1.0 INTRODUCTION:

Employee Engagement (EE) has emerged as an important factor to achieve organisational success in today’s competitive marketplace. For an effective business operation, it’s important to have work environment and employees engaged and committed to organisational goals. It is very much true that employees with commitment perform better and are less likely to leave the organisation or the institution that they are working for, which indicates that engagement or commitment is connected to organisational performance. In fact, engaged employees are more productive when compared to disengaged employees. Therefore, the organisations which positively engage its employees can achieve better and greater performance so that it can deliver better returns to its shareholders.

According to Gallup and Delloitte approximately around 16% to 50% of the workforce in organisations are actively disengaged. This factor has to be kept in mind by people involved in managing workforce in any organisation so that they can come up with right kind of strategies to get them involved in their work and contribute positively towards the success of the organisation. As business strive to develop competitive advantage in the global economy, employee engagement is vital for optimising human capital. The changing nature of work, the globalisation, reduced job security and many other factors have affected the ways employee seeks from their employer. Employers need to identify those key drivers that lead to increased and higher employee engagement. Employee engagement is the level of involvement and commitment employees have towards their organisation and its values. An engaged employee is well aware of his surroundings and business objectives of his organisation, and works with his peers to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. It is a positive attitude exhibited by the employees towards their organisation and its values.

1.0.1 Categories of Employee Engagement:

According to the Gallup the Consulting organisation there are different types of people:

Engaged:

Engaged employees are the consistent performers. They perform always at high levels. Engaged employees would like to use their strengths and skills at work every day. They contribute their organisation with the positive results and innovations by working with passion.

Not Engaged:

These employees give importance to the tasks rather than the goals and outcomes they are expected to achieve. They always expect superior to supervise on what they need to do.

Actively Disengaged:

The actively disengaged employees are the ones who are consistently against virtually everything. They are unhappy at their work and show their unhappiness all the time. They see negativity in all the opportunity at work.

2.0 EDUCATION INDUSTRY:

When compared to any other country, India has more than 250 million school going students. There is robust demand, policy support and increased investment in the education sector in India. Large number of English speaking population is a competitive advantage. In English Proficiency Index 2019, India was ranked 34 out of 100 countries. In India, higher education system has grown in a remarkable way, particularly after independence period, to become one of the largest system of its kind in the world. India is now using higher education as a powerful tool to build a knowledge- based information society of the 21st century.

There are some challenges in higher education sector and reforms are needed to improve its performance to a higher level. Apart from reforms, a teacher’s role in motivating a student to think beyond the boundaries of the given topic is important to shape the future of education. It is the good teacher who can give good quality of teaching to students. The organisation must ensure that there is committed and engaged faculties to deliver best education to its students. Only engaged and committed employee can work maximum to ensure that the goals of the institution is achieved. Teacher’s engagement in learning process can deliver good quality education and it is very much needed in present day education system to have continuous growth and development.

3.0 OBJECTIVES:

The objective of the study is

· To know the engagement and commitment level of teachers or faculty members at higher education level

· To analyse the perception of faculty members about their engagement and commitment to the institution.

4.0 NEED FOR THE STUDY:

The concept of employee engagement is an explored area and studied intensely in the corporate world but in the educational sector, there are limited studies. It is very much important to know the level of commitment and engagement of faculties that leads to development of the students and the institution. In this study an attempt is made to know the commitment and engagement of faculty members in higher education.

5.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

S.T. Janetius, R. Padmanabhan, Mini TC (2016), in their paper on “Engaged employees in institutes of higher education”, states that there are significant differences in concept of engaged employees in institutes of higher education and corporate sector. The findings indicated that only a few employees are committed to the welfare of students who can be termed as engaged employees. Different management practices have resulted in an obstacle for many to commit and dedicate themselves for the development and welfare of the students. Prerna Chandel (2019), in a study titled, “Assessing the association of employee engagement with affective organizational commitment in higher education institutions”, found a statistically significant relationship between employee engagement and affective organizational commitment. Sunaina Ahuja and Savita Gupta (2018), in their research titled, “Organizational commitment and work engagement as a facilitator for sustaining higher education professionals”, states that increase in organizational commitment is likely to enhance work engagement. Faculty members who are highly committed to their current organizations are likely to be more work engaged. Work engagement of long tenured faculty members was found to be higher than others who had less experience in the organization.

6.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The sample frame work is explorative and descriptive. The sampling method is convenient sampling technique. Sampling units mainly comprise of college faculty members working in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district of Karnataka. The data is collected through the questionnaire method. The measurement of organizational commitment questionnaire developed by Mowday, R.; Steers, R.; and Porter L. (1979) with few modifications or changes is considered for the study. A total sample of 133 responses were collected out of which 112 samples were considered for the present study. The researcher has conducted this empirical study by employing research tools such as questionnaire, discussions, observation and interviews.

7.0 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS:

Table showing the number of respondents (N) and percentage (N%)

Questions

Respondents (N)

I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this organization be successful.

47%

41%

07%

03%

02%

I talk up this organization to my friends as a great organization to work for.

39%

49%

07%

02%

03%

I feel very little loyalty to this organization.

58%

42%

The work I do is very important and meaningful to me

62%

34%

04%

I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization.

29%

49%

09%

08
07%

06%

This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance.

27%

52%

11%

04%

06%

It would take very little change in my present circumstances to cause me to leave this organization.

05%

03%

09%

42%

41%

I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined

31%

52%

09%

05%

03%

There's not much to be gained by staying with this organization indefinitely

04%

05%

06%

39%

46%

I really care about the fate of this organization.

48%

39%

08%

03%

02%

For me this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work.

30%

49%

10%

06%

05%

Deciding to work for this organization was a definite mistake on my part

02%

05%

07%

51%

35%

Source: Field study SA=Strongly Agree, A= Agree, N=Neutral, D=Disagree, SD=Strongly Disagree

Question No 1: I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order to help this organization be successful:

Above table shows that 88% of the respondents agree the statement. 7% of them neither agree nor disagree and 5% of them disagree the statement. Majority of the respondents are willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond the normally expected in order to help the organisation to succeed in its objectives.

Question No 2: I talk up this organization to my friends as a great organization to work for:

Above table shows that 39% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 49% of the respondents agree the statement. 7% of them neither agree or disagree the statement. 2% of them disagree and 3% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the statement. Here it means that majority of the faculties are happy to speak about the organisation to others as a great institution to work for.

Question No 3: I feel very little loyalty to this organization:

The above table shows that none of the respondents have agreed the statement. In other words, 100% or all the respondents disagree the statement. It means, all the faculties feel loyal to the institution they are working for and none of them feel very little loyalty to their organisation.

Question No 4: The work I do is very important and meaningful to me:

Above table shows that 62% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 34% of the respondents, agree the statement. 4% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement and 0% of them disagree the statement. Here, it means that majority of the faculty members agree that the work they do is important and meaningful to them.

Question No 5: I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization:

The above table shows that 29% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 49% of them agree the statement. 9% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 7% of the respondents have disagreed the statement and 6% of them strongly disagreed the above given statement. It is very much clear that faculty members are proud of their organisation and proud to tell others that they are part of the organisation they work for.

Question No 6: This organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance:

From the above table we can see that 27% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 52% of them have agreed the statement. 11% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 04% of them disagree and 06% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the above given statement. Here it means that organization really inspires the very best in faculties in the way of job performance. The faculties feel that their organisation inspires them to give better performance.

Question No 7: It would take very little change in my present circumstances to cause me to leave this organization:

From the above table we can understand that only 5% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 3% of them agree the statement. 9% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 42% of them have disagreed the statement and 41% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the above given statement. Here, it means that the majority of faculty members disagree that it would take very little change in their present circumstances to cause them to leave the organization.

Question No 8: I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined:

Above table shows that 31% of the respondents have strongly agreed the statement and 52% of them have agreed the statement. 9% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 5% of them disagree and 3% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the above statement. It is clear that the faculties are extremely glad that they chose this organization to work for over others they were considering at the time of joining the institution.

Question No 9: There's not much to be gained by staying with this organization indefinitely Interpretation: From the above table it is clear that only 4% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 5% of them have agreed the given statement. 6% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 39% of them disagree the statement and 46% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the above given statement. It is clear that majority of the faculty members disagree that there is not much to be gained by staying with this organization indefinitely.

Question No 10: I really care about the fate of this organization.

Interpretation:

The above table shows that 48% of the respondents strongly agree the statement and 39% of them agree the above given statement. 8% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement. 3% of them disagree the statement and 2% of the respondents have strongly disagreed the above given statement. Here, it is very much clear that majority of the faculty members really care about the fate of the organization they work for. This shows the commitment and engagement of faculties towards their organisation.

Question No 11: For me this is the best of all possible organizations for which to work.

Interpretation:

The above table shows that 79% of the respondents agree the statement. 10% of them neither agree nor disagree and 11% of them disagree the statement. Hence, it is clear that majority of the faculty members feel that the present organisation is the best of all possible organizations for which to work.

Question No 12: Deciding to work for this organization was a definite mistake on my part

The above table show that only 7% of the respondents agree the statement. 7% of them neither agree nor disagree the statement and 86% of them disagree the statement. So, it is clear that majority of the faculty members disagree that deciding to work for the organization was a definite mistake on their part.

8.0 FINDINGS:

1. 88% of the respondents would like to work beyond normally expected work assigned to them by the organisation.

2. 80% of the respondents are happy with the institution they are working and they are happy to speak about the organisation to others as a great institution to work for.

3. 100% of the faculties feel loyal to the institution they are working and none of the faculty members feel very little loyalty to their organisation.

4. 96% of the faculty members agree that the work they do is important and meaningful to them.

5. 78% of the faculties are proud of their organisation and proud to tell others that they are part of the organisation.

6. 79% of the respondents feels that organization really inspires the very best in them in the way of job performance.

7. 83% of the respondents disagree that it would take very little change in their present circumstances to cause them to leave organization.

8. 83% of the respondents are extremely glad that they chose this organization to work for over others they were considering at the time of joining the institution.

9. 85% of the respondents disagree that there is not much to be gained by staying with the organization indefinitely.

10. 87% of the faculties really care about the fate of the organization they work for.

11. 79% of the faculties feel that the present organisation is the best of all possible organizations for which to work.

12. 86% of the respondents disagree that deciding to work for the organization was a definite mistake on their part.

9.0 CONCLUSION:

Employee engagement in education is crucial and considered important as teachers play major role in success and development of students. The employee engagement and commitment of faculty members in districts studied are at a higher level. Hence, it can be concluded that the faculty members or teachers in the organisations studied are very much committed and their engagement level is higher. It means that they are happy and would like to contribute maximum for the development of the institution they work for. Hence it is clear that when faculty members or teachers are loyal, committed and highly engaged, it is possible to get best outcomes from students in the form of good results, employment opportunities and overall development of students. The districts studied, perform really well in education and the credit goes to committed and highly engaged faculty members serving in different institutions.

10. REFERENCES:

1. Ahuja Sunaina and Modi Sanjay (2013), “Employee Work Engagement: An Empirical Study Of Higher Education Sector In Punjab” research proposal submitted to Lovely Professional University, Punjab.

2. Ahuja Sunaina, Gupta Savita (2018), “Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement as a Facilitator for Sustaining Higher Education Professionals”, International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE) ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7, Issue-6S5, Published by: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication pp: 1846-1849

3. Chandel Prerna (2019), “Assessing the Association of Employee Engagement with affective Organizational Commitment in Higher Education Institutions”, Research Review International Journal of Multidisciplinary, vol-4, issue-2, pp. 907-912.

4. Melissa Hughes, (2019), “The Secret Sauce of Employee Engagement”, accessed from http://info.melissahughes.rocks/neuronugget/the-secret-of-the-most-engaged-employees

5. Mowday, R.; Steers, R.; and Porter L. (1979). The Measurement of Organizational Commitment. The Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14, 224-247.

6. S.T. Janetius, R. Padmanabhan, Mini TC (2016), “Engaged Employees in Institutes of Higher Education”, International Journal of Advanced Research, 4(11): 308-312

7. “Education Sector in India”, accessed from https://www.ibef.org/industry/education-sector-india/showcase

Received on 11.01.2021 Modified on 10.02.2021

Asian Journal of Management. 2021; 12(3):286-290.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5763.2021.00043