collectivism emphasises the interdependence of
individuals. This is reflected in the behaviour of employees in the Malaysian financial
sector. Showing concern was found to be the most important aspect of empowering
leadership behaviour compared to other conduct. This is because employees perceive
that life is built around a community or group, and the way in which the leader relates
to the group is very important. Employees want to be encouraged and recognised by
their leader. Leaders who stay in touch with the work group, listen and show concern
for employees well-being are deemed to be influential. This finding corroborates the
findings of previous work in paternalistic cultures in the Middle-East (Aycan et al.
2001; ner 2012) and Asia (Cooke 2009; Zhu et al. 2012). As Ho and Chiu (1994)
159

suggested, in a collectivistic culture where there is high conformity, interdependence

and more responsibility-taking for others, paternalism is viewed positively. Johansons
(2008) review of the evolution of the leadership literature showed that the positive
traits of a leader are inclined to be those usually labelled feminine. This behaviour
includes showing concern for subordinates feelings, participation, satisfaction and
friendship. Such is the case in the Malaysian culture.
In contrast, in an individualistic culture, compliance and conformity with the leader are
not perceived as done voluntarily; paternalism has always been equated with
authoritarianism in Western literature (Aycan 2006). In a Western study by Arnold et
al. (2000) on empowering leadership, showing concern was confined to displaying
concern only about work-related matters. The findings in this study demonstrate that
showing concern consists of two important dimensions: (1) being concerned about
work-related matters and (2) being concerned about personal and family-related
matters. In the Malaysian work setting, family values prevail, as the obligation to the
family is recognised as the primary responsibility (Sloane-White 2008). Thus,
employees have a preference for leaders who empathise. For example, a leader who
recognises that family time is important is much respected and appreciated. It might
seem that female employees would have a stronger opinion on this matter in respect to
their role and obligation towards the family in comparison to male employees.
However, the results of this study provide evidence that male informants view this
issue just as strongly as female informants (41 coded references for males and 58
coded references for females a similar outlook considering the sample distribution
described in Section 5.2).
Consequently, as in social exchange theory, the more employees feel that their leader
cares for them, the more they feel they need to contribute to the team and thus the
higher will be their level of engagement. A study on the interplay between work and
home found that employees who take positive experiences from home to work and vice
versa exhibit higher levels of engagement (Montgomery et al. 2003). Family and
home-related matters play a large role in contributing to how employees feel at work.
The possible causes of employee engagement, it seems, do not lie only in the work
situation, and this study reinforces this view. Thus, leaders showing concern for the
160

well-being of employees and being compassionate seem to be necessary to engage

employees at work. In line with institutional theory, leaders who show concern
increase the legitimacy of their leadership and consequently have greater influence on
employees motivation in their job. In the absence of concern, employees ignorance or
fear of a leader can dominates the employees emotions and inhibit their performance.
The findings also illustrate the importance of participative decision making in
engaging employee at work. As Pearce and Sims (2002) found, the change to a new
environment calls for a shared approach to leading, that is, each team member shares
responsibility for managing the actions and functions of the team, instead of expecting
the leader to dominate and assume all responsibility. The current study demonstrates
that the younger generation, known as Generation Y, have different expectations of
leadership behaviour. They want to be treated and managed differently from previous
generations, and being able to participate in daily responsibilities and decisions is
important to them. This finding contradicts some studies in Asian management which
have claimed that high-involvement work practices may not function as well in Asia as
they do in countries with low power distance (Stark & Bainbridge 1985, for example).
Findings from this study provide evidence that when leaders encourage employees
participation in decision making, employees feel more appreciated and ultimately more
engaged in their job. This is consistent with a study on Malaysian employees by Ismail
et al. (2010), who found that being able to participate increases employees motivation
at work. Employees feel that their contribution matters. Employees in this study
claimed that this occurs when a leader asks subordinates for suggestions, considers
subordinates input and modifies project proposals in the light of subordinates suggestions.
Nevertheless, seven employees (17%) claimed that even though the leader welcomed
such participation, it was only on the surface. Employees suggestions and ideas were
not taken seriously and employees felt that participation was just a form of
manipulation by the leader to show that employees had been been given an opportunity
to speak. These employees further claimed that being able to participate was not about
being right or wrong but having an opportunity to voice their opinion. It is from
mistakes that employees eventually learn. The results also indicated that employees
feel that they would be more engaged if they had a good leader who set an exemplary
161

role for them. Employees also feel that in order for a leader to walk the talk, they
need to have knowledge and experience. A leader with extensive experience is often
well respected and projects a picture of an exemplary leader.
The supportive role of a leader has been studied for decades (Fleishman 1953) and
there is a substantial body of research to show that providing support increases
employees satisfaction with leader-member relations (Cooper 2012). Professional
employees in this study seemed most comfortable when coaching was practised by
their leaders; this had a profound effect on their level of engagement. Coaching was
seen as a form of on-the-job training where supervisors act as mentors and share their
knowledge and experience with employees. Employees in these organisations were
generally coached to work more effectively at their tasks. Some organisations had
techniques where a leader gave daily routine advice. Every morning, employees were
given a few minutes to one hour to talk about their plans and the previous days
problems, to present challenges and discuss future improvement. This performance
counselling is seen as an effective tool for engaging employees with their work.
Access to support involves receiving feedback and guidance from superiors. This form
of empowering ensures that employees have access to information and support, and
have opportunities to learn and grow in their career.
Although not as important as other forms of empowering leadership behaviour,
informing and communicating are still a pertinent part of increasing employee
engagement. There is evidence that when a leader communicates goals, plans and
problems within the organisation, it creates a form of transparency which provides
employees with a clear direction from top management. Employees further reported
that information is often available through regular meetings and brainstorming
sessions. Figure 5.8 summarises this section and identifies the individual factors that
influence engagement.

162

Figure 5.8: Individual factors influencing employee engagement

Institutional environment in the financial sector:
Moderate power distance
High collectivism
Importance of social networks

Leadership behaviour that is endorsed by employees:

Showing concern
Participative decision making
Leading by example
Communicating & informing
Coaching

Employee engagement

Source: Compiled from interview data

High-Performance Work Practices

The results indicate that a reward system and comprehensive training are highly
endorsed by employees as increasing their level of engagement (Table 5.10).
Employee participation, an appraisal process, a formal grievance system and careful
selection of staff are also important. However, job security does not play a major role
in engaging these employees.

Table 5.10: Ranking of HPWP in relations to engagement

Ranking

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

HPWP

Reward system
Comprehensive training
Employee participation program
Development & appraisal
Formal grievance system
Selective staffing
Job security

Number
of
sources

Percentage
in terms of
sources
(%)

41
41
39
37
37
36
3

100
100
95
90
90
88
7

Percentage
in terms of
coded
references
(%)
30
17
15
17
11
9
1

Percentage of employees that contributed to the discussion about the concept

Percentage of contribution made during the interview by employees about a concept
of interest to the study

163

Thirty-seven employees (90%) mentioned that their organisations embraced a focused

approach to high performance, taking cultural norms into consideration. Employees
claimed that their organisations adopted high-performance practices based on work
organisation, with the emphasis on skills and work motivation. Supporting evidence
for this is the adoption of high-performance practices in the vision and mission of an
organisation to ensure that all organisational plans are in line with the concept of being
a high-performing entity.
As far as the micro-institutional structure is concerned, organisations in the financial
sector in Malaysia have recently undergone significant changes (Aziz 2007). At the
departmental level, much decision making is being decentralised, employee
involvement has taken a more important role and employees skills are upgraded from
time to time. This shows that high-performance work practices do exist. Interviewees
claimed that employee involvement is welcomed to the extent that some programs are
being initiated to encourage employees to participate. An example is having regular
weekly meetings and calling them performance contribution and counselling sessions
to ensure employees can contribute to project decision making.
While the role of employees in teams (i.e., departments) supports a high-performance
system, the HR practices of the institutions in the study were in conflict with this. The
HR function was still centralised. Policies were formulated at headquarters and passed
down to each branch for uniformity of organisational goals. In essence, professional
employees still needed to use formal channels because they could not approach the HR
department directly. In this system, top management was trusted to be the acting
voice of employees. However, at times, due to conflict and differences of opinions,
messages did not get through. HR policies and practices were made in isolation, only
involving top management, and the opinions of employees were not sought. In certain
cases mentioned in the interviews, surveys were conducted by the HR department in
regard to employee motivation and complaints, but this feedback from employees was
not implemented. These organisations suffered from poor communication and a gap
between the promises of an immediate supervisor and the implementation of HR
practices. In addition, employees displayed their dissatisfaction over the inconsistency
of HR practices and the lack of transparency in the system. Many employees (65%)
164

expressed discontent with the existing norms. The nature of HPWP in these
organisations is further discussed below.

Comprehensive training program

Research in HRM has shown that social institutions (such as education) influence
organisational strategies and practices, with the result that organisational structures and
processes reflect typical national patterns (Khilji 2003; Hofstede 1991). Based upon
this premise, many influences of culture on the work-related values of employees in
Malaysia are evident. The nature of the training system in Malaysia is a mixture of
technical skills, soft skills and leadership skills, as well as religious understanding.
Among these, religious forms of training seem to have the greatest effect on employee
engagement. Thirteen employees (32%) claimed that a spiritual form of training
motivates them to go further. The spiritual forms of training include Islamic
motivational training where organisations invite an Ustaz or Ustazah (the teacher in
Islamic teachings) to give a motivating talk. Another form of training mentioned by the
employees involves understanding the practices of Islam such as the proper way to
conduct a prayer and the ways in which to be a good Muslim at the office. AlTalib
(1991) reasoned that Islamic training and development is all encompassing, beginning
from the moral and spiritual development of a person and manifesting eventually in
physical development. Islam considers work to be a pertinent element in a persons
life. It not only encourages individuals to work but also motivates individuals to seek
excellence in what they do.
In relation to job security, only three employees mentioned that job security is
important. It can be assumed that the majority of the employees were not worried
about staying in their job. A feature of the financial sector in Malaysia is that job
changing will get an employee a promotion faster than staying in the same
organisation. When general educational skills are transferable between employers,
there is the tendency for poaching to occur. When skills are not firm-specific, some
employers may choose not to train their employees. The organisations that invest
heavily in training create a pool of skilled employees which those which do not
provide training can poach. Therefore, some of the organisations in the financial sector
avoid training costs and become free-riders who steal employees from other
165

organisations. These phenomena were acknowledged by all the employees in the

study. In fact, frequent job changing, although discouraged, is somewhat accepted in
the industry. This result accords with the view of Katri et al. (2006) and Zheng and
Lamond (2010) that job hopping has become so rampant in Asian countries that it has,
in fact, become a culture. Malaysia has introduced a levy-grant system for training
purposes as a consequence of the high level of poaching and job hopping among
employees in the sector. This is one of the governments initiatives to deal with this
voluntary turnover.

Reward systems
In terms of a reward system, there has been some convergence towards the Westernstyle HRM where performance-related reward is practised. This study found that pay
level and individual effort are important elements of a reward system. There is also
evidence of risk sharing between employers and employees where employees are
rewarded based on team effort. Thus, if an employee does not work in a team and
contribute their share, they will not be rewarded. The salary scheme puts a high
emphasis on individual ability to perform in order to stimulate employee engagement.
However, it is premature to conclude that a seniority-based wage system has been
eliminated entirely. In a few organisations, the situation still persists. Other forms of
rewards, such as contingent reward, are valued highly by these employees. More than
half of the employees considered that appreciation from the leader plays a large part in
their engagement level. Employees want to be recognised. Showing appreciation for
subordinates good performance and providing recognition and compliments are just
some of the ways of doing this.
Thirty-one employees (76%) criticised the way evaluation was done. These employees
indicated that their organisation follows a bell-shaped orientation when giving rewards
to each department. Problems occur when everyone felt that they had performed well
but only a few succeeded in getting a big bonus because of the constraint of the bellshaped curve. Worse still, individuals who received the same KPI points can be put at
the lower threshold and receive no bonus. As a consequence, employees felt that they
were not fairly rewarded. This form of injustice may lower the engagement level of
employees.
166

Developmental appraisal: the need for transparency

A modern organisation expects employees to show initiative, collaborate in teams
and take responsibility for their own personal development. Employee development is
not solely a concern for management; it should also be a concern for each employee.
The older generation of employees favour life-long stability and upward mobility. This
perspective, however, is no longer apparent among the younger generation of
employees. Most employees discussed working on a project rather than doing a job.
Different projects require different skills to some extent and thus employees need to
continuously develop their knowledge, skills and competency. Indirectly, these
employees are also increasing their employability as they increase their personal
development. This form of increasing personal development is very much encouraged
in HPWP. By being engaged and productive, individuals open more opportunities
while building a dynamic and rewarding career.
Two of the issues most apparent in appraisal are the lack of management consultation
on performance measures and the evaluation of employees. First, employees KPIs are
mostly developed by the HR department in consultation with top management.
Although evaluation measures are presented to employees at the beginning of each
year, this is only to inform them of individual and team goals. Employees are not
involved in setting the KPIs. Secondly, the evaluation of employees is not transparent.
Bonuses are given before the results of performance rating are released to employees
and employees cannot do anything to change evaluations.

Formal grievance: a diminished voice

Trade unions and other representative bodies are not well established among
professional workers. The majority of professional employees are not protected under
any associations. The National Union of Bank Employees of Malaysia (NUBE),
established under the Trade Union Act 1959, only protects those lower than executive
level. The Malaysian Trade Union Congress, which NUBE is a member of, protects
those executives that have registered with them. However, none of the employees
interviewed had registered with them. These employees, however, did express interest
in having a union or another representative body to represent them. The main
objectives would be to advance their interests and to resolve problems at middle
167

management level. There has been a tendency to set up new associations or in-house
unions within organisations. The outlook is, however, poor. At the time of the
interviews, one organisation was in the process of establishing an in-house union for
middle management. A joining fee of RM30 was charged. The hope is to resolve
issues as a group and be heard by the top management. Similarly, in the US, unions in
the banking industry, unlike other industries, are almost non-existence (Branine &
Pollard 2010). The level of unionisation in the banking sector is notably low; union
membership was estimated to be 1.5% in 2005 (Cohen et al. 2003). The absence of
unions has ensured that managers face no formally organised opposition.
In this study, there is evidence that non-unionised employees are eager to participate in
workplace initiatives such as employee associations and joint committees and even
unions. These employees claimed that the problem is not that union activities among
them are severely restricted; they have not been constrained in forming a union. But
employees fear that action would be taken by the management if they were to be too
loud. Employees are afraid to speak out or complaint for fear of reprisal. It seems
that employees in the financial sector in Malaysia seldom organise to engage in
conflict with management. Should there be conflict between an employee and his or
her manager, the employee can seek a solution from a higher level of management.
As mentioned in Chapter 3, the introduction of the Look East policy in the mid-1980s
changed the orientation of Malaysias economy by emulating aspects of the Japanese
and South Korean economic achievements. Malaysias Look East policy was selective
in adopting features of the Japanese style of work. Its main emphasis was on the costfree promotion of proper work ethics, quality control circles and in-house unions
(Wad & Jomo 2013). The government encouraged the growth of in-house unions (also
called enterprise unionism) in the hope that it would produce leaders attentive to
organisational and employee needs. Employees in this study expressed their
disappointment in how their leaders handle grievances. Although leaders show concern
for employees well-being, these leaders do not seem to play a role in representing
employees. In most cases, leaders leave decisions about wages, bonuses and the
development of KPI to the HR department.

168

Having an in-house union could benefit both employer and employee where the union
could negotiate with management and be involved in the organisation (Wad & Jomo
2013). Ultimately, this would result in rising productivity and higher profits. The 37
employees who contributed to this concept revealed that an in-house union or other
representative body would be important as an institutional actor to influence the HR
system towards greater commitment and involvement. Having a representative body
helps employees to gain higher wages and better working conditions, and establishes
policies and procedures for grievance handling and many other work-related issues.
From employees discussions, it seems that having a voice may very well increase
their level of loyalty and engagement at work. Regrettably, in-house unions for
professional employees in the Malaysian financial sector have yet to be established. As
Wad and Jomo (2013) emphasised, employees in Malaysia have to struggle hard and
long to establish their own autonomous organisations.
In sum, the interview data highlighted several factors that encourage the adoption of
high-performance work practices in the financial sector in Malaysia. The issues of
performance-based remuneration systems, employee education and consultation,
training and upgrading worker skills, and team effort were often discussed by the
employees. However, the exploration of HPWP in the financial sector organisations
has provided evidence that many of the barriers to the adoption of HPWP lie within the
organisations themselves. The employees' responses highlighted several factors that
undermine the success of HPWP, such as the unfairness of the reward system and the
lack of transparency.

Religiosity as a personal resource

In predominantly Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Islam, through national culture,
influences organisational behaviour. From the interview data, it can be concluded that
Islamic religiosity plays a moderating role in its influence on organisational plans and
actions. This research provides evidence that the Islamisation of institutions, i.e.,
facilitating Islamic practices in society, extends to these organisations in the financial
sector. This can be seen by the allocation of a long lunch break for Friday prayers, the
provision of prayer rooms and shorter office hours during Ramadhan (fasting month of
the Muslims). This is the not the case in other countries where Islam is the dominant
169

religion. For example, Pakistan, although a predominantly Muslim country where 95%
are Muslims (Central Intelligence Agency 2011), seems to be only concerned with the
outer shell of Islam and not the core (Ahmad 1996). The opposite is the case for
Malaysia. The data from the interviews clearly show that being religious is a workrelated matter because Islamic principles and teachings are embedded in an
individuals way of life. The Wall Street Journal survey reports corroborate this
finding by showing that Muslims in South East Asia are the most devout in
comparison to Muslims in other parts of the world (Bellman 2012).
As far as Malay Muslims are concerned, being religious is part of daily life and
routines. Thus their daily habits at work incorporate Islamic values. These values assist
these employees in being motivated at work. The centrality of work in Islamic thinking
encourages Muslims to engage in economic activities with energy and determination
(Ali & Al-Owaihan 2008). The religious text of Islam, the Quran, instructs Muslims to
persistently pursue whatever work is available whenever it is available. Muslims
believe in the preaching of their Prophet Muhammad that perfection of work is a
religious duty. He also asserted that work is a form of worship to God (Allah) and
failure to perfect work while expecting rewards (from God and for the hereafter) is
clearly an injustice to the individual. As the Prophet Muhammad advocated, there must
be an emphasis on discipline and commitment, not only to highly influence the essence
of work but also to link faith and work, and eventually steer the Muslim individual
towards becoming an economically and politically viable entity (Ali & Al-Owaihan
2008). Clearly, being religious has important implications for employees level of
engagement among these Malay Muslims.
In an experimental study by Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek and Finkel (2008), it was
found that meditation practices increase the daily experience of positive emotions and,
in turn, produce a rise in personal resources eight weeks later, such as mastery and
self-acceptance. Therefore, such practices as the Islamic rituals (e.g.. prayers, fasting)
which act as forms of meditation may in the case of this study cause an increase in
positive emotions. Being religious, it seems, causes people to work hard, do well
economically, employ self-discipline and improve achievements. This can be clearly
seen in the employees descriptions and explanations during their interviews. Highly
170

religious individuals are seen as having well developed self-control and consciousness,
and are more prone than others to be satisfied and happy at work. Religious conviction
appears to be significantly related to employee engagement for the professional
workers in this study, contrary to the findings of Chusmir and Koberg (1988) and
Wilcox et al. (2012), which were that individuals of a higher socio-economic status
such as white collar workers are more liberal and hold fewer fundamentalist religious
beliefs than people of a lower socio-economic status.
The results of this study answer the central question of this research in finding that
Western approaches of best practice HRM in managing employees may not be as
prevalent in Malaysian financial institutions as may have been assumed. Certainly, the
increasing number of Malaysian graduates from Western countries have brought about
many changes in the HR systems in these organisations on their return to Malaysia.
These graduates often come home with the intention of applying what has been learned
to try to improve the organisational strategy and system in the country. Unfortunately,
it is rather clear that such practices may not be entirely suitable in Malaysia. In
essence, HPWP can only be realised in Malaysia when leaders and employees can
incorporate Islamic ethical values in them. As long as organisations and leaders adhere
to Islamic values, Muslims employees in these organisations may experience selfenhancement and an improvement in their work role, which ultimately influences
employee engagement.

5.4.2 Understanding employee disengagement

Employees in this study were generally engaged at work. However, in addition to the
problems discussed above in regard to leadership behaviour and HR practices,
employees listed other reasons for disengagement or low engagement at work, as
summarised in Table 5.11.

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Table 5.11: Problems in HRM functions that cause lower engagement

HRM
functions

Value and/or
goal conflict

Manipulation
& violation

Availability of
resources

Reward system

Bell-shaped curved
system does not
provide justice

Favoured
employees
received more
rewards

Unavailability of
a transparent
reward system

Comprehensive
training

Preference for on
the job training as
opposed to a formal
one

Training offered
does not fit the
employees job

Employee
participation
program

Co-existence of
younger & older
generation;
Intragroup versus
intergroup interests

Inefficient
technology

Development &
appraisal

Similar criteria &

goals for different
jobs

Formal grievance
system

Voicing complaints
is not encouraged,
saving face is more
important

Selective staffing

System more
inclined to reward
seniority instead
of performance
Forcing
employees to
attend training
without their
consent
Existence of red
tape slows down
the participation
process
Top management
& HR department
have full power
over KPI

Altering KPI
without informing
employee
Top management
as voice of
employees but
often this is not
the case
Inconsistency of
HR team, giving
false hope to
internal
employees

Power &
coercion

No union or
limited in-house
union

Depend on top
management as a
mouthpiece

The culture of
poaching

Selection based
on who you
know

Job security

Source: Compiled from interview data

Generation gap: co-existence of the younger and older generations

While market liberalisation has brought in a new generation of leaders and young
followers who are enthusiastic and well equipped to embrace the new open system, it
has also resulted in a generation gap where the old and new generations of leaders and
subordinates co-exist (Grachev & Bobina 2006). Three employees in the study
expressed their concern about work relationships between the younger and the older
(traditional) generations. Employees of the older generation seem to be passive and
taken aback by new technology and prefer the old way of doing things. This group of
employees also tends to believe that an organisation should be hierarchical in nature
and leaders should give direct orders. However, the participants in the study did not
include older (traditional) generation employees with those views and thus the study is

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unable to demonstrate evidence from their viewpoints. It seems possible that the older
generation of employees are more comfortable with their place and do not like
changes, particularly the proactive way of making decisions. The proposition that
younger and older workers may view work and self in fundamentally different ways is
not new. Life career stage models (Levinson 1986) suggest that the early years are a
period of establishment and later years are associated with a stronger sense of self and
life. In these cases, leaders must possess management skills that can deal with conflict
at the micro level such as dealing with old (traditional) and young (modern)
employees and respond to their different expectations. (Ismail & Ford 2010).

Nature of work
The perceptions of the employees in this study are consistent with the literature on the
nature of work, particularly job enrichment, which has been studied for decades
(Hackman et al. 1975). It is the opportunities to learn new things and to introduce new
things that get people excited to work. Ten employees (24%) claimed that they get
highly engaged in their job when given new projects to run. It can be seen that
employees crave challenging work because of their thirst for different knowledge.
However, when a job is routine, employees become uninterested and having to
complete a task seems like a forced effort, thus lowering their level of engagement.

Bureaucratic process: the red tape

In most organisations, participative decision making is very much welcomed, but a
bureaucratic (red tape) system makes it hard to complete any task. There is evidence
that employees decision making is entwined with various items of paperwork that
slow the process. Employees, after making a decision and being approved by their
immediate supervisor, need to fill in paperwork. This process goes on to the top
management. At times, different paperwork needs to be signed and approved by people
in different departments and at different levels. This eventually affects an employees
level of engagement. Although there are organisations that seem to be technologically
forward driven, there are other organisations that seem more orthodox. Employees
complain that the system is slow and the technology is faulty and that their
productivity is very much affected by this. When the system does not work, employees
are forced to use the manual way of doing things; for example, instead of submitting

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an assignment online, employees need to submit it manually. Having inefficient

technology hinders the implementation of HPWP and ultimately adversely affects
employee engagement.

Organisational politics
According to institutional theory, well-organised institutional environments are more
stable than those where corruption, dishonesty and inefficiency proliferate (Kets de
Vries 2000). In this case, there is evidence that many institutions have not yet adopted
an open system. Although the organisations embrace the idea of high-performance
practices, inefficiency in the environment leads to highly complex and ambiguous
systems. In this study, more than half of the employees (23 employees) voiced their
disappointment in organisational politics which proliferate throughout the departments.
Peng and Heaths (1996) study on informal institutions (collectivistic socialist values
and popularity of networks and personal forms of exchange) produced a description
which characterises the environment in this study. It is not the law or institutional
structure that determines an employees individual achievement but who the employee
knows in a position of power or authority.

Intragroup versus intergroup relations: working in teams

Thirteen employees (14% of coded references) noted that disengagement, if any,
mainly occurs when employees are not cooperative. Employees in this study expressed
that organisational goals can only be achieved through cooperation and a collective
pool of energy and knowledge. The study revealed evidence of two different scenarios
in relation to intragroup versus intergroup members.
In the intragroup scenario, problems occur when individuals cannot compromise due to
individual motives or character. For instance, in an individual-based pay-forperformance system, individual employees strive to achieve individual goals instead of
departmental goals. This occurs mainly in organisations where rewards and appraisal
do not take team goals and achievements into consideration. In a high-performing
organisation, team-based rewards and team appraisal are practised. What is rather
perplexing is that employees seem to work well within their intragroup but not with
other groups outside their department (intergroups).

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In the intergroup scenario, employees work with people from other departments. In
modern organisations, project-based work requires employees to work with people
from other departments. Regrettably, the people interviewed in this study said they
were unable to do so, because they neither knew the people from the other departments
nor could they get along with them. Cohesion among group members was difficult
due to this lack of personal relationships. In a collective society, network connection is
important in getting a job done. It is therefore critical that management and leaders
understand that teamwork does not come naturally to all employees. Some
organisations engage in team development training as a way to solve this problem.

5.5 Summary
The qualitative findings presented in this chapter have provided some detailed insights
into the factors influencing employee engagement. The use of semi-structured
interviews clarified the ways in which individuals are engaged at work. Analysis of the
interviews demonstrated three major resources that enhance employee engagement:
empowering leadership behaviour, high-performance work practices and religiosity.
The findings highlight how micro-institutions can be affected by the macroinstitutional context. Taken together, these results suggest that there is a complex
interplay between empowering leadership behaviour, HPWP, religiosity and
engagement. The analysis enabled a rich understanding of employee engagement.
Nevertheless, these findings from Study 1 (qualitative study) required corroboration
from Study 2 (quantitative study) to strengthen the research findings. Since both
qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted concurrently, it was crucial to
investigate whether the quantitative study yielded similar results or not. The next
chapter focuses on the survey data (Study 2) and provides the quantitative analysis in
testing the hypotheses derived in Chapters 2 and 3.

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CHAPTER 6: STUDY 2 A SURVEY: DETERMINING

FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
_____________________________________________________________________

6.1 Introduction
This chapter investigates the association between empowering leadership behaviour,
high-performance work practices and an employees level of engagement. The study
also examines the possible role that the personal factor of religiosity may play in the
relationship between empowering leadership behaviour, high-performance work
practices and employee engagement. Finally, the study explores the differences
between those who are highly engaged and those who are not highly engaged at work.
The chapter is divided into eight sections. First, the study reports the demographic data
of the respondents. Second, the preliminary examination of the descriptive statistics is
demonstrated. This is followed by a reliability analysis of the scale used. Next, the
convergent and discriminant validity correlation matrix is examined. Fifth, the findings
from a series of multivariate analyses are presented. Sixth, a test of group differences
is conducted. Finally, the seventh section discusses the findings and the results of
testing the hypotheses, followed by a conclusion.
The hypotheses were tested by examining the direct relationship between variables by
using a series of multiple regressions. According to Hair (2006), multiple regression
analysis produces the best estimates of a dependent variable from a number of
independent variables. Regression analyses, using SPSS 18.0, was further conducted
to assess the relations between empowering leader behaviour, high-performance work
practices and engagement. Next, hierarchical regression was used to explore the
moderating effect of religiosity. The hierarchical regression procedure specifies that
the variables are entered into the equation in a specific order in blocks, supported by a
theoretical argument, determining the contribution of each independent variable to the
prediction of the dependent variable, after other demographics variable are controlled
for (Hair 2006).

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6.2 Sample Characteristics

This section presents an overview of the demographic characteristics of the
respondents to the survey questionnaire (Table 6.1). The overview presents the extent
to which the sample is similar to the population studied and thus provides a
generalisation of the findings.
A total of 278 respondents participated in the survey; 41% were male and 59% female.
In terms of age, the group can be categorised into three groups: young, middle and
older groups. The young group consisted of those younger than 30, of which there
were 82 respondents, comprising 30% of the sample. The majority comprised those in
the middle age group, aged between 31 and 40, of which there were 119 respondents
(43% of the sample). There were 62 respondents (22% of the sample) aged between 41
and 50. The older group was those aged between 51 and 60 and made up 5% of the
sample (14 employees).
The vast majority of the sample were Malay employees, who comprised 216
respondents (78%). Another 14% (40 respondents) were Chinese employees and 18%
(7 respondents) were Indian employees. Only four respondents (1%) indicated their
ethnicity as Other; one was Indian Muslim and three were Peranakan. The majority
of the sample (138 respondents; 50%) had a degree or professional qualification (e.g.,
ACCA: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). Thirty-one respondents
(11%) had at least finished secondary school and 87 respondents (31%) had a
certificate or diploma. The most highly educated group comprised 21 respondents
(8%). The vast majority worked at the executive level (214 respondents; 77%). Fortynine respondents (18%) held a position at the supervisory level while 14 respondents
(5%) had a position at top level management.

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Table 6.1: Demographic data of the sample respondents

Frequency
Gender

Age

Ethnicity

Educational qualification

Current position

Number of years in the

present company

Number of years in the

present job

Annual income

Male
Female
Under 30
31 to 40
41 to 50
51 to 60
Over 61
Malay
Chinese
Indian
Other
Secondary school & below
Certificate / Diploma
Degree / Professional
Masters / Doctorate
Non-managerial level
Executive level
Supervisory level
Top management & above
Up to 4 years
5 to 7 years
8 to 10 years
11 years or more
Up to 4 years
5 to 7 years
8 to 10 years
11 years or more
Less than RM 40,000
RM 40,001 to 80,000
RM 80,001 to 120,000
RM 120,001 to 160,000
RM 160,001 & above
Total*

113
165
82
119
62
14
0
216
40
18
4
31
87
138
21
0
214
49
14
104
37
22
114
114
45
25
91
111
126
31
4
6
278

Percentage
(%)
41
59
30
43
22
5
0
78
14
7
1
11
31
50
8
0
77
18
5
38
13
8
41
42
16
9
33
40
45
11
2
2
100

*Total of each category may not accumulate to 278 due to missing data
The distribution of the sample based on tenure shows two extreme figures, with one
group working up to four years (104 respondents; 38 %) and the other group working
for 11 years or more (114 respondents; 41%). Smaller groups had worked for their
company between 5 and 7 years (37 respondents; 13%) and between 8 and 10 years
(22 respondents; 8%).
The distribution of the sample based on tenure with the present job also demonstrates
two extreme figures, with one group working up to four years (114 respondents; 42%)
178

and the other group working for 11 years or more (91 respondents; 33%). Smaller
groups had worked for the company between 5 and 7 years (45 respondents; 16%) and
between 8 and 10 years (25 respondents; 9 %).
The sample distribution was based on the annual income of the employees in Ringgit
Malaysia (RM). The distribution shows that the majority of employees earned less than
RM80,000 per year. Specifically, 111 respondents (40%) earned less than RM40,000
per year while another 126 respondents (45%) earned from RM40,001 to RM80,000
per year. Only 31 respondents (11%) earned from RM80,000 to RM120,000 per year
and 10 respondents (4%) earned more than RM120,000 per year.

6.3 Preliminary Analyses

6.3.1 Non-response bias
Due to the prolonged nature of the responses to the questionnaire, the data received
were divided in two phases within the seven-month collection period. The first phase
comprised the first three months of data collection and the second phase comprised the
next four months of data collection. As recommended by Armstrong and Overton
(2010), non-response bias could be assessed by comparing the early and the late
respondents. The late respondents were assumed to demonstrate the characteristics of
non-respondents.
The responses of the two groups were compared using t-test analysis. The statistics
across the two groups were compared across all the major variables. With the
exception of the high-performance work practices variable, the study found there was
no significant difference in the means for the first phase and the second phase groups
at the 0.05 level. For the high-performance work practices variable, the effect size
resulted in only a small indication of the magnitude of the differences between the two
groups. This showed that response bias was not a major concern in the study.

179

Table 6.2: T-Test comparing first and second group of respondents

Variables

First group
(mean)

Significant
level

t-value

Effect size

4.99

Second
group
(mean)
4.74

Empowering
leadership
behaviour
Highperformance
work practices
Religiosity
Employee
Engagement
N

0.08

1.736

0.011

4.68

4.39

0.02

2.438

0.023

6.52
4.82

6.66
4.88

0.06
0.58

-2.009
-0.549

0.014
0.001

105

173

6.3.2 Missing data and cleaning up

Missing data is one of the most prevalent problems in data analysis (Tabachnick &
Fidell 2007). In this study, all variables had less than 6% of missing values, indicating
that the data did not contain high levels of missing data. Due to the low proportion of
missing values, no cases were dropped. As suggested by Tabachnick and Fidell (2007),
if the proportion of missing values is very small, then means values can be substituted
to estimate the missing values. Consistent with this view, means values were inserted
for the missing data. Imputation is the process of estimating the missing value based
on valid values of other variables and/or cases in the sample (Hair et al. 2010). This
mean imputation is conducted by applying the SPSS procedure with a 'Replace with
mean' option which calculates the mean value for the variable and gives the missing
case the value (Pallant 2011).
The next step was to examine and clean the data for any peculiar patterns of answers.
Response set bias occurs when respondents fail to discriminate among the items and
respond to every question in the same manner. In order to ensure that respondents are
reading the questions in a thoughtful manner and to reduce or eliminate response set
bias, Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) proposed including negatively worded items in
the questionnaire. The reason is that, if a respondent fails to recognise the reversal of
the items, he or she could be engaging in some type of response bias and perhaps
should be removed from the sample to increase the accuracy of the data being
180

analysed. Since the researcher had keyed-in the data, she was able to identify 27
respondents who may not have answered the survey reliably. This was because, apart
from the descriptive data, all the interval data were marked as 7 on the Likert scale,
stating Completely Agree with all the items, including the negative-response items. It
would seem that these respondents did not take the time to read and understand the
items. Their responses were not useful for the study as they would only distort the data
and the analyses. These 27 cases were then deleted before conducting further analysis.
Another case was deleted due to the job position of the respodent, i.e., Clerk, which
was outside the scope of the study, which was limited to middle level management.
The final number of cases for the study was 278.

6.3.3 Normality and outliers

Screening continuous variables for normality is a crucial phase in a multivariate
analysis. The assumption is that statistical inference becomes less robust as
distributions depart from normality (Mellahi & Budhwar 2010). The distribution is
measured by examining the skewness and kurtosis. Each of the scales was examined in
terms of skewness and kurtosis: Empowering leadership (Skewness = -0.783, standard
error = 0.150), (Kurtosis = 0.494, standard error = 0.298); HPWP (Skewness = -0.427,
standard error = 0.153), (Kurtosis = 0.800, standard error = 0.304); Religiosity
(Skewness = -2.355, standard error = 0.165), (Kurtosis = 7.015, standard error =
0.328); Employee engagement (Skewness = -0.175, standard error = 0.153), (Kurtosis
= 0.467, standard error = 0.305).
According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2007), with reasonably large samples, skewness
will not make a substantive difference in the analysis. In terms of kurtosis, the risk of
having an underestimate of the variance can be reduced with a large sample (200 or
more). Since these two tests are too sensitive for a large sample (i.e., 278 cases), the
histogram was inspected to examine the shape of the distribution. The inspection of the
histogram was based on the Kolmogorow-Smirnow test which assesses the normality
of the distribution of the scores. A non-signficant result, i.e., a significant value of
more than 0.05, indicates normality. However, a significant value of 0.000 suggests a
violation of the assumption of normality, which is quite common in larger samples
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(Pallant 2011). Most of the dimensions are only reasonably normally distributed due to
the large sample. According to Hair et al. (2010), for sample sizes of 200 or more,
significant departures from normality may not have a substantial impact on the results.
Further, when group comparisons are carried out, such as in ANOVA, the differing
sample sizes between groups, if large enough, can even cancel out the detrimental
effects (Hair et al. 2010). Consequently, the data were also checked for outliers. No
extreme outliers were found.

6.3.4 Distribution of latent constructs

This section provides a general picture of the respondents evaluation of each construct
to understand more about the characteristics of the sample in this research. Table 6.3
presents the statistical distribution (minimum, maximum, mean and standard
deviations) of the scores of the various constructs.

Table 6.3: Statistical distribution of the various constructs

Leadership - Lead by example

Leadership - Participative decision making
Leadership - Coaching
Leadership - Informing
Leadership - Showing concern
Empowering leadership behaviour
HPWP - Comprehensive training
HPWP - Developmental performance
appraisal
HPWP - Reward system
HPWP - Staffing
HPWP - Job security
HPWP - Employee participation
HPWP - Formal grievance
HPWP
Religiosity
Engagement-Vigour
Engagement-Dedication
Engagement-Absorption
Employee Engagement

N Minimum Maximum
274
1.00
7.00
272
1.00
7.00
273
1.20
7.00
275
1.00
7.00
273
1.00
7.00
265
1.32
6.88
267
1.00
6.75
270
1.00
7.00
273
269
273
274
273
255
218
267
271
263
253

1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.50
4.06
1.83
2.00
2.00
2.00

7.00
7.00
7.00
7.00
7.00
6.50
7.00
7.00
7.00
6.83
6.83

Mean
4.90
4.86
4.83
4.79
4.73
4.84
4.24
4.67

Std.
Deviation
1.27
1.19
1.27
1.20
1.26
1.18
0.91
1.19

4.12
4.49
4.49
4.46
4.37
4.42
6.60
4.72
5.05
4.63
4.78

0.85
1.05
1.13
1.33
1.33
0.83
0.46
0.78
1.01
0.85
0.81

Note: Based on a Likert scale from 1 (Completely Disagree) to 7 (Completely Agree)

182

6.4 Reliability Analysis

In accordance to Churchills (1979) recommendation, refinement of the scale requires
the computing of reliability coefficients (Cronbachs alphas). The Cronbachs alpha
for all questions under each criterion should be above 0.70, indicating that the
questions deal with the same underlying construct (Spector 1992) or, as Moss et al.
(1998) suggested, an alpha score of 0.6 is generally acceptable. The Cronbachs alphas
were computed for each of the variables as well as the dimensions in the variables to
ascertain the extent to which the items making up the dimensions and variables shared
common aspects. The following reliability analysis ranges from 0.769 to 0.984, with
the exception of two dimensions under HPWP: comprehensive training ( = 0.583) and
reward systems ( = 0.027). Those dimensions with Cronbachs alphas of 0.7 and
higher were retained as they presented adequate reliabilities (Nunnaly & Berstein 1994).
Two items were deleted from HPWP due to the low reliability of the items. The item from
Training, At my organisation, training is viewed as a cost, and the item from Reward,
The wages in this work unit are not very competitive for this industry, were both reversecoded items. Both items were recoded before any analysis was conducted. This was to
ensure that all items scores were on the same scale, i.e., a high score indicates high
agreement. All reverse-coded items were properly recoded for the main survey by
using the Transform and Recode function in SPSS and still yielded lower reliability
results. As discussed in Chapter 4, such reverse-coded items may not operate in the
Malaysian setting even though their reliability was acceptable in the pilot study. The
argument is that if a respondent fails to recognise the reversal of the items, he or she could
be engaging in some type of response bias and should be removed from the sample to
increase the accuracy of the data being analysed.
Both of these items were deleted because of low reliability, indicating that respondents may
not have had the same understanding of the items. The deletion of the items increased the
value of Cronbachs alpha for the dimensions of comprehensive training and reward
systems, which were 0.784 and 0.638 respectively. This further increased the overall
Cronbachs alpha for the HPWP variable to 0.938. Additionally, this implied that only 80
items would be used for the final analysis. The final Cronbachs alphas are illustrated in
Table 6.4. Employee job security, employee participation program and formal
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grievance were not included in this test (Table 6.4) since each of them only included
one item.
Table 6.4: Reliability score for all variables
Employee Engagement
Vigour
Dedication
Absorption
Employee engagement (All items)
High-Performance Work Practices
Comprehensive training
Developmental performance appraisal
Reward systems
Selective staffing
High-performance work practices (All items)
Empowering Leadership Behaviour
Leading by example
Participative decision making
Coaching
Informing
Showing concern
Empowering leadership behaviour (All items)
Religiosity
All items

Cronbachs Alpha
0.769
0.881
0.784
0.923
0.784
0.806
0.638
0.880
0.902
0.930
0.926
0.939
0.927
0.944
0.984
0.876

6.5 Construct Validity

The construct validity of the scales is assessed by its convergent validity and
discriminant validity (Branine & Pollard 2010). The convergent validity and
discriminant validity of the scales need to be conducted before testing the hypotheses
of the study.

6.5.1 Convergent validity

Convergent validity refers to the degree to which multiple measures of the same
construct demonstrate agreement or convergence, i.e., measures that supposedly assess
the same thing should correlate highly if they are in fact valid measures of the same
underlying construct (Al-Hamadi et al. 2007). The convergent validity was
demonstrated by performing confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using AMOS 18. The
184

tests were conducted on all variables with the exception of the religiosity variable
since it did not consist of sub-scales. The purpose of conducting Confirmatory Factor
Analysis (CFA) was to ensure that each dimension had a good fit within each
construct. All the questions were from established questionnaires and the dimensions
were taken from previous studies which had shown that they had good psychometric
properties. Religiosity however, was treated as a single construct with no dimensions.
Thus, running CFA on Religiosity was unnecessary. As recommended by Tabachnick
and Fidell (2007), several goodness-of-fit indices were used to assess the overall
model fit for each CFA: the normed fit index (NFI) (Bentler & Bonett 1980), the
comparative fit index (CFI) (Bentler 1990; Hu & Bentler 1999), the root-mean-square
error of approximation (RMSEA) (Browne et al. 1993), the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI)
(Bentler & Bonett 1980), and the incremental fist index (IFI) (Bollen 1989). Further,
Schumacker and Lomax (2004) recommended a factor loading above 0.5. Table 6.5
shows the values that indicate an acceptable model fit. The following paragraphs
elaborate on a more detailed result of the CFA for each of the scales.

Table 6.5: Criteria for a model fit

Normed fit index (NFI)
Comparative fit index (CFI)
Root-mean-square error of approximation
(RMSEA)
Tucker-Lewis index (TLI)
Incremental fist index (IFI)

Acceptable values of a good fit

0.95 and above
0.90 and above
0.08 or less/ 0.1 and less
0.90 and above
0.90 and above

Employee engagement
Responses to 17 items were factor analysed and the initial model yielded an acceptable
degree of fit (CFI=0.91; IFI=0.91; RMSEA=0.08). The individual factor loadings
indicated that all indicators were both significant and loaded greater than the minimum
recommended value of 0.50, with the exception of three items. Two items from
dimensions of vigour (At my work, I feel bursting with energy; factor loaded at 0.46
and At my work, I always persevere, even when things do not go well; factor loaded
at 0.46) and one item from absorption (When I am working, I forget everything else
around me; factor loaded at 0.43) were dropped from the model, resulting in an
increase in model fit (CFI=0.94; TLI=0.92; IFI=0.95; RMSEA=0.07). In the second
185

model, one item (I get carried away when I am working; factor loaded at 0.48) was
also dropped, resulting in an increase in model fit (CFI=0.97; TLI=0.95; IFI=0.97;
RMSEA=0.06; Chi-square = 127.55; Degrees of freedom = 62; p-value = 0.000). All
the other items with factor loadings greater than 0.50 were therefore retained (Table
6.6). The reliability coefficient for the measure was 0.913

Table 6.6:Employee engagement factor item loadings

Component Matrix
Scale item
At my job I feel strong and vigorous
When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to work
I can continue working for very long periods at a time
At my job, I am very mentally resilient
My job inspires me
I am proud of the work I do
To me, my job is challenging
I find the work that I do full of meaning and purpose
I am enthusiastic about my job
I am immersed in my work
Time flies when I am working
I feel happy when I am working intensely
It is difficult to detach myself from my job

Component
0.66
0.64
0.63
0.68
0.81
0.84
0.64
0.80
0.79
0.52
0.72
0.85
0.53

Empowering leadership behaviour

Responses to 25 items were factor analysed and the results indicated that the model
was an acceptable fit for the data (CFI=0.90; TLI=0.88; IFI=0.91; RMSEA=0.10; Chisquare = 1088.54; Degrees of freedom = 265; p-value = 0.000). The RMSEA of 0.10
indicated that the model fitted the data marginally. Reducing other parameters did not
change the RMSEA value. According to Browne and colleagues (1993), the logic
underlying RMSEA is that no model will ever fit exactly in the population and the best
one can hope for is a close approximation to reality. They suggested that a RMSEA
value of 0.05 or less reflects a model of close fit, whereas values between 0.05 and
0.08 indicate a reasonable fit. RMSEA values greater than 0.1 are not recommended as
they do not resemble a good fit. In this case, the RMSEA had a value of exactly 0.1.
Nevertheless, since the value did not go over 0.1, the model could be deemed to be a
marginal fit and could be used in the study. All the items consisting of factor loadings
greater than 0.50 were therefore retained (Table 6.7). The reliability coefficient for the
final measure was 0.976.
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Table 6.7: Empowering leadership behaviour factor item loadings

Component Matrix
Scale item
Sets high standards for performance by his/her own behaviour
Works as hard as he/she can
Sets a good example by the way he/she behaves
Works as hard as anyone in my work group
Leads by example
Encourages work group members to express ideas/suggestions
Listens to my work groups ideas and suggestions
Considers my work groups ideas when he /she disagrees with them
Uses my work groups suggestions to make decisions that affect us
Gives all work group members a chance to voice their opinions
Provides help to work group members
Suggests ways to improve my work groups performance
Teaches work group members how to solve problems on their own
Pays attention to my work groups efforts
Encourages work group members to solve problems together
Explains company goals
Explains company decisions
Explains how my work group fits into the company
Explains his/her decisions and actions to my work group
Explains rules and expectations to my work group
Stays in touch with my work group
Shows concern for work group members well-being
Treats work group members as equals
Takes the time to discuss work group members concerns patiently
Gives work group members honest and fair answers

Component
0.63
0.88
0.91
0.91
0.92
0.86
0.85
0.82
0.83
0.87
0.89
0.88
0.84
0.88
0.85
0.71
0.82
0.88
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.90
0.82
0.86
0.89

High-performance work practices

The responses to 16 items were factor analysed and the results indicated that the model
was an acceptable fit for the data (CFI=0.90; TLI=0.84; IFI=0.90; RMSEA=0.10; Chisquare = 341.07; Degrees of freedom = 86; p-value = 0.000). The RMSEA of 0.10
indicated that the model fitted the data marginally. However, similar to the above case,
the data could be used in this study since all the items were from established scales.
Only 13 of the factor loading items are reported below since the other three items were
single subscale items. All the items which consist of factor loadings greater than 0.50
were retained (Table 6.8). The reliability coefficient for the final measure was 0.889

187

Table 6.8: High-performance work practices factor item loadings

Component Matrix
Scale item
The training process for members of my work unit is extensive
There are different kinds of training programs available for members of my
work unit to attend
Training is placed as a priority for the employees in my work unit
Pay is closely tied to individual performance
Differences in pay across members of this work unit represent differences
in their contribution
A lot of importance is placed on the staffing process in this unit
The use of employee selection process for a job in this unit is extensive
(e.g., use of tests, interviews)
Selection involves screening many job candidates
Selection emphasises the employees ability to collaborate and work in
teams
Selection focuses on selecting the best all-round candidate, regardless of the
specific job
At my organisation, a great deal of effort is given to measuring employee
performance
When performance is discussed, a lot of emphasis is placed on finding
avenues for employees personal development
Raises, promotions, etc. are closely tied to performance appraisal

Component
0.77
0.78
0.70
0.83
0.56
0.73
0.78
0.79
0.78
0.78
0.72
0.81
0.79

6.5.2 Discriminant validity

A scales validity can be further assessed by examining the associations and relationships
between the variables. Discriminant validity is demonstrated by the fact that reliabilities for
each scale are higher than the correlations among different scales (Podsakoff & Organ
1986; Campbell & Fiske 1959). For example, the reliability of employee engagement ( =
0.92) was higher than the correlation of employee engagement with empowering leadership
behaviour ( = 0.45) (Table 6.9). Table 6.9 shows that employee engagement was
significantly and positively associated with empowering leadership behaviour (r = 0.45,
P<0.01) and high-performance work practices (r = 0.38, P<0.01). In relation to the
empowering leadership behaviour variables, the opportunity to participate in decision
making was highly correlated to employee engagement (r = 0.49, P<0.01). Other variables
of empowering leadership were also significantly correlated to employee engagement, with
the r-value ranging from 0.40 to 0.44 (p<0.01). In terms of high-performance work
practices, employee engagement was significantly related to the overall empowering
leadership behaviour (r=0.38, p<0.01). In relation to religiosity, employee engagement was
significantly related to religiosity (r = 0.15, p<0.05).
188

Table 6.9: Intercorrelations among variables

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Vigour
Dedication
Absorption
Employee Engagement
Lead by example
Participative decision
making
Coaching
Informing
Showing concern
Empowering leadership
behaviour
Comprehensive training
Reward system
Selection & staffing
Developmental
appraisal
Job security
Employee participation
Formal grievance
High-performance work
practices
Religiosity

1
1.00
0.80**
0.74**
0.91**
0.38**

1.00
0.80**
0.94**
0.45**

1.00
0.92**
0.33**

1.00
0.42**

1.00

0.43**
0.35**
0.39**
0.39**

0.50**
0.43**
0.45**
0.45**

0.38**
0.30**
0.32**
0.35**

0.49**
0.40**
0.42**
0.44**

0.42**
0.32**
0.19**
0.36**

0.50**
0.37**
0.29**
0.44**

0.38**
0.21*
0.13*
0.27**

0.28**
0.21**
0.28**
0.21**

0.37**
0.28**
0.31**
0.26**

0.35**
0.12

0.44**
0.15*

10

11

12

13

0.86**
0.89**
0.89**
0.85**

1.00
0.92**
0.89**
0.90**

1.00
0.91**
0.91**

1.00
0.89**

1.00

0.45**
0.33**
0.23**
0.39**

0.94**
0.48**
0.38**
0.56**

0.95**
0.54**
0.46**
0.62**

0.97**
0.55**
0.47**
0.62**

0.96**
0.56**
0.47**
0.63**

0.24**
0.14*
0.19*
0.16**

0.33**
0.22**
0.28**
0.23**

0.59**
0.31**
0.28**
0.36**

0.59**
0.33**
0.43**
0.41**

0.63**
0.36**
0.41**
0.39**

0.25**
0.15*

0.38**
0.15*

0.53**
0.07

0.61**
0.04

0.61**
0.08

0.95**
0.52**
0.47**
0.61**

1.00
0.55**
0.48**
0.64**

1.00
0.63**
0.81**

1.00
0.62**

1.00

0.66**
0.38**
0.40**
0.44**

0.60**
0.32**
0.38**
0.38**

0.64**
0.36**
0.39**
0.42**

0.73**
0.53**
0.57**
0.42**

0.66**
0.43**
0.42**
0.34**

0.64**
0.03

0.59**
0.03

0.62**
0.05

0.85**
0.04

0.75**
0.04

N = 278
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed)

189

14

15

16

17

0.80**
0.65**
0.58**
0.53**

1.00
0.54**
0.45**
0.43**

1.00
0.45**
0.42**

1.00
0.46**

1.00

0.90**
0.09

0.83**
0.04

0.73**
0.07

0.76**
0.03

0.67**
0.05

18

19

1.00
0.08

1.00

6.6 Regression Analyses for Testing Hypotheses

Each of the hypotheses proposed in Chapters 2 and 3 is tested and discussed (see
Figure 6.1). Preliminary analyses were conducted as recommended by Tabachnick and
Fidell (2007) to ensure there was no violation of the assumptions of sample size,
multicollinearity, outliers, normality and linearity. Regression analyses were used to
explore the relationship between the independent and dependent variables while
hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the significance of the moderating
variable. The coefficients of determination (R square value), the regression coefficients
(Beta coefficient) and the p-values for each of the significant relationships were
reported. Field (2005) suggested that the significance level (p-value) for each variable
should be less than 0.05 to demonstrate that the variable is making a statistically
significant and unique contribution to the prediction of the dependent variable.

Figure 6.1: Conceptual framework for Study 2

Religiosity
H3
H4
Empowering
leadership
behaviour

H1
Employee
Engagement

H5
H2

Highperformance
work practices

190

Assumptions for multiple regression analysis

The power analysis as detailed in Chapter 4 required 123 cases for a medium effect
size. The final sample for this study was 278 cases, which exceeded the required
number. Further, there was no evidence of multicollinearity. Multicollinearity occurs
when the independent variables are highly correlated (above r=0.9). None of the
independent variables had high correlations (r<0.9). Checking for extreme scores is an
important part of the initial data screening process. Outliers are those with standardised
residual values above about 3.3 or less than -3.3. In this study, no outliers were found
in any of the variables. Additionally, the distributions of the scores in this study were
checked using histograms and it was found that most were only reasonably normally
distributed. However, as mentioned in Section 6.3.3, for sample sizes of 200 or more,
significant departures from normality may not have a substantial impact on the results
(Hair et al . 2010).

Hypothesis 1: Empowering leadership behaviour will significantly predict the

variance in employee engagement among employees in the financial sector in
Malaysia.
Support was found for Hypothesis 1 with a simple regression analysis revealing that
the effect of empowering leadership behaviour in predicting employee engagement
was significant (=0.466, p=0.000), after controlling for seven demographic variables:
gender, age, ethnicity, educational qualification, job position, tenure and annual
income. Individually, the multiple regression analysis demonstrated a significant
positive relationship between participative decision making and employee engagement
(=0.656, p=0.000). Thus, a leader who enables participative decision making will
increase employees level of engagement. Coaching also showed a significant
relationship with employee engagement; however, the relationship was negative. ( =
0.511, p<0). Thus, the findings demonstrate that too much coaching could cause lower
engagement. Employees may feel that they are being too closely supervised and
monitored, thus lowering their sense of freedom at work. It may be that coaching is
recognized as beneficial for employees but an unusually high level of coaching could
be detrimental to employee engagement. Table 6.10 summarises the regression
analysis for Hypothesis 1.
191

Table 6.10: Regression model Empowering leadership behaviour and employee

engagement
Degree of employee engagement

t-value
p-value
Simple regression model
Empowering leadership behaviour (aggregate)
R
Adjusted R
F-value
Multiple regression model
Lead by example
Participative decisionmaking
Coaching
Informing
Showing concern
R
Adjusted R
F-value

0.466
0.217
0.214
68.682

8.287

0.000

0.129
0.656
-0.511
0.062
0.148
0.259
0.244
17.251

0.976
4.285
-2.790
0.394
0.995

0.330
0.000
0.006
0.694
0.320

In order to eliminate any possible effect of a variable external to the proposed model,
seven control variables gender, age, ethnicity, educational qualification, job position,
tenure and annual income and empowering leadership behaviour were included
simultaneously in the regression equation. The seven control variables were entered in
the first model. These control variables explained 8% of the variance in the influence
of empowering leadership behaviour on the level of engagement among employees. In
Model 2 (Table 6.11), the main effect of empowering leadership behaviour was
entered. The result was significant at 0.000 level. Empowering leadership behaviour
explained 29% of the variance in employee engagement (R=0.292, Adjusted
R=0.262). Analysis of the control variables showed that ethnicity, educational
qualification, tenure and annual income were not significantly related to the influence
of empowering leadership behaviour on employee engagement (p>0.1). However,
gender, age and job position were significantly related to empowering leaderships
influence on engagement (p<0.05). Another round of analysis was conducted to test if
these control variables would affect the significance of the influence of leadership
behaviour on engagement by removing gender, age and job position. The outcome still
produced a significant result (=0.470, p<0.01). Consequently, it follows that there is a
positive relationship between empowering leadership behaviour and employee

192

engagement. The more a leader exhibits an empowering leadership role, the higher the
level of engagement will be among employees.

Table 6.11: Regression model Empowering leadership behaviour and employee

engagement (with control variables)

Control variables
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Educational qualification
Job position
Tenure
Annual income
Main effect
Empowering leader behaviour
(ELB)
R
Adjusted R
F-value

0.084
0.181
-0.163
-0.151
0.211
-0.191
-0.071

Model 1
t-value p-value
1.155
1.714
-2.331
-1.824
2.378
-1.981
-0.685

0.084
0.051
2.530

0.250
0.088
0.021
0.070
0.018
0.049
0.494

Model 2
t-value p-value

0.132
0.217
-0.075
-0.119
0.183
-0.096
-0.070

2.051
2.324
-1.191
-1.621
2.338
-1.118
-0.764

0.042
0.021
0.235
0.107
0.020
0.265
0.446

0.480

7.485

0.000

0.292
0.262
9.852

Hypothesis 2: High-performance work practice will significantly predict the

variance in employee engagement among employees in the financial sector in
Malaysia.
The regression analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between high
performance work practices and employee engagement (=0.381, P=0.000) (Table
6.12). Hypothesis 2 is therefore supported. Individually, the multiple regression
analysis demonstrated a significant positive relationship between selective staffing and
employee engagement (=0.311, p<0.05). Thus, the more that selective staffing is
exercised by an employer, the higher will be the level of engagement.

193

Table 6.12: Regression model HPWP and employee engagement

Degree of employee
engagement
p
t-value
value
Simple regression model
High performance work practices (aggregate)
R
Adjusted R
F-value
Multiple regression model
Comprehensive training
Developmental appraisal
Reward system
Selective staffing
Employee involvement program
Formal grievance system
Job security
R
Adjusted R
F-value

0.381
0.145
0.141
40.510

6.365

0.000

0.019
0.076
-0.045
0.311
0.095
0.024
-0.063
0.159
0.135
6.581

0.176
0.720
-0.547
2.409
1.234
0.331
-0.809

0.860
0.472
0.585
0.017
0.218
0.741
0.420

To remove any possible effect of a variable external to the proposed model, the seven
control variables were taken into consideration and entered simultaneously in the
regression equation. The results of the first model explained 8% of the variance in the
effect of high-performance work practices on the level of engagement. In the second
model, the main effect of high-performance work practices was entered and resulted in
a significant model at the 0.000 level (Table 6.13). High-performance work practices
explained 23% of the variance in employee engagement (R=0.227, Adjusted
R=0.193). Analysis of the control variables showed that age and job position were
significantly related to the influence of high-performance work practices on employee
engagement (p<0.05), while tenure was significant at p<0.1. Therefore, to test if these
control variables would have any affect on the significance of the influence of highperformance work practices on engagement, a regression analysis was performed by
removing age, job position and tenure. The final result of the analysis still produced a
significant result (=0.383, p<0.05). Consequently, it follows that there is a positive
relationship between high performance work practices and employee engagement. The
greater the adoption of high-performance work practices, the greater will be the level
of engagement among employees.

194

Table 6.13: Regression model HPWP and employee engagement (with control
variables)

Control variables
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Educational qualification
Job position
Tenure
Annual income
Main effect
High-performance work practices
(HPWP)
R
Adjusted R
F-value

0.084
0.181
-0.163
-0.151
0.211
-0.191
-0.071

Model 1
t-value p-value
1.127
1.673
-2.276
-1.781
2.322
-1.934
-0.668

0.084
0.049
2.411

0.261
0.096
0.024
0.077
0.021
0.055
0.505

Model 2
t-value p-value

0.073
0.262
-0.096
-0.098
0.198
-0.155
-0.073

1.069
2.604
-1.429
-1.249
2.363
-1.703
-0.741

0.287
0.010
0.155
0.213
0.019
0.090
0.460

0.398

5.803

0.000

0.227
0.193
6.696

Hypothesis 3: Personal resources such as religiosity will significantly predict the

variance in employee engagement among employees in the financial sector in
Malaysia.
The regression analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between religiosity
and employee engagement (=0.151, p<0.05). Hypothesis 3 is therefore supported.
However, to remove any possible effect of a variable external to the proposed model,
seven control variables were taken into consideration and entered simultaneously in
the regression equation. The results of the first model explained 8% of the variance in
the effect of religiosity on the level of engagement. In the second model, the main
effect of religiosity was entered and resulted in a significant model (p<0.05) (Table
6.14). Religiosity explained 11% of the variance in employee engagement (R=0.107,
Adjusted R=0.070). Analysis of the control variables showed that ethnicity, job
position, and tenure were significantly related to the influence of religiosity on
employee engagement (p<0.05). Therefore, to test if these control variables would
have any effect on the significance of religiositys influence on engagement, a
regression analysis was performed by removing ethnicity, job position and tenure. The
final result of the analysis still produced a significant result (=0.149, p<0.05).
Consequently, it follows that there is a positive relationship between religiosity and

195

employee engagement. The higher the religiosity of the employees, the higher will be
the level of engagement among employees.

Table 6.14: Regression model Religiosity and employee engagement (with

control variables)
Degree of employee engagement

t-value
p-value
Simple regression model
Religiosity
R
Adjusted R
F-value

0.151
0.023
0.018
4.711

Control variables
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Educational
qualification
Job position
Tenure
Annual income

Model 1
t-value
p-value

0.031

Model 2
t-value

p-value

0.084
0.181
-0.163
-0.151

1.166
1.731
-2.355
-1.843

0.245
0.085
0.019
0.067

0.098
0.149
-0.162
-0.155

1.373
1.424
-2.368
-1.910

0.171
0.156
0.019
0.058

0.211
-0.191
-0.071

2.403
-2.002
-0.692

0.017
0.047
0.490

0.224
-0.194
-0.079

2.568
-2.062
-0.775

0.011
0.040
0.439

0.154

2.203

0.029

Main effect
Religiosity
R
Adjusted R
F-value

2.170

0.084
0.052
2.583

0.107
0.070
4.854

Hypothesis 4: Religiosity moderates the relationship between empowering

leadership and employee engagement. Empowering leadership behaviour has a
stronger and more positive relationship with employee engagement among
employees who exhibit a high level of religiosity than employees who exhibit a low
level of religiosity.
The hierarchical regression analysis presented in Table 6.15 revealed that the full
model, including the control variables, the independent variables (empowering
leadership behaviour and high-performance work practices), the moderator
(religiosity) and the interaction effects,was significant at (F=13.599, p=0.000). When
compared to the first two models, the addition of interaction effects in the full model
196

increased the R significantly (R=0.392). This indicated that the hypothesised model
explained 39.2% of the variance in the influence of empowering leadership behaviour
on employee engagement. The results demonstrate that the relationship between
empowering leadership behaviour and engagement is moderated by religiosity
(=2.024, p=0.000). Hypothesis 4 is therefore supported.
In terms of the control variables, annual income was not significant in any of the three
models examined. Therefore, it did not affect the results. Ethnicity and tenure were
found to be significant in Model 1 but this effect became insignificant in Models 2 and
3. Thus ethnicity and tenure also did not influence the moderating effects in the two
models. Educational qualification was found to be significant in Models 1 and 3. The
other control variables of gender, age and job position were found to be significant in
Models 2 and 3. To test if these control variables would have any affect on the
significance of the interaction affect, another regression analysis was performed by
removing educational qualification, gender, age and job position. The final result of
the analysis still produced a significant result (=1.770, p=0.000). Thus, it follows that
religiosity does moderate the relationship between empowering leadership and
employee engagement. Empowering leadership is positively related to employee
engagement among employees who exhibit high levels of religiosity.

197

Table 6.15: Hierarchical regression analysis of the relationship between

empowering leadership behaviour and employee engagement with religiosity as
moderator
Model 1

Control variables
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Educational
qualification
Job position
Tenure
Annual income
Main effect
Empowering
leader behaviour
(ELB)
Interaction effect
ELB x
Religiosity
R
Adjusted R
F-value

Model 2

t-value p-value

Model 3

t-value p-value

t-value

p-value

0.084
0.181
-0.163
-0.151

1.155
1.714
-2.331
-1.824

0.250
0.088
0.021
0.070

0.132
0.217
-0.075
-0.119

2.051
2.324
-1.191
-1.621

0.042
0.021
0.235
0.107

0.156
-0.057
-0.531
-0.071

2.223
2.078
-1.233
-1.697

0.027
0.039
0.219
0.091

0.211
-0.191
-0.071

2.378
-1.981
-0.685

0.018
0.049
0.494

0.183
-0.096
-0.070

2.338
-1.118
-0.764

0.020
0.265
0.446

0.272
-0.003
-0.010

2.498
-1.194
-0.839

0.013
0.234
0.403

0.480

7.485

0.000

-1.564

-4.214

0.000

2.024

5.580

0.000

0.084
0.051
2.530

0.292
0.262
9.852

0.392
0.363
13.599

Hypothesis 5: Religiosity moderates the relationship between high-performance

work practices and employee engagement. High-performance work practices
have a stronger and more positive relationship with employee engagement among
employees who exhibit a high level of religiosity than for employees who exhibit a
low level of religiosity.
The hierarchical regression analysis presented in Table 6.16 revealed that the full
model was not significant (p>0.1). The first model did not contribute much to
explaining the variance in employee engagement (R=0.084, Adjusted R=0.049). The
second model was significant, with high-performance work practices explaining 23%
of the variance in employee engagement (=0.398, p=0.000). However, when the
interaction effect was entered in Model 3, the model was no longer significant (p>0.1).
To test whether the significant control variables of age, ethnicity and job position
would affect the significance of the relationship, a regression analysis was performed,
removing these control variables. The finding showed that the final model still yielded
insignificant results (=0.082, p>0.1). Therefore, it can be concluded that Hypothesis 5
is not supported. Thus it follows that religiosity does not moderate the relationship
between high-performance work practices and employee engagement.
198

Table 6.16: Hierarchical regression analysis of the relationship between HPWP

and employee engagement with religiosity as moderator
Model 1
t-value p-value

Control variables
Gender
0.084
Age
0.181
Ethnicity
-0.163
Educational
-0.151
qualification
Job position
0.211
Tenure
-0.191
Annual income -0.071
Main effect
Highperformance
work practices
(HPWP)
Interaction effect
HPWP x
Religiosity
R
0.084
Adjusted R
0.049
F-value
2.411

Model 2
t-value p-value

Model 3
t-value p-value

1.127
1.673
-2.276
-1.781

0.261
0.096
0.024
0.077

0.073
0.262
-0.096
-0.098

1.069
2.604
-1.429
-1.249

0.287
0.010
0.155
0.213

0.081
0.224
-0.159
-0.103

1.180
2.112
-1.815
-1.309

0.239
0.036
0.071
0.192

2.322
-1.934
-0.668

0.021
0.055
0.505

0.198
-0.155
-0.073

2.363
-1.703
-0.741

0.019
0.090
0.460

0.220
-0.142
-0.090

2.553
-1.551
-0.906

0.011
0.123
0.366

0.398

5.803

0.000

0.282

0.282

0.778

0.314

1.119

0.264

0.227
0.193
6.696

0.233
0.195
6.100

6.7 T-Test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA): Differences between

Groups
T-test and ANOVA were conducted to explore differences between groups. Mean
scores were used to compare groups for gender, age, ethnicity, educational
qualification, job position, tenure, annual income, sub-sectors and the number of times
employees had changed jobs, as elaborated below.

Gender
An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the engagement scores for
males and females (Table 6.17). The results showed there were no significant
differences in scores for males (M=4.84, SD=0.86) and females (M=4.86, SD=0.88;
t(256) = -0.252, p=0.80).

Table 6.17: T-Test Gender

Variable
Engagement

Mean (Male)

Mean (Female)

T-value

Significant

4.84

4.86

-0.252

0.80

199

Age
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of age on engagement (Table 6.18). Employees were divided into four groups
according to their age. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was greater than 0.05
(p=0.356), which meant that the study did not violate the homogeneity of variance
assumption. However, there was no statistically significant difference at the p<0.05
level in engagement scores for the four age groups (p=0.067).

Table 6.18: ANOVA Age

Variable

Mean
(Under30)

Engagement

4.86

Mean
Mean
Mean
(31 to 40) (41 to 50) (51 and
over)
4.74
4.93
5.37

F-value

Significant

2.417

0.067

Ethnicity
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of ethnicity on engagement (Table 6.19). Employees were divided into three groups
according to their ethnicity: Malay, Chinese and Indian. Levenes test for homogeneity
of variance was greater than 0.05 (p=0.275), which meant that the study did not violate
the homogeneity of variance assumption. However, there was no statistically
significant difference at the p<0.05 level in engagement scores for the three ethnicity
groups (p=0.092).

Table 6.19: ANOVA Ethnicity

Variables
Engagement

Mean
(Malay)

Mean
(Chinese)

Mean
(Indian)

Mean
(Others)

F-value

Significant

4.89

4.90

4.53

4.02

2.167

0.092

Educational qualification
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of educational qualification on engagement (Table 6.20). Employees were divided into
four groups according to their educational qualification: secondary school and below,
diploma, bachelors degree or professional certificate, masters degree, doctorate or
200

higher. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was greater than 0.05 (p=0.831),
which meant that the study did not violate the homogeneity of variance assumption.
The results also showed a statistically significant difference at the p<0.05 level in
engagement scores for the four groups (p=0.027). The post hoc comparisons test
indicated that the mean score for those with a certificate or diploma (M=4.99,
SD=0.79) was significantly different from those who had a degree or professional
qualification (M=4.69, SD=0.91). Despite reaching statistical significance, the actual
difference in means scores between the groups was quite small. The effect size,
calculated using eta squared, was 0.04.

Table 6.20: ANOVA Educational qualification

Variable

Engagement

Mean
(Secondary
school and
below)
5.02

Mean
(Certificate/
Diploma)

Mean
(Degree/
Professional)

4.99

4.69

Mean
(Masters/
Doctorate/
Higher)
5.10

F-value Significant

3.104

0.027

Job position
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of job position on engagement (see Table 6.21). Employees were divided into three
groups according to their job position: executive level, supervisory level, and top
management and above. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was greater than
0.05 (p=0.436), which meant that the study did not violate the homogeneity of variance
assumption. The results also showed a statistically significant difference at the p<0.05
level in engagement scores for the three groups (p=0.007). The small effect size,
calculated using eta squared, was 0.05. This means only 5% of the variance in
engagement was explained by job position. Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey
HSD test indicated that the mean score for executive level (M=4.79, SD=0.87) was
significantly different from that for top management (M=5.67, SD=0.64). The
supervisory level (M=4.84, SD=0.81) did not differ significantly from either executive
or top management.

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Table 6.21: ANOVA Job position

Variable

Mean
(Executive
level)

Mean
(Supervisory
level)

4.79

4.84

Engagement

Mean
(Top
management
and above)
5.67

F-value

Significant

4.147

0.007

Tenure
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of tenure on engagement (Table 6.22). Employees were divided into four groups
according to their tenure: 4 years and less, 5 to 7 years, 8 to 10 years, and 11 years and
above. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was less than 0.05 (p=0.009), which
meant that the study violated the homogeneity of variance assumption. For this reason,
the Brown-Forsythe tests were used to test for equality of group means without
assuming homogeneity of variance. The tests indicated a significant difference in the
tenure group (p=0.042). Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that
the mean score for those whohad worked in the organisation forfour years or less
(M=4.93, SD=0.77) was significantly different from that of those who had worked
between 8 and 10 years (M=4.25, SD=1.26). Employees with a tenure of 5 to 7 years
(M=4.79, SD=0.86) and 11 years and above (M=4.91, SD=0.84) did not differ
significantly from the other two groups.

Table 6.22: ANOVA Tenure

Variable
Engagement

Mean
(4 years
and less)
4.93

Mean
(5 to 7
years)
4.79

Mean
(8 to 10
years)
4.25

Mean (11
years and
above)
4.91

F-value

Significant

3.808

0.042

Annual income
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of annual income on engagement (Table 6.23). Employees were divided into five
groups according to their annual income: less than RM40,000, between RM40,000
andRM80,000, between RM80,001 and RM120,000, between RM120,001 and
202

RM160,000, and RM160,001 and above. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance
was greater than 0.05 (p=0.138), which meant that the study did not violate the
homogeneity of variance assumption. However, the results did not show a statistically
significant difference at the p<0.05 level in engagement scores for the five groups
(p=0.061).

Table 6.23: ANOVA Annual Income

Variable
Engagement

Mean (Less
Mean
Mean
than
(RM40,001 (RM80,001
RM40,000)
80,000)
120,000)
4.93
4.74
4.83

Mean
Mean
F- Significant
(RM120,001(RM160,000 value
160,000) and above
5.68
5.50
2.279
0.061

Financial sector: sub-sectors

A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of sub-sectoral groups on engagement (Table 6.24). Employees were divided into three
groups according to their sub-sector: commercial banks, cooperative banks and
insurance organisations. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was less than 0.05
(p=0.004), which meant that the study violated the homogeneity of variance
assumption. For this reason, the Brown-Forsythe tests were used to test for equality of
group means without assuming homogeneity of variance. The tests indicated there was
no significant difference in the sub-sectoral group (p=0.231).

Table 6.24: ANOVA Type of sector

Variable
Engagement

Mean
(Commercial)
4.80

Mean
(Cooperative)
5.05

Mean
(Insurance)
5.08

F-value Significant
1.890

0.231

Changing jobs
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact
of changing jobs on engagement (Table 6.25). Employees were divided into four
groups according to the number of times they had changed jobs: never, 1 to 3 times, 4
to 6 times, 7 times or more. Levenes test for homogeneity of variance was greater
than 0.05 (p=0.669), which meant that the study did not violate the homogeneity of
variance assumption. The small effect size, calculated using eta squared, was 0.03.
203

This meant only 3% of the variance in engagement was explained by changing jobs.
The results also showed a statistically significant difference at the p<0.05 level in
engagement scores for the four groups (p=0.04).

Table 6.25: ANOVA Changing jobs

Variable
Engagement

Mean
(Never)
4.81

Mean
(1 to 3
times)
4.80

Mean
(4 to 6
times)
5.20

Mean (7
times or
more
5.80

F-value

Significant

2.819

0.040

Highly engaged versus lowly engaged employees

An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the engagement scores for
those who were highly engaged to those who were lowly engaged in their jobs (Table
6.26). There was no significant difference in scores for religiosity. However,
engagement scores for both empowering leadership variables and high-performance
work practices variables were significantly different. For empowering leadership
behaviour, the results showed that there were significant differences in scores between
those who were highly engaged (M=4.89, SD=0.1.12) and those who were lowly
engaged (M=3.24, SD=1.120; t(248) = 5.005, p=0.000). In terms of high-performance
work practices, the results showed there were significant differences in scores between
those who were highly engaged (M=4.54, SD=0.86) and those who were lowly
engaged (M=3.19, SD=1.32; t(234)=4.729, p=0.000). The magnitude of the differences
in the means had a moderate effect (eta squared =0.09). Therefore, about 9% of the
variance in engagement was explained by empowering leadership behaviour and 9% of
the variance in engagement was explained by high-performance work practices.
However, the unbalanced sample of these two groups, i.e., highly engaged (n=238) as
opposed to lowly engaged (n=12), may provide some limitation to this finding.

204

Table 6.26: T-Test comparing employees of high and low engagement evels
Variables
Empowering
leadership
behaviour
Highperformance
work practices
Religiosity
N

Highly
engaged
(mean)
4.89

Lowly
engaged
(mean)
3.24

Significant
level

t-value

Effect size

0.000

5.005

0.092

4.54

3.19

0.000

4.729

0.095

6.60
238

6.40
12

0.485

0.736

0.002

In summary, the results provided significant support for the hypothesised relationships
(Table 6.27). There was support for the predicted relationships between empowering
leadership behaviour and employee engagement (Hypothesis 1) and between highperformance work practices and employee engagement (Hypothesis 2). Religiosity was
also found to predict the variance in employee engagement (Hypothesis 3). Hypotheses
4 and 5 proposed a moderated role of religiosity in these relationships. The analysis
revealed that religiosity moderated the relationship between empowering leadership
behaviour and employee engagement (Hypothesis 4). However, the analysis conducted
for Hypothesis 5 did not support the hypothesis. Religiosity did not moderate the
relationship between high-performance work practices and employee engagement.
Next, these results will be discussed with reference to institutional theory and existing
empirical research on employee engagement, in the context of the aim of the study.

Table 6.27: Summary of hypotheses testing

Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
Hypothesis 2
Hypothesis 3
Hypothesis 4
Hypothesis 5

Results
Supported
Supported
Supported
Supported
Not supported

205

6.8 Discussions
Demographic characteristics of respondents
The gender split in the study is representative of the workforce in Malaysia. In 2010,
163,500 males (44.4%) and 204,594 females (55.5%) were registered with the Labour
Department of Malaysia (Ministry of Human Resource 2011). In terms of age,
Malaysia's workforce comprises 33% under 30, 28% between 31 and 40, 23% between
41 and 50, 13% between 51 and 60, and only 3% over 61 (Department of Statistics
2011). The majority of the workforce in Malaysia are Malays (65%), followed by
Chinese (27%) and Indians (8%). The large number of Malay respondents was a result
of the field issues discussed in Chapter 4. The ethnicity of the researcher, i.e., Malay,
played a role in getting approval for the study from top management as it was easier to
communicate and break the ice with people of the same ethnicity. However, the large
number of Malay respondents in this case was advantageous as part of the study was to
test the religiosity of Muslim people and the Malay people in Malaysia are Muslims.
Further, the imbalance in the sample distribution of ethnicity did not affect the research
results because no significant differences in behaviour were found between these
groups of respondents, as discussed above.

Group comparisons
The findings from t-tests and ANOVA indicated that there were no significant group
differences in age, gender, ethnicity, annual income and type of sectors. However, the
study found significant differences in groups for education level, job position, tenure
and the number of times employees had changed jobs. First, employees who had a
certificate or diploma significantly differed from those with a degree in terms of their
engagement level. Those with a degree seemed to have a higher engagement level.
Second, top management seemed to be more engaged than the executive level. Third,
in terms of tenure, it seemed that employees who had worked for less than five years
were more engaged than those who had worked in the organisation between 8 and 10
years. Individuals who are fairly new to the organisation may find their job more
interesting and challenging, and thus become more engaged than those who have been
in the company longer. Lastly, in terms of the number of times in changing jobs,
employees who changed their job only one to three times significantly differed from
those who had changed more than seven times. Interestingly, employees who changed
206

jobs frequently seemed to be more engaged at work. However, these significant

differences should be treated with caution as the effect size was very small.

Relationship between empowering leadership behaviour and employee

engagement
This set of analyses revealed that empowering leadership behaviour was significantly
related to employee engagement. The finding is consistent with the new trend of
encouraging employees autonomy, in accordance with Banduras (2002) concept of
self-efficacy, which is enhanced by emotional support, words of encouragement and
positive persuasion. Leaders who provide this support facilitate employees
understanding of organisational goals and enhance employees work roles. The study
posited that this form of facilitation creates a stimulus to employee engagement.
Similar to the Western experience, the introduction of autonomy and empowerment
has not only materialised in the Malaysian setting but has also modernised and
changed employee experience. Further, two particular characteristics participative
decision making and coaching seem to have high significance in employee
engagement. Being able to participate in decision making at work seems to increase a
person's level of engagement. However, too much coaching can cause demotivation
among employees as they may feel that they are being too closely supervised and
monitored at their job.
There is evidence that the degree to which individuals experience engagement is
strongly influenced by whether they can contribute decisions to the team or
department. Among the five characteristics of empowering leaders, participative
decision making was deemed significantly important to employee engagement. When
leaders promote employees participation in organisational plans and goals, the
employees intrinsic motivation is affected, thus increasing their level of motivation at
work and satisfying the important psychological needs for responsibility and autonomy
at work. As reported by Arnold and colleagues (2010), participative decision making
increases employees feelings of self-efficacy and control. The finding is also
consistent with a study by Lashinger, Finegan and Wilk (2009), which suggested that
for an autonomous environment to work, a leader needs to motivate employees to
participate in attaining organisational goals.
207

The gradual shift from bureaucratic layers of management to flatter organisations has
also contributed to a different approach by leaders. The study found that coaching has
also been practised widely in these organisations. However, the survey study found
that coaching relates negatively to employee engagement. Although a leaders
guidance appears to be pertinent in internalising engagement, too much coaching may
lower employees level of engagement due to it taking away their freedom in doing
their work. Employees may feel that they are being too closely monitored, which may
decrease their confidence to participate in decision making. Contrary to past studies by
Hakanen, Bakker and Schaufeli (2006) and Saks (2006), this survey study found that
high supervisory guidance relates negatively to work engagement and ultimately
influences the performance level of subordinates.

Relationship between high-performance work practices and employee

engagement
This set of analyses provided evidence that high-performance work practices do exist
in the financial sector in Malaysia. This indicates that these organisations have indeed
become more collectivistic and less hierarchical, as found by Aycan (2001) in Turkish
firms. High-performance work practices were found to be significantly related to
employee engagement. The new set of management practices which embraces
employee involvement and higher responsibility positively encourages employees to
become more engaged at work. Consistent with previous studies (Konrad 2006, for
example), the adoption of a new work system that is highly characterised by problemsolving groups, information sharing, comprehensive training and participative decision
making generates a positive attitude. This positive attitude produces behaviour
indicative of highly engaged employees. Employees seem to go beyond their job
requirements in order to contribute to the organisations success.
In line with the concept of an autonomous work system, the systematic nature of
HPWP allows employees to become personally invested in making the system a
success. The study found that there was a significant difference between highly
engaged and lowly engaged employees in predicting the relationship between HPWP
and engagement, with the highly engaged having a more positive view of the
relationship. In this respect, it could be argued that one of the positive consequences of
208

being highly engaged is that individuals in this group feel that HPWP leads to better
performance outcomes. For example, comprehensive training as part of HPWP is the
basis for employees career advancement. Comprehensive training provides employees
with the necessary skills to perform their jobs more effectively, which in turn probably
causes them to become more engaged. The assumption of this study that, if HPWP are
properly configured, they contribute significantly to employee engagement is
supported.
There is also evidence to suggest that being selective in recruiting new entrants is
highly significant in these organisations. Finding the right person to fit the job seems
to have a large impact on an employees level of engagement. This finding contributes
important supporting evidence of the central role of the recruitment process in
influencing high-performing employees. The employment practices in these
organisations can be seen as helping the organisation to attract employees who will be
satisfied with their job because of the job fit, which increases their engagement level.
The result also indicates the importance of an appropriate recruitment and selection
process in order to acquire appropriate human resources in line with organisational
aims and objectives.

Relationship between religiosity and employee engagement

This study hypothesised a positive relationship between religiosity and the degree of
employee engagement, in line with previous literature suggesting that people of higher
Islamic religiosity are more inclined to work because of Islam. As Tayeb (1997)
argued, in Islam, people see work as obligatory and a self-reliant source of success. In
Islam, life without work has no meaning and engagement in economic activities is an
obligation for all Muslims. It was said by the Prophet Muhammad,No one eats better
food than that which he eats out of his work. Previous studies on Muslim managers
and employees have also reported that management practices are strongly influenced
by their religious beliefs and religious prescriptions (Abuznaid 2006; Ali & AlOwaihan 2008; Randaree & El-Faramawy 2011). Thus, there is evidence to support the
proposition that Muslim employees in the financial sector see work as a part of their
worship to God. In line with this study, because Islamic values do have consequences
for organisations, they have been incorporated in the system advocated by the
209

Malaysian government. In his study of the Islamisation process in Malaysia, Endot

(1995) identified eleven basic values of Islam that lead to a respectable nation:
trustworthiness, responsibility, sincerity, discipline, dedication, diligence, cleanliness,
cooperation, good conduct, gratefulness and moderation. These values shape
employees behaviour at work.

Relationship between empowering leadership behaviour, religiosity and

employee engagement
The finding of the relationship between these three elements is consistent with the
empirical evidence from the literature on religiosity in relation to the importance of
leadership roles in engaging employees. Islam promotes loyalty, respect for age and
seniority, obedience to leaders and looking up to seniors for direction. The significant
effect of religiosity found in this study is due to the facts that Islam also asserts that
relationships between people should be egalitarian and urges leaders to consult their
followers in the running of their affairs (Tayeb 2001). In the context of the Malay
Muslims, a leader should be shown the proper respect and, in return, the leader should
encourage participative discussions with subordinates. Working harmoniously with
ones leader is one of the teachings of the Quran, as explained in Chapter 3. Islamic
ethics advocate work to give meaning to life and economic activity as an obligation,
with dedication to work a virtue (Yousef 2000). This suggests that empowering
leadership behaviour would have a greater effect on the engagement level of an
employee who experiences a higher feeling of religiosity. As Latifi (1997) suggested, a
Muslim is often identified with the following work-related characteristics: (1)
individual responsibility within a framework of cooperation with others; (2) kind
treatment of subordinates by people in positions of power, who should treat
subordinates as if they were their own brothers or sisters; (3) fatalism and recognition
of personal choice; and (4) encouragement of consultation at all levels of decision
making. It seems that the emotional support that religious individuals receive from
their social networks, in this case including leaders, has been shown to bring positive
outcomes. Through strong, supportive and religious relationships, employees appear
better equipped to cope with challenges at work and appear to find their work more
meaningful. Undoubtedly, this influences their level of engagement in their job.

210

No relationship between high-performance work practices, religiosity and

employee engagement
This set of analyses revealed that religiosity was not a significant moderator of the
positive relationship between high-performance work practices and employee
engagement. It seems that this non-significant finding may in part be due to the
substantial distinctiveness of the HR system itself. The HR variables may present a
higher direct effect on the extent to which individuals feel engaged in their job. There
could also be other significant factors that moderate the relationship between HPWP
and employee engagement. The results obtained in this study may be explained by the
fact that HPWP is not properly implemented. It is also conceivable that the norms of
the employees in relation to HPWP play a stronger role in determining their level of
engagement than religiosity does.

6.9 Summary
This chapter has presented the results by testing the hypotheses proposed in Chapter 2.
Empowering leadership behaviour was found to have a significant and positive
relationship with employee engagement. The findings also showed that religiosity
plays a moderating role in this relationship. It seems that when leaders have
empowering behaviour, employees who are highly religious are more engaged at work
than those who are not religious. Further, the findings provide support that HPWP
have direct and positive effects on employee engagement. However, religiosity does
not moderate the relationship between HPWP and engagement. The next chapter
correlates the quantitative and qualitative findings and discusses the contributions of
this study and their implications.

211

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS
_____________________________________________________________________

7.1 Introduction
The main aim of this thesis was to examine the factors that influence employee
engagement in the Malaysian context. The rationale for the study was the limitation of
the single-level conceptualisation of employee engagement in mainstream research,
which has failed to capture the relational interplay that is evident in a contextual and
multilevel conceptualisation of engagement (Figure 7.1). The objective of the study
was to propose a framework that would bridge the macro- and micro-institutional
levels of analysis in understanding employee engagement. The study has achieved this
by incorporating three multilevel factors:

The individual level: leaders behaviour, norms and values, specifically,

empowering leadership behaviour

The organisational level: the adoption of a new form of human resource

management known as high-performance work practices

The societal level: the role of personal resources in the Malaysian societal
context, specifically, religiosity

This concluding chapter provides an overview of the findings in relation to the three
broad research questions that are the focus of the thesis. The chapter begins by
answering the three major research questions. This is followed by a discussion of the
theoretical and methodological contributions of the research and the practical HRM
implications. The chapter concludes by considering the limitations of the study and
highlighting important areas for future research.

212

Figure 7.1: Integrating the macro- and micro-institutional environments

Macro-institutional environment
National institutional context
-The role of the government
-Legal system
-Labour market
-The role of unions
-Technology and innovation
system
-Political economy

International institutional
context
-The influence of
international bodies (e.g.
ILO, APEC, WTO)
-The influence of
multinational firms

Socio-cultural context
-Attitudes/values
-Demographic
-Lifestyle changes
-Religiosity/Faith

Micro-institutional environment
High-Performance
Work Practices

Empowering
Leadership Behaviour

Employee Engagement

Source: Adapted and expanded from Cooke (2008a, p. 6)

7.2 Triangulation and Corroboration of Study 1 and Study 2

Erzberger and Kelle (2003) argued that one approach in combining different data which are
of equal weight and which facilitate clear identification of the links between the levels of
theory, epistemology and methodology could be to frame triangulation as a
methodological metaphor. This assists in describing the logical relations between
qualitative and quantitative results and in facilitating an improved understanding of the
phenomenon under study. As Tashakori and Creswell (2007) stated, mixed-method
research requires the investigator to collect and analyse data, and then to integrate the
findings and draw inferences using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In this
study, the data from Studies 1 and 2 are integrated (Table 7.1 and Table 7.2) to provide a
complete picture developed from both data sets. Having presented results and discussions
from Study 1 and Study 2, the objective now is to pull together the threads of both results
and provide a synthesis of the research to answer the major research questions.
213

Table 7.1: Key findings from Study 1

Dimensions

Leadership
behaviour

Drivers of employee engagement

Showing concern over work-related,
personal and family matters
(paternalistic leadership)
Employees endorsed leadership behaviour
that encourages participation
Coaching by leaders
Leading by example
Communication from leaders
Reward
Individual-based rewards
Team-based rewards

Training
Islamic form of training has the greatest
effect on engagement
Preference for on-the-job training as
opposed to formal training, in line with
preference for leadership coaching
Participative decision-making program
Increased autonomy in decision making

HR
practices

Development and appraisal

Career development plan

Inhibitors of employee engagement

Nepotism (favouritism) proliferates
throughout organisation
Utilitarian approach will not lead to greater
engagement
High level of coaching may be detrimental
Non-transparency by top management
(affecting changes in KPI)
Bell-shaped curve reward system
Favoured employees receive higher rewards
Unavailability of a transparency reward
system
Training offered does not fit the employees
job
Forcing employees to attend training without
their consent
Co-existence of younger and older
generations
Intragroup versus intergroup interests
Existence of red tape slows down the
participation process
Similar criteria & goals across different jobs
Altering KPI without informing employee
Top management and HR department have
full power over KPI

Formal grievance system

Voicing complaints is not encouraged; saving
face is more important
Top management as voice of employees but
often this is not the case
No union or limited in-house union
Selective staffing
Finding the right fit between the people
and the job

Religiosity

Inconsistency of HR team, giving false hope

to internal employees
The culture of poaching
Selection based on who you know

Moral obligation to work

Being happy
Being proactive
Focus on positive matters
High internal control and consciousness
Connecting with others (the concept of
Islamic ummah)

Source: Compiled from interview data

214

Table 7.2: Results of hypotheses testing from Study 2

Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1: Empowering leadership behaviour will significantly
predict the variance in employee engagement among employees in the
financial sector in Malaysia.

Results
Supported

Hypothesis 2: High-performance work practices will significantly

predict the variance in employee engagement among employees in the
financial sector in Malaysia.

Supported

Hypothesis 3: Personal resources such as religiosity will significantly

predict the variance in employee engagement among employees in the
financial sector in Malaysia.

Supported

Hypothesis 4: Religiosity moderates the relationship between

empowering leadership and employee engagement. Empowering
leadership behaviour has a stronger and more positive relationship with
employee engagement among employees who exhibit a high level of
religiosity than employees who exhibit a low level of religiosity.

Supported

Hypothesis 5:Religiosity moderates the relationship between highperformance work practices and employee engagement. Highperformance work practices have a stronger and more positive
relationship with employee engagement among employees who exhibit
a high level of religiosity than among employees who exhibit a low
level of religiosity.

Not
supported

Source: Compiled from the survey data

Research Question 1: What form of empowering leadership plays a significant
role in engaging employees at work and how does it occur?
The study revealed five themes of empowering leadership behaviour showing
concern, participative decision making, leading by example, coaching and
communicating that significantly impact on employee engagement. This finding is an
addition to the findings on employee engagement by previous studies, which
predominantly did consider a supervisors support as enhancing engagement but failed
to identify the type of support that has this positive effect. Similarly to Western
studies, this study provides evidence that empowering leadership behaviour is

215

important in a modern work organisation that is characterised by high autonomy and

decentralisation.2
The findings from Studies 1 and 2 show that a leader showing concern plays a
pertinent role in influencing employee engagement. Certainly, this seems to be the case
for the financial sector in Malaysia. In the interviews in particular, employees strongly
expressed the importance of leaders showing concern not only over work-related
matters but also over family and personal matters. Work-family centrality is driven by
the institutional conditions in these organisations. It seems that in a collectivistic
society such as Malaysia, having a caring leader who is constantly interested in the
well-being of employees positively influences employee engagement. In the Western
setting and in previous employee engagement studies, the concept of showing concern
relates only to work-related matters. This significance difference has strong
implications for other countries in the developing world that have a similar collectivist
and paternalistic culture to Malaysia. Paternalism in the Asian setting emphasises
treating subordinates as if they were part of the extended family to obtain loyalty and
deference (Chao 1990). The study concurs with Zhu et al.s (2012) view that
paternalistic HR practices form a reciprocal, cooperative style of management in which
the employer acknowledges and considers employees rights and feelings. From the
study, it is evident that a fatherly benevolent management is a crucial element in
employee motivation, and for obtaining and maintaining committed employees in the
financial sector in Malaysia.
Further to the point made above, encouraging employees to participate in decision
making and paying close attention to employees development by coaching them were
also found to be significant in employee engagement. Being able to participate means
that leaders and organisations recognise employees efforts and skills. Eventually, an
employee becomes more engaged due to the recognition given by leaders. Being able
to be mentored by the immediate supervisor is ideal for an employee to be motivated at
work. As mentioned above, in a paternalistic culture, close supervision can be seen as

Decentralisation in this study, however, generally applies within departmental level.

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leaders being concerned about subordinates. However, some evidence from Study 2
shows that too much supervision can be detrimental to an employee's level of
engagement. Therefore, although close supervision is ideal in the Malaysian setting, a
leader should recognise their limit in terms of supervising their employees in order for
the employees not to feel that their freedom at work is being taken away.
There was some evidence from Study 1 to suggest that leaders may treat employees
who perform well differently from those who perform poorly. This utilitarian approach
in managing employees is well-documented (Driver 2009; Rosen 2003; Bayles 1968).
The utilitarian approach states that, of the various possibilities in any given case, we
ought to choose that which will produce the greatest good and happiness for the
greatest number (Jones 1980). With this approach, the role of leaders would be to act
in the best interests of everyone, including themselves. Yet the findings provide
evidence that instead of focusing on a democratic approach, leaders tend to base their
attention on those who do well, which prejudices the interests of others. This so-called
preference utilitarianism advocated by Harsanyi (1977) reasons that the ultimate
criterion for leaders can only be their own interests and preferences. It is arguable that
this form of hypocrisy in leadership behaviour does not contribute much to
enhancing engagement among employees. Being undermined by a supervisor, alone,
can create unfavourable subordinate reactions (Greenbaum et al. 2012). Indeed,
numerous studies on bad leadership have implied that employees may respond even
more unfavourably to this treatment (Tepper 2007). Those who do not perform well
may become less engaged and their career development may deteriorate.
Overall, the findings demonstrate that empowering leadership behaviour plays a
significant role in engaging employees at work through five various forms. The
implications of these findings are discussed in detail later in the chapter.

Research Question 2: Do high performance work practices exist in the Malaysian

organisations? If so, how do they impact on the level of engagement?
The results from both Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that there is heterogeneity in the
views of HR practices by employees. In general, there is evidence that high217

performance work practices do exist in these organisations, albeit there are some
glitches in the system. One aspect of the evidence is the application and adoption of
high-performance practices in the vision and mission of the organisations to ensure
that all organisational plans are in line with the concept of being a high-performing
entity. The practices of pay for performance, increasing autonomy in decision making,
career development plans, selective staffing and comprehensive forms of training, all
of which are high-performance practices, were discovered to exist in these
organisations.
In terms of the rewards system, there has been some convergence towards the
Western-style HRM where performance-related reward is practised. The salary and
reward scheme puts a high emphasis on individual ability to perform and thus it assists
in stimulating engagement. Nevertheless, it was significant that the majority of the
employees mentioned the problem of the bell-shaped curve in their reward system.
Employees felt they were not fairly rewarded because the system adheres to the
expectation that each department will have high performing and low performing
employees, regardless of whether it is true or not. This form of unfair distribution
causes employees to question the HR system. In relation to this, although promotions
and salary raises are closely tied to performance appraisal, there were some negative
remarks about the way performance appraisal is carried out. The evidence from Study
1 indicates that organisational politics still proliferate in these organisations. The fact
that favouritism still exists somewhat hampers the adoption of HPWP.
The results from this study indicate the importance of the selection process. Employees
seem to think that the causal agent of engagement begins at the root. Although these
organisations utilise many techniques in recruiting employees to ensure there is a
person-job fit, most of these organisations in the financial sector still use formal
selection processes, such as the case study method, mathematical tests and
psychological tests. Selection is usually carried out by testing candidates with the case
study method, thus ensuring the candidates are well versed in the requirements of the
job and could solve the problem presented to them. Findings from both Studies 1 and 2
provided evidence that the selection process plays a significant role in employee
engagement. It was also discussed in Study 1 that employees have to go through a
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rigorous selection process before offered a position. Nevertheless, one assumption in

the selection process is that employees who apply for a job want the job due to
interest. It should be noted that employees could apply for the job for reasons other
than their interest in it, for example, to earn a living or to try something new. Realistic
job previews, more often than not, were not disclosed to candidates.
While the role of employees in teams (i.e., departments) supports a high-performance
system, the actual HR department practices in each institution can be in conflict with a
high-performance system. In relation to participative decision making, both Studies 1
and 2 indicated that employees are, to a certain extent, able to participate in
contributing to organisational plans, goals and decisions. In particular, the employees
in Study 1 expressed their interest in participating in organisational decisions and,
generally, most employees were able to take part in decision making. However, this
power of decision making only applies to departmental level and, at times, intradepartmental level. HR decisions, particularly in regard to determining KPI measures
for individual employees, are still made at the top management level.
The findings from Study 2 indicate that while a formal grievance system is deemed to
be significant in employee engagement, the notion of having the right to be heard as a
fundamental principle has not been fully adopted. Evidence from Study 1 points out
that the professional employees, i.e., executives and managers, are not protected under
any union or other representative body. The current union, the National Union of Bank
Employees of Malaysia (NUBE), only protects those at non-managerial levels such as
clerks and administrative officers. Employees expressed the need to have, at the very
least, an in-house union or other representative body to advance their interests and
resolve problems. The outlook is not hopeful. It is not so much that union activities are
severely restricted as that employees are often afraid to speak up for fear of reprisal.
For example, some employees felt they would be stigmatised and ostracised if they
ever complained about their employer or the system. Additionally, the culture in the
Asian setting emphasises the concept of saving face. Thus, employees were
encouraged to discuss any problems with their superiors individually instead of
advancing their interests as a group. This poor bargaining position of employees is

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mostly due to the nature of union activities in Malaysia, where industrial relations
legislation at the management level is widely ignored.
The organisations which participated in this research advocated the high-road approach
to HR practice. However, from the employees perspectives, issues such as nepotism
or favouritism, unfairness in the reward system, lack of a formal grievance system and
lack of communication with the HR department still proliferate throughout these
organisations. This hinders the successful implementation of HPWP. The study
contends that, as long as HPWP are not properly configured, adopting HPWP will not
be effective. Hence, although these organisations emphasise the concept of HPWP in
their vision and mission statements, the goal seems quite disconnected from actual
practices due to many cultural factors. Indeed, the bigger institutional picture involves
a complex array of organisational pressures introduced by the management in the
absence of employees participative role at the top level. For instance, employees
voices were not taken into consideration when developing a new organisational
mission statement or implementing new measures for KPI. The nature of these
organisations is a loosely coupled hierarchy. From this perspective, what occurs at the
top management is minimally connected to what occurs at the core or lower levels of
the organisation. Employees perceived this as a breakdown between organisational
policy and design on one hand and what is practised on the other hand.

Research Question 3: What is the relative importance of religiosity in relation to

the level of engagement at work in this Malaysian context? Does religiosity
moderate the relationship

between empowering leadership behaviour, high-

performance work practices and engagement?

Most science-based scholars insist that religion is not an appropriate topic for research,
particularly in the science field (Bloom 2012). This study indicates otherwise. The
results from both Studies 1 and 2 illustrate that religiosity constitutes an important part
of employees work routine. In terms of work-related values, many influences of social
and national culture are evident. For example, in exploring the nature of the training
systems in these organisations, four distinct forms were found: technical skills, soft
skills, leadership skills and, most importantly, religious understanding. Employees
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expressed high interest in attending the religious form of training. They felt that
attending this form of training increased their motivation and re-energised them to get
back to work. In most cases, employees felt spiritually refreshed to go back to work.
Religiosity seems to act as an important driver towards employee engagement.
Specifically, employees expressed six roles that religiosity plays in their engagement at
work: treating work as a moral obligation, being happy, being proactive, focusing on
positive matters, having high internal control and consciousness, and connecting with
others (the concept of Islamic ummah). The research provides evidence that the
Islamisation of institutions (facilitating Islamic practices in society) extends potently to
these organisations in the financial sector. The data from the interviews clearly show
that being religious is a work-related matter because Islamic principles and practices
are embedded in an individuals way of life. Being religious motivates people to be
persistent and to engage creatively in their work. Ultimately, the strong rationale for
treating work as an honourable task is that it is an action most blessed by God.
Nevertheless, in Study 2, religiosity was not found to moderate the relationship
between HPWP and engagement, and that was because HPWP was not properly
configured. In particular, HPWP was not offered and practised in accordance with
justice, a concept which is greatly emphasised in religiosity. If HPWP were to be
properly configured, that is, imbued with justice, and thus in accordance with the
Islamic religion, the relationship might then be significant.
Religion as an important social institution has a strong norm-setting influence on a
wide range of societal life, given that religious teachings prescribe behaviour
(Parboteeah et al. 2009). In the case of Islam, work is seen as a moral obligation. The
strength of religion as a social institution has a significant contextual influence in the
Malaysian context. In essence, in a strong religious context, such pressures create
important work expectations which cause employees to be deeply engaged in their
jobs. The religious support given by employing organisations, as well as
encouragement at the governmental level, plays an important role in employee
behaviour. As argued by Parboteaah and colleagues (2009), if an individual is brought
up and educated in a country with a strong religious environment, that individual is
more likely to be exposed to values consistent with strong work obligations than an
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individual living in a country with a weaker religious environment. In general, the

findings from this study demonstrate that people with a strong belief in God have a
high level of work obligations. The Muslim Malay participates in a complex set of
social relationships at work. Religiosity acts as self-control and when the going gets
tough, faith helps believers to self-regulate. Therefore, when work is viewed as a moral
obligation and self-enhancement, the development of employee engagement seems
optimistic.

Summary
After evaluating the institutional aspects of employee engagement, the conclusion was
that there was a need to evaluate strategic HR practices using multilevel analysis that
would consider both micro and macro contexts. The study discovered three general
themes that play a significant role in employees engagement at work empowering
leadership behaviour, an appropriate HPWP and an emphasis on religiosity all of
which are crucial in the development of employees, particularly the Muslim employees
in the context of this research. However, while HPWP is strongly supported in theory
by financial institutions and the Central Bank of Malaysia, problems within each
organisation provide major hindrances to the successful implementation of the
bundles of HR practices. Therefore, it is important to realise that the HPWP practised
in Anglo-American settings may not be necessarily be the best choice for Malaysian
firms due to the very different management contexts. This study provides evidence for
creating an ideal type of Malaysian-based HRM-engagement model that may be
more effective in the Malaysian setting (Figure 7.2).

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Figure 7.2: Integrating elements from both methodologies that influence

employee engagement

Source: Authors interviews and survey study

Granted, there are weaknesses in the HR system in the financial sector in Malaysia.
Thompson (2011) argued that the trouble with HRM is that it is so entwined with the
human capital narrative and the performance pot of gold at the end of the best practice
rainbow for it to be any other way. The gap between the narrative and the actual
experience has become progressively wider. Employees do not want to be manipulated
in the communication from their employers, and instead want to be treated with a
degree of fairness and transparency. Thompson (2011) further asserted that the
paradox is that recognition and regulation of employee interests is a source of potential
strength for the HR function, but this potential is gradually draining away. Ultimately,
as the study examined employees experiences of their organisations HR practices, the
study was able to ascertain the problems with the system. The existence of value and
goal conflict, manipulation and violation, unavailability of resources, and the use of
power or coercion provide major impediments to employee engagement.
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7.3 Contributions of the Study

This study makes a number of contributions to the research on HRM. Broadly, the
research contributes to generating new knowledge in relation to employees
experiences in their job and the influences of those experiences on engagement. The
following sections elaborate on the theoretical contributions, the methodological
contributions and the implications of this research.

7.3.1 Theoretical contributions

Advancing the employee engagement model using a multilevel analysis
The study contributes to the field of HRM by focusing on the interactive process in
which institutional and cultural factors affect employee engagement at work. HR
practices do not operate in isolation, and examining different levels of factors is
important in understanding how and why employees are engaged. The mainstream
literature on engagement has focused on single-level conceptualisations. In this
research, the findings from both qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that
multilevel analysis is important in comprehending the employee engagement process.
The complexities and challenges of multilevel analysis require careful application to
theory and practice. This study advances the literature on employee engagement by
helping theorists and practitioners understand the engagement process in a different
light, that is, by examining the individual, organisational and societal levels
concurrently.

Different insights into the role of leaders

This study supports the findings of existing studies and fills a gap in the literature in
relation to the debate on the influence of empowering leaders behaviour. While
intuitively obvious and possibly supported by anecdotal data, the field has lacked
verifiable data to support its assertions, thus limiting theoretical progress. This studys
contribution is to increase the understanding of the complex relationship between
empowering leader practices and individual engagement, and to aid managers to tailor
their efforts towards enhancing the engagement level of their subordinates. As early as
1976, Triandis argued that the importance of research lies in defining functional
relationships between variables that should be sensitive to cultural influences. Javidan

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et al. (2006) believed that the phenomenon of leadership is widely considered to be

universal across cultures, but the way in which it is operationalised is usually viewed
as culturally specific. The findings from this study provide evidence that in a
paternalistic culture, employees perceptions of leaders behaviour is somewhat
different from the one prevailing in other societal contexts. Thus, the theory
underpinning empowering leadership behaviour differs from the ones based on
Western culture. The research provides empirical evidence that showing concern is the
most highly endorsed leadership behaviour in the Malaysian context. This is
compelling evidence and serves to demonstrate that empowering leadership behaviour
is not a universally applicable concept.

Redefining the constituents of high-performance work practices

While in the literature HPWP has been endorsed by scholars as positively affecting
employee behaviour, the results from this study demonstrate that the nature of its effect
on employee engagement is perhaps more complex. In line with the concept of
autonomy and flexible work systems, the introduction of HPWP includes a focus on
empowering employees and providing them with relevant information, knowledge and
rewards the resources that employees may need to become engaged. This study
provides evidence that HPWP is strongly advocated by these organisations, and that
forms of HPWP are likely to eventually lead to a higher level of engagement. The
high-performance paradigm, as Godard (2004) asserted, should promote best practice
on the grounds that it yields better performance than traditional HR practices, and it
enhances employee motivation. However, the barriers to HR practices found in this
study, such as organisational politics, lack of transparency and inefficient technology,
create major hindrances to the success of HPWP. Although HPWP has been
introduced by the government and organisations in the financial sector in Malaysia, the
effectiveness of its implementation is highly debatable. Such initiatives may not be
appropriate in the context of Malaysia without modification. The application of
HPWP, it seems, should not be generalised across national contexts or across
industries.
A predominant concern in the HPWP literature has been the question of whether the
same bundles of practices can be applied across national boundaries. This study
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contributes to the research by pointing out the constituents of HPWP in the Malaysian
setting. As there is a lack of consensus in regard to the bundles of HR practices, this
study confirms earlier findings on the importance of six variables: performance reward
system, developmental appraisal, comprehensive training, participative programs for
employees, selective staffing and a formal grievance system. Job security, however,
was found not to be an important part of the HPWP process. Choosing the right
bundle is indeed pertinent in leading to better organisational outcomes.

The pertinent role of institutional context

Inspired by Meyers (2006) paper, which urged Asian management scholars to have
more confidence in investigating local business and which enriched global scholarly
discussion in the Asian context, this study contends that far too little attention has been
paid to the role of the societal context in HR practices and its effect on employee
engagement. Most research on employee engagement has been conducted in Western
countries and assumes a behavioural similarity in the generalisation of its findings
(Bakker & Van Emmerik 2006; Maslach & Leiter 2008; Demerouti & Bakker 2001).
The pertinent aspect of societal context is often ignored and thus the behaviour in
emerging markets is not known. This study extends the body of knowledge on how
employees engage at work by drawing on evidence from the financial sector in
Malaysia. In this study, employee behaviour at work is heavily bounded by the
institutional and cultural context. In particular, the belief that religious values have
little bearing on work practices warrants revisiting. The findings demonstrate the
important ways in which societal elements can facilitate or constrain the level of
engagement of employees. The study highlights the importance of examining an
organisational phenomenon according to situationally specific concepts and
prescriptions for management. The findings illustrate the reasons why there is no best
human resource strategy for all settings.

The introduction of religiosity in the employee engagement framework

The findings from this study challenge much of the existing research in HRM by
promoting the notion of religiosity. The study provides evidence that religiosity indeed
plays a crucial role in employee engagement at work. This is a significant finding
because debates in the area have often overlooked the role of religiosity in

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organisational behaviour. In the past, researchers simply assumed that religion had no
effect on work (Davidson & Caddell 1994). They seldom allowed participants
opportunities to describe their work in religious terms and thus the effect of religiosity
went unnoticed. This study indicates that religiosity has effects that have been
overlooked in other HRM studies. The purely secular approach of past research
distorts the understanding of peoples orientations to work, leaving the false
impression that nobody thinks of work in religious terms when, in fact, some people
do. A persons religiosity is a part of their work because so much of an individuals
time, energy and resources are devoted and articulated at work. Indeed, religiosity is a
source of identity for many employees and guides their worklife.

7.3.2 Methodological contributions

This study advances previous research that has focused, almost exclusively, on the
quantitative method of analysis. Suddaby (2005) argued that if we are to take seriously
the ideational aspects of institutions, we need to move away, however slightly, from
strictly positivist research and incorporate interpretivist methods that pay serious
attention to the subjective ways in which actors experience institutions. To date, almost
all of the prominent research in employee engagement has been conducted from a
positivist point of view (e.g., Rothbard 2001; Sonnentag 2003; May, Gilson & Harter
2004). This studys contribution derives from the qualitative stance that it has taken to
understand the phenomenon. Employees interpretations of their experiences at work
have provided rich forms of data that are relevant to employee engagement research.
By using in-depth interviews, the researcher was able to identify how engagement is
affected by different factors. As the purpose of the qualitative research was to explore
the complexities of employees experiences at work, no attempt is made to claim
representativeness of the sample or to generalise the findings from the sample to the
general population. However, as shown in Chapter 5, noteworthy patterns of
similarities and differences among interviewees responses provided rich data that
permitted the elucidation of processes.

7.3.3 Practical and managerial implications

It is clear that in contemporary Malaysia, societal as well as organisational cues are
relevant in stimulating engagement. The results of this research are likely to have
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important implications for practitioners. The expectation is that, through a better

understanding of such relationships and the potential effectiveness of HPWP adoption,
the selection of leaders and the development of employees may be conducted more
effectively. The significant HR practices identified during this study can help
managers to understand why employees are engaged or disengaged at work. A critical
role of any organisation is to provide an environment that boosts the potential of
individual employees. The implications for different stakeholders are summarised in
Table 7.3. In general, the Central Bank of Malaysia, professional bodies, organisations,
HR teams, managers and employees themselves all need to play active roles in
enhancing employee engagement.

Table 7.3: Implications for different stakeholders

Stakeholders
Central Bank
of Malaysia

What needs to be done?

How?

Government policy for the financial

sector must be reviewed in a coherent
manner, in line with institutional
context and constraints.
Clear delegation of roles in policymaking

Industry
associations
and training
institutions

Focus on employees needs and find

the right fit between supply and
demand of training courses
Promote empowering leadership
behaviour

Organisations/
HR
departments

Replace departmental level bellshaped curve system

Fairness in the reward system
Ensure training offered fits
employees needs
Instil leaders with empowering
behaviour
Ensure job fit
Improve alignment of HR plan and
decisions
Improve selection process of
appropriate leaders
Give employees an opportunity to
voice their opionions

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Review the high-performing plans

for the financial sector by taking into
consideration the factors that may
influence employee behaviour
High-performing plans need to be
articulated and communicated
clearly
Different levels of stakeholders
should be involved in policymaking
Offer training courses that match
industry needs
Offer more religious forms of
training for employees to increase
engagement
Training for leaders to learn
empowering roles
Incentive given according to
performance
Joint collaboration in determining
KPI
Religious motivational training
Training creating awareness
about empowering leadership
Effective and fair means of
positioning and selecting employees
Career development plan for each
employee
Employee feedback system in
respect to leaders behaviour
Forming in-house union or
alternative employee representing
body

Stakeholders

Managers

What needs to be done?

Employees

How?

Increased transparency
Appraisal based on individual
participation and team effort
Increased role of on-the-job training
Enhancing the role of showing
concern
Voices of employees need to be heard
and addressed
Being aware of the co-existence of
older and younger generations

Employees need to take active roles in

organisational plans and decisions
Objectively decide on career goals

Joint evaluation of KPI and

increased transparency
Feedback system
Coaching by leaders as part of on
the job training
Handling the two generations of
workforce in different and
effective manners

Take proactive action in work role

Play an active part in
organisational decisionmaking

As listed in Table 7.3, the first stakeholder is the Central Bank of Malaysia. As the
governing body for the financial sector, the Central Bank needs to be aware of the
conditions of employees in financial organisations. Although there have been many
initiatives in adopting the high-performance road approach, the Central Bank needs to
consider the context in which HPWP is implemented. Indeed, the objective of highperforming plans needs to be communicated clearly to organisations in the financial
sector.
Second, professional bodies such as the International Centre for Leadership in Finance
(ICLIF), the Financial Sector Talent Enrichment Programme (FSTEP), the Asian
Institute of Finance (AIF), the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) and the
International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) all need to be attentive
to their roles in developing employees not just in terms of talent and skills, but also in
enhancing employees engagement levels. Essentially, these institutions need to
promote leaders to develop and enhance their empowering leadership behaviour.
Attributes such as showing concern and participative decision making should be
emphasised so that leaders are aware that such roles are significant for employee
engagement.
The third and highly important stakeholder is the HR team and the top management. It
seems that, in many cases, an HR departments plans and decisions are not discussed

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with employees. In particular, HR departments should be concerned about the

implementation of the bell-shaped curve reward system. As long as these organisations
practise this system, some employees will continue to be disengaged at work. The
unfairness of the distributive reward system can be overcome when HR teams and top
management include employees in setting plans and evaluation measures for
employees.
On another note, although the issue of person-job fit is important to these
organisations, some employees feel that their identity and personality do not match the
job, thus causing them to have a low engagement level. Indeed, this study found
selective staffing is considered to be one of the most important factors influencing
engagement. The HR department and top management need to look into the
appropriate techniques for selecting and attracting the right candidates. Although
realistic job previews and role-play tests are popular in Western countries, these
techniques have not been widely adopted in the studied organisations. Realistic job
previews are used to provide candidates with detailed information about the job to
assist candidates to make an appropriate job choice (Phillips 1998). This can reduce
the negative impact of incongruence between a candidate and a job. When employers
provide opportunities for candidates to make the correct job choice, employees could
perhaps be more engaged on the job because of the fit between expectations and
reality. Another suggestion is to adopt a role-play assessment. Role plays offer
candidates a sneak peek into the organisations culture and system. Truxilo, Steiner,
and Gilililand (2004) asserted that role play gives a view on what is expected from an
employee in a particular position and results in candidates feeling that they are being
treated fairly.
In essence, the inclusion of a national context enabled this study to explore aspects of
religiosity that do not normally appear in the mainstream literature on HRM, allowing
the researcher to draw out their implications for research and practice. The study posits
that religious forms of training programs should be made available by HR departments
and employers as well as governing bodies. Evidence from this research reveals that
religious programs, regardless of whether they relate directly to work, have a high
impact on employee engagement. More importantly, employees seem to feel more
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energised to go back to work after attending such a program. This form of resource
should not be taken lightly. Instead, all stakeholders should play a major role in
ensuring religious forms of training programs are made available in these
organisations.
In particular, religious forms of training must be stressed for the Malay Muslim
employees. Training can be provided in two aspects: one that is related to work values
where work is viewed as a moral obligation to God, and one that is not related to work
values but addresses religious issues such as the benefits of prayer. It must also be
noted that not all employees in the organisations are Muslims and thus may perhaps
need different forms of spiritual training. As mentioned in Chapter 5, the cultures of
Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian people are deeply rooted in the
Confucianism and Buddhism beliefs respectively. These beliefs are somewhat parallel
to the teachings of Islam in terms of work values. The study proposes that non-Muslim
employees could perhaps be given other forms of training that could provide similar
spiritual and emotional benefits as in the case of Islamic religiosity. Nevertheless, this
proposal must be treated with caution as the study did not focus on how religiosity is
perceived by the non-Muslims.
The fourth stakeholder, the manager, should practise a transparent form of
organisational culture and avoid nepotism. This requires a considerable organisational
culture shift. Changing the norm of an organisation may require a long lead time and
may perhaps causes anxiety among members. Nevertheless, when organisational
culture blends well with religiosity and the core values of the organisation, HR
practices may be easier to implement.The findings from this thesis hopefully will assist
managers to better understand their employees perceptions, behaviour and
expectations.
Finally, employees need to take proactive roles to ensure the progress of their career
development. Employees should have some responsibility for choosing appropriate
training programs to attend to improve their skills and ability at work. Clearly,
organisations in the financial sector provide numerous forms of training. Instead of
attending inappropriate training programs and viewing training as a waste of time,
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employees should be able to take a pre-emptive role in deciding which programs suit
their needs. Further, the absence of a body representing employees is strongly felt
among the employees in the organisations. Employees should take a greater initiative
to move forward and establish the associations they need to advance their interests.

7.4 Limitations of the Study

The research contains a number of limitations. First, the wide spread of professional
middle management positions made it impossible to establish job-specific patterns, if
any existed. On the other hand, the information gained from different employees with
different job specifications or specialisations made it possible to generalise the
findings across middle management behaviour in the financial sector. Second, a
relatively large proportion of the sample in this study are Malay Muslims, which may
have skewed the findings and made it difficult to identify if there is a distinctive
pattern of HR practices among different ethnic groups in Malaysia. Third, other
stakeholders, such as top management leaders, were not included in the study.
Employees views may differ markedly from those of top management, particularly in
respect to HR practices. Fourth, to gain a better result, a larger sample may have
provided a more significant result. However, that was impossible for this study due to
limited resources and time. Fifth, the incentives that were given to participants may
have increased the response rate at the expense of response quality, creating bias.
Schwarz and Clore (1996) argued that incentives may affect responses on the basis of
mood. Incentives may put respondents in a more optimistic mood and this might
influence the result. However, evidence from past studies suggests that responses
given by respondents who receive incentives do not differ from responses given by
those who do not receive incentives (Singer 2002). For example, in a study of US
government surveys, Shettle and Mooney (1999) found no significant differences
among respondents in their investigation on the use of incentives. It would seem that
the use of incentives in surveys contributes mostly to the costbenefit assessment by
providing a solid benefit to the respondent. Incentives are also much needed to
increase response rates (Cobanoglu et al. 2001; Dillman 2000; Church 1993). Finally,
the industry context may restrict the generalisability of the research findings. The
study may not be generalisable to other industries since the occupational groups and
industry characteristics will be different. Sixth, the use of a single-source respondent
232

could cause common method variance in the quantitative study. This could be due to
the fact that the respondent who provides the measure of the predictor and criterion
variable is the same person. Nevertheless, measures have been taken to overcome
common method variance, as explained in Chapter 4.

7.5 Directions for Future Research

It is the researchers fervent hope that this research will yield a theoretical contribution
beyond the previous proposals and explanations offered by past researchers, and will
create a new understanding of employee engagement and an ability to manage it more
effectively, thus creating new directions for future research.
First, this study tackled the topic from a micro within-person perspective. One
theoretical prospect associated with a within-person perspective is that there may be a
temporal pattern of work-related experiences. As demonstrated in some studies,
individuals may not be equally engaged at work every day. Assessing the general level
of engagement might perhaps ignore the dynamic and configurational aspects of the
engagement phenomenon. Thus, investigating daily levels of engagement over a period
of time and during a number of periods may provide evidence for different causal
factors of engagement. Future research may use a diary study of employee
engagement.
Second, future research should focus on studying the different ethnic groups in
Malaysia to examine different views in regard to employee engagement. In particular,
many ethnic groups have different beliefs and religiosity and thus need to be further
explored in terms of their relation to engagement. The influence of different religions
and beliefs such as Islam, Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity, among others, is
strong in Malaysia and needs to be researched further. Third, despite rapidly changing
market conditions and environments in the developing countries, research published on
Asian HRM is still lacking. Since this study found that institutional context drives
organisational practices, future research ought to focus on Asia-driven phenomena. For
example, in the case of this study, religiosity was found to have a great influence on an
employees behaviour. Studies on other Asian countries may develop a similar outlook
or a quite different one. It would be interesting to see just how much context matters.
233

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264

Appendix A: Letter of invitation to each institution

Raida Abu Bakar

Building 108, Level 13,
239 Bourke Street,
School of Management,
RMIT University,
Melbourne, VIC, 3000
Australia

January 5th 2011

Dear Tan Sri/Puan Sri/Dato/Datin/Mr/Mrs,

RE : Conducting Employee Engagement Study at your Institution
My name is Raida Abu Bakar, a senior lecturer from University of Malaya. Currently Im
undertaking my PhD at RMIT University, Australia. The primary reason for writing this
letter is to seek your approval in conducting a research at your organization. The research
is part of a study on Employee Engagement which I am conducting under the guidance of
Professor Fang Lee Cooke and Dr.Nuttawuth Muenjohn.
By allowing me to conduct the research, your company will be able to :
Examine the causes of why your employee is engaged and disengaged at work
Understand the different aspects of the HR system as well as leadership behaviour
that enhance engagement at your organization
Ultimately determine the best practises to overcome disengagement among
employees
It is the hope that this study will assist the industry in developing policies and practices,
which will improve the quality of work life for employees and enhance organizational
performance. The data collected from your company will be given to you for your preview
and actions should you request for it. The results will be in the form of short summary with
graphs/charts for easier reference. Please note that the data is highly confidential and
company identity will remained anonymous for this research project.
This study is genuinely important to me, your organization and the industry. Thus, I
humbly seek your support to conduct this project. I would be so grateful if you could
provide a letter of support or email for this project so that I could approach your employees
and show them the importance of this project.
If you have any questions, or need further information in regards to this project, please
contact me at raida.bakar@gmail.com or call me at +61421084581. I very much look
forward in your companys participation in this project. Your consideration is very much
appreciated
Thank you.
Most sincerely,

Raida Abu Bakar

265

Appendix B: Plain language statement of interview to employees

Invitation to Participate in a Research Project

Project Information Statement

Project Title: Factors Influencing Employee Engagement: A Study of the Finance Sector
Malaysia
Investigator:
Raida Abu Bakar
PhD degree student
School of Management,
RMIT University,
raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au
Tel: +613 9925 5856
Supervisors:
Fang Lee Cooke, PhD
Research Supervisor, Professor
School of Management,
RMIT University,
fang.cooke@rmit.edu.au
Tel: + (61 3) 9925 5977

Nuttawuth Muenjohn, PhD

Research Supervisor
School of Management,
RMIT University,
nuttawuth.muenjohn@rmit.edu.au
Tel: + (61 3) 9925 5109

Dear Participant,
You are invited to participate in a face to face interview as part of a PhD research project being
conducted through RMIT University, which will take approximately 40 minutes. This
information sheet describes the project in straightforward language, or plain language. Please
read this sheet carefully and be confident that you understand its contents before deciding to
participate. If you have any questions about the project, please ask one of the investigators
identified above.
Who is involved in this research project? Why is it being conducted?
This research is being conducted as part of a Phd research project in Management. The project
has been approved by the RMIT Business College Human Ethics Advisory Network (Approval
No. 1000242).
Why have you been approached?
We are inviting professional employees who are working in the finance sector in Malaysia to
participate in this research.
Page 1
266

What is the project about? What are the questions being addressed?
The purpose of the research is to investigate how the individual, social, and organizational
factors contribute to employees level of engagement. It is well recognized that the demands at
work are great and require significant effort. This research aims to better understand the
processes as well as employees experiences with the process in affecting their level of
engagement in their job. This study expects about 40 participants.
If I agree to participate, what will I be required to do?
Those who give their consent will be contacted for setting the date, time and place for the
interview. It is expected that the interview will take approximately 40 minutes. If you agree to
participate, you will be required to answer questions in regards to your experience in your job,
the interaction with your boss, and the human resource practise in your company. Should you
need to see some of the questions before the interview, please email
raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au for a sample copy of the questions.
What are the risks or disadvantages associated with participation?
Some people find it beneficial to think or talk about their experiences at work. Of course, there is
always a risk that you might feel upset by thinking or talking about your experiences. If this should
happen you are free to either withdraw from the project, or to stop and return to it some other time.
If you are concerned about your responses or if you find participation in the project distressing, you
should contact my supervisors as soon as possible. My supervisors will discuss your concerns with
you confidentially and suggest appropriate follow-up, if necessary. Participation in this research is
entirely voluntary and confidential; you may withdraw your participation and any unprocessed data
concerning you at any time, without prejudice.
What are the benefits associated with participation?
Whilst there are no direct benefits for participating in this study, your input will provide vital
information regarding the factors that may or may not have an effect on employees level of
engagement at work.
What will happen to the information I provide?
If you choose to participate in this study, your privacy will be protected in a number of ways:
All information such as telephone number and email address, along with all data collected
during the interview, will be treated confidentially and will be accessible only to the researchers
and supervisors.
You will be able to review the recording and/or transcripts to edit or erase your contribution.
Following completion of the data analysis, any identifying information collected during the
interview will be removed or replaced with non-identifying alphanumeric codes.
De-identified data will be retained securely for a minimum of 5 years at the School of
Management, RMIT University, Australia.
At the conclusion of the project, a summary of the results and associated reports will be made
available should you request for it (only a summary of your interview). The final results will
also be reported in a thesis to be submitted for Ms.Raidas PhD degree, and as appropriate, in
papers for presentation at conferences or for publication in scientific journals.
Page 2

267

What are my rights as a participant?

Participation in this research is entirely voluntary. Whether or not you decide to participate,
your decision will not disadvantage you in any way. Only people who give their informed
consent will be included in the project. If you give informed consent to participate, you may
still withdraw from the project at any time without giving a reason. You have the option of
withdrawing any data that may identify you. You also have the right to have any
questionsanswered at any time, and request that audio recording be terminated at any stage
during the interview.
Whom should I contact if I have any questions?
Please read this Information Statement and be sure you understand its contents before you
consent to participate. If there is anything you do not understand, or you have questions, please
contact the researcher at raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au or raida.bakar@gmail.com or by
telephoning +61421084581. If you choose to participate in this project, please print and keep a
copy of this Information Statement and Consent Form.
Complaints about this research
Any complaints with regards to this research should be directed to the researcher, Raida Abu
Bakar
(raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au)
or
the
supervisors
Fang
Lee
Cooke
(fang.cooke@rmit.edu.au) and Nuttawuth Muenjohn (nuttawuth.muenjohn@rmit.edu.au).
Thank you for considering this invitation.
Yours sincerely,

Raida Abu Bakar

School of Management
RMIT University
Australia
Phone : +61421084581
Email : raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au or raida.bakar@gmail.com
This project has been approved by the Business Colleges Human Research Ethics Committee,
Approval No.1000242, December 15th, 2010. Should you have concerns about your rights as a
participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is
conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the
Chair of the Business Committee, Professor Roslyn Russell, College of Business, RMIT, GPO
Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001. The telephone number is +(61 3) 9925 5187or email address :
roslyn.russell@rmit.edu.au. Details of the complaints procedure are available
from http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=2jqrnb7hnpyo
Page 3

268

Appendix C: Consent form

RMIT BUSINESS COLLEGE HUMAN ETHICS ADVISORY NETWORK
Prescribed Consent Form for Persons Participating In Research Projects Involving Interviews,
Questionnaires, Focus Groups or Disclosure of Personal Information
School of Management
COLLEGE OF
SCHOOL/CENTRE OF
Name of Participant:
Project Title:

Factors Influencing Employee Engagement: A Study of the Finance Sector in

Malaysia

Name of Investigator:

Raida Abu Bakar

Phone:

+61421084581

1.
I have received a statement explaining the interview/qustionnaire involved in this project.
2.
I consent to participate in the above project, the particulars of which - including details of the
interviews or questionnaires - have been explained to me.
3.
I authorise the investigator or his or her assistant to interview me or administer a questionnaire.
Yes
No
4.
I give my permission to be audio taped:
5.
I give my permission for my name or identity to be used:
Yes
No
6.
I acknowledge that:
a)
Having read the Plain Language Statement, I agree to the general purpose, methods and
demands of the study.
b)
I have been informed that I am free to withdraw from the project at any time and to
withdraw any unprocessed data previously supplied.
c)
The project is for the purpose of research and/or teaching. It may not be of direct benefit to
me.
d)
The privacy of the information I provide will be safeguarded. However should
information of a private nature need to be disclosed for moral, clinical or legal reasons, I
will be given an opportunity to negotiate the terms of this disclosure.
e)
If I participate in a focus group I understand that whilst all participants will be asked to
keep the conversation confidential, the researcher cannot guarantee that other participants
will do this.
f)
The security of the research data is assured during and after completion of the study. The
data collected during the study may be published, and a report of the project outcomes will
be provided to_____________(researcher to specify). Any information which may be
used to identify me will not be used unless I have given my permission (see point 5).
Participants Consent
Name:
(Participant)
Name:
(Witness to signature)

Date:
Date:

Where participant is under 18 years of age:

I consent to the participation of ____________________________________ in the above project.
Signature:
(1)
(Signatures of parents or guardians)
Name:
(Witness to signature)

(2)

Date:
Date:

269

Participants should be given a photocopy of this consent form after it has been signed.
This project has been approved by the Business Colleges Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval
No. 1000242, Dec.15th, 2010. Should you have concerns about your rights as a participant in this
research, or you have a complaint about the manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given
to the researcher, or, if an independent person is preferred, to the Chair of the Business Committee,
Professor Roslyn Russell, College of Business, RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001. The
telephone number is +(61 3) 9925 5187or email address : roslyn.russell@rmit.edu.au. Details of the
complaints procedure are available from http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=2jqrnb7hnpyo

270

Appendix D: Interview protocol

Demographic and work information
Please indicate your job position, your tenure with this organisation, educational qualification,
and age.
Can you briefly describe what you do at work?
Leadership behaviour
Can you describe about your immediate boss?
How long have they been in leadership positions?
What are your perceptions of him/her? How do you feel about him/her?
Do you agree or disagree that he helps you in being more engaged at work?
How do you interact with your immediate boss? In what way? How often?
What are your colleagues perceptions on this leader/supervisor?
Does he/she in any way ever suggests ways to improve your work groups performance, or
encourages work group members to solve problems together?
Can you depend on this manager?
High Performance Work Practices
Do you like working with this organization?
Do you think the HR system allows for high performance?
Which part of the HR system do you think contribute to employee performance?
How would you describe the performance standards in your unit?When performance is
discussed, how much emphasis is placed on finding avenues of personal development for an
employee?
How closely are raises, promotions, etc., tied to performance appraisal? Why? Do you have
any suggestions on improvement?
To what extent do differences in pay across members of this work unit represent differences in
their contribution?
How much importance is placed on the staffing (recruiting) process in this unit? Why?
Do the employees here have any opportunity to voice out their grievances? How? Is there any
representative bodies or unions?
Do you think the HR practices in your company allow for a better engagement among you and
your co-workers at work?
Personal resources
Do you feel engaged at work on a daily level? On a scale of 0 to 10 please rate.
What do you think would make up as personal resource that makes you feel engaged /
disengaged at work?
Ultimately, whats the one thing that makes you get up early and go to work?
What other things can you say about your likes/dislikes in your job, which makes you
engaged/disengaged at work?
Any other comments?

271

Appendix E: Ethics approval letter for interviews

272

Appendix F: List of participants in the interviews

No.

Gender

Age

Job position

Ethnicity

Education

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41

Female
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Male
Female
Female
Male
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
Male

30
25
28
33
38
37
27
29
37
50
36
30
36
35
37
45
41
27
42
40
30
34
36
42
33
45
27
26
37
42
40
42
36
40
45
35
33
35
42
40
29

Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Director
Executive
Manager
Manager
Executive
Executive
Manager
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Manager
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Manager
Executive
Executive
Manager
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Executive
Manager
Manager
Executive

Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Chinese
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Chinese
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Chinese
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay
Malay

Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Diploma
Degree
Degree
Degree
Masters
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Diploma
Degree
Master
Degree
Diploma
Degree
Diploma
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree
Degree

273

Tenure in
present
company
4
3.5
5
3.5
17
3.5
2.4
3.5
17
6
11
6
8
6
10
21
14
3.5
13
17
3
5
15
15
6
20
3.5
5
12
15
13
15
10
17
28
6
7
6
7
12
6

Appendix G: Survey Questionnaire

274

Information Statement for Survey Research Project

Project Title : Factors Influencing Employee Engagement: A Study of the Finance
Sector Malaysia
Investigator:
Raida Abu Bakar
PhD degree student
School of Management,
RMIT University,
raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au
Tel: +613 9925 5856
Supervisors:
Fang Lee Cooke, PhD
Research Supervisor, Professor
School of Management,
RMIT University,
fang.cooke@rmit.edu.au
Tel: + (61 3) 9925 5977

Nuttawuth Muenjohn, PhD

Research Supervisor
School of Management,
RMIT University,
nuttawuth.muenjohn@rmit.eu.au
Tel: + (61 3) 9925 5109

Dear Participant,
You are invited to participate in a PhD research project being conducted through
RMIT University, which will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. This
information sheet describes the project in straightforward language, or plain
language. Please read this sheet carefully and be confident that you understand its
contents before deciding to participate.
Why is the research being done?
The purpose of the research is to investigate how the individual, social, and
organizational factors contribute to employees level of engagement. It is well
recognized that the demands at work are great and require significant effort. This
research aims to better understand the processes as well as employees experiences
with the process in affecting their level of engagement in their job.
Who can participate in the research?
We are inviting professional employees who are working in the finance sector in
Malaysia to participate in this research.
What choice do you have?
Participation in this research is entirely voluntary. Whether or not you decide to
participate, your decision will not disadvantage you in any way. Only people who give
their informed consent will be included in the project. If you give informed consent to
participate, you may still withdraw from the project at any time without giving a
reason. You also have the option of withdrawing any data that may identify you.

275

What would you be asked to do?

The survey consists of a set of online questionnaires which usually approximately 20
minutes to complete. The questionnaires ask about your experience in regards to the
social and organizational factors at your organization. It also includes questions about
how you perceive yourself as an individual. You will also be asked for some
demographic details.
What are the risks of participating?
Some people find it beneficial to think or talk about their experiences at work. Of
course, there is always a risk that you might feel upset by thinking or talking about
your experiences. If this should happen you are free to either withdraw from the
project, or to stop and return to it some other time. If you are concerned about your
responses or if you find participation in the project distressing, you should contact my
supervisors as soon as possible. My supervisors will discuss your concerns with you
confidentially and suggest appropriate follow-up, if necessary. Participation in this
research is entirely voluntary and anonymous; you may withdraw your participation
and any unprocessed data concerning you at any time, without prejudice.
What are the benefits associated with participation?
Whilst there are no direct benefits for participating in this study, your input will
provide vital information regarding the factors that may or may not have an effect on
employees level of engagement at work.
How will your privacy be protected?
Your privacy and confidentiality will be strictly maintained in such a manner that you
will not be identified in the thesis report or any publication. Any information that you
provide can be disclosed only if (1) it is to protect you or others from harm, (2) a court
order is produced, or (3) you provide the researchers with written permission. Data
will be only seen by the researcher and supervisors who will also protect you from any
risks.
To ensure that the collected data is protected, the data will be retained for five years
upon completion of the project after which time paper records will be shredded and
placed in a security recycle bin and electronic data will be deleted/destroyed in a
secure manner. All hard data will be kept in a locked filing cabinet and soft data in a
password protected computer in the office of the investigator in the research lab at
RMIT University. Data will be saved on the University network system where
practicable (as the system provides a high level of manageable security and data
integrity, can provide secure remote access, and is backed up on a regular basis). Only
the researcher will have access to the data.
How will the information collected be used?
At the conclusion of the project, a summary of the results and associated reports will
be made available should you request for it (only a summary of your company). The
final results will also be reported in a thesis to be submitted for Ms.Raidas PhD
degree, and as appropriate, in papers for presentation at conferences or for publication
in scientific journals.

276

Who should I contact if I have any questions?

If there is anything you do not understand, or you have questions, please contact the
researcher at raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au or by telephoning +61421084581. If you
choose to participate in this project, please print and keep a copy of this Information
Statement and Consent Form, then click on the Yes button in the survey. This will
take you to the questionnaires, and you will have the option to start completing them
now or at a later time. When you have completed the questionnaires, you can choose
whether or not you would like to take part in the interviews.
Thank you very much for your contribution to this research.
Yours sincerely,

Raida Abu Bakar

School of Management
RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia
Phone : +61421084581
Email : raida.abubakar@rmit.edu.au
This project has been approved by the Business Colleges Human Research Ethics
Committee, Approval No. 1000250, March 16th, 2011. Should you have concerns
about your rights as a participant in this research, or you have a complaint about the
manner in which the research is conducted, it may be given to the researcher, or, if an
independent person is preferred, to the Chair of the Business Committee, Professor
Roslyn Russell, College of Business, RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001. The
telephone number is +(61 3) 9925 5187or email address : roslyn.russell@rmit.edu.au.
Details
of
the
complaints
procedure
are
available
from
http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=2jqrnb7hnpyo

277

278

279

280

Section B : Job Engagement

For each of the following statements, please indicate how you feel about your experience in your job :
(1) Never
(2) Almost never (A few times a year or less)
(3) Rarely (Once a month or less)
(4) Sometimes (A few times a month)
(5) Often (Once a week)
(6) Very often (A few times a week)
(7) Always Everyday)

Never

Almost
Never

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very
Often

Always

At my work, I feel bursting with energy

I get carried away when I am working

At my job I feel strong and vigorous

When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to

work

At my work I always persevere, even when things

do not go well

I am immersed in my work

My job inspires me

When I am working, I forget everything else

around me

I am proud of the work I do

I can continue working for very long periods at a

time

To me, my job is challenging n

Time flies when I am working

I feel happy when I am working intensely

It is difficult to detach myself from my job

I find the work that I do full of meaning and

purpose

At my job, I am very mentally resilient

I am enthusiastic about my job

Statements

281

Section C : Leadership
For this section, a leader refers to your immediate supervisor, i.e. the person whom you report to. Please indicate the
extent to which you agree or disagree in regards to your leader's behavior :
(1) Completely disagree
(2) Mostly disagree
(3) Slightly disagree
(4) Neutral
(5) Slightly agree
(6) Mostly agree
(7) Completely agree

Completely
Disagree

Statements

Neutral

Completely
Agree

My leader sets high standards for performance by his/her own behavior

My leader explains company goals

My leader works as hard as he/she can

My direct leader sets a good example by the way he/she behaves

My leader encourages work group members to express ideas/suggestions

My leader listens to my work group's ideas and suggestions

My leader provides help to work group members

My leader works as hard as anyone in my work group

My leader considers my work group's ideas when he/she disagrees with

them

My leader suggests ways to improve my work group's performance

My leader teaches work group members how to solve problems on their

own

My leader leads by example

My leader stays in touch with my work group

My leader pays attention to my work group's efforts

My leader explains company decisions

My leader uses my work group's suggestions to make decisions that affect us

My leader explains how my work group fits into the company

My leader shows concern for work group members' well-being

My leader treats work group members as equals

My leader takes the time to discuss work group members' concerns

patiently

My leader explains his/her decisions and actions to my work group

My leader gives all work group members a chance to voice their opinions

My leader gives work group members honest and fair answers

My leader encourages work group members to solve problems together

My leader explains rules and expectations to my work group

282

Section D : Work Practices at Your Organization

Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree in regards to the following statements about your
organization :
(1) Completely disagree
(2) Mostly disagree
(3) Slightly disagree
(4) Neutral
(5) Slightly agree
(6) Mostly agree
(7) Completely agree

Completely
Disagree

Statements

Neutral

Completely
Agree

The training process for members of my work unit is extensive

Pay is closely tied to individual performance

A lot of importance is placed on the staffing process in this unit

There are different kinds of training programs available for members of my

work unit to attend

The use of employee selection process for a job in this unit is extensive
(e.g. use of tests, interviews, etc.)

At my organization, a great deal of effort is given to measuring employee

performance

At my organization, training is view as a cost

When performance is discussed, a lot of emphasis is placed on finding

avenues for employees personal development

Raises, promotions, etc., are closely tied to performance appraisal

The wages in this work unit are not very competitive for this industry

Differences in pay across members of this work unit represent differences

in their contribution

Training is placed as a priority for the employees in my work unit

Selection involves screening many job candidates

Selection emphasizes the employees ability to collaborate and work in

teams

My employer has a formal policy of avoiding compulsory redundancies

Employees here have the opportunity to be involved in the decision

making on things that matter. For example, through quality circles,
business process project teams, etc.

Selection focuses on selecting the best all around candidate, regardless of

the specific job

I have access to a formal grievance procedure or complaint resolution

system

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Section E - About yourself

Please indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with respect to the following statements. There is no right or
wrong answer. We just want you to respond to each statement truthfully and sincerely. For the following statement
about yourself, please indicate whether you :
(1) Completely disagree
(2) Mostly disagree
(3) Slightly disagree
(4) Neutral
(5) Slightly agree
(6) Mostly agree
(7) Completely agree

Completely
Disagree

Statements

Neutral

Completely
Agree

Islam helps me lead a better life

I believe that Allah helps people

Quran is relevant and applicable to modern day

I perform the obligation of zakat fitrah annually

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) provides a good

conduct for me

I perform the obligation of zakat maal (asset/income) annually

I believe that Allah listens to prayers

I will continuously seek to learn about Allah

I pray five times a day

I fast the whole month of Ramadhan sincerely

I read the Quran for inspiration and motivation

The fact that I am a Muslim is an important part of my identity

Saying my prayer helps me a lot

I will perform hajj after I fulfilled all the necessary conditions

I always perform other optional prayer (i.e sunnat prayer such as

Isra', Dhuha and others)

I do the optional fasting on Monday and Thursday regularly

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Completely
Disagree

Statements

Neutral

Completely
Agree

The five prayers help me a lot

I believe that Allah helps me

I cover my aurat properly

I perform my daily prayers in the mosque / Muslim praying room

regularly

The supplication (dua') helps me

I read the Quran everyday

Here is your chance to win!!!!!

If you would like to stand a chance of winning an IPod, please state your email address
where you can be contacted should you win the prize.
First Name ___________________________________
Email Address ________________________________

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

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Appendix H: Ethics approval letter for surveys

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