Performance Management and Employee Engagement in public institutions: The Ghanaian Perspective

Organizations have moved into the global arena in diverse roles in search of growth. It is therefore important to have the right talents to drive the vision of the organization. According to Ashton and Morton (2005) having the... [ view full abstract ]

Organizations have moved into the global arena in diverse roles in search of growth. It is therefore important to have the right talents to drive the vision of the organization. According to Ashton and Morton (2005) having the right talents is of strategic importance, contributing towards revenue generation, innovation and commitment to the work. Employee engagement has attracted the attention of human resource scholars for more close to two decades thereby making inroads in organisational and business literature (Kahn, 1990; Simpson, 2009; Shuck and Wollard, 2010, 2011; Rurkkhum and Bartlett, 2012; Kim et al., 2012). Although much research has been done on employee engagement and performance management, this study w add from the public service sector in Ghana with particular reference to Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Ltd where little is known about this concept of employee engagement considering its positive impact on performance management.

The study answers two basic questions and the questions are: to what extent does employee engagement affect performance in public sector institutions? And what drives employee engagement in these institutions? In order to examine the impact of employee engagement on performance management within the workforce of PMMC, a quantitative research approach was adopted. In all, 156 employees of PMMC participated. The Pearson moment correlation was computed to establish the strength and direction of the relationship between engagement at work and employee performance.

This study is hinged on the goal setting theory. The goal setting is relevant because of the importance attached to goals in performance management discussion. Locke & Latham (2002) have found that goals affect performance in four key ways namely specificity and difficulty, direction and attention, effort and persistence, and strategy development. This explains why there is the need for employees to know and appreciate the organisational goals so as to perform accordingly. Interestingly the goals set to some extent determines the engagement levels of the employees. It is therefore important to examine the employee engagement and performance from the goal setting perspective.

The results first reveals that there is a significant relationship between employee engagement at work and employee performance at PMMC. This means that the more employees are engaged with their work, the more the more they perform well on the job. The results showed that when employees are engaged in their work, they perform well on the work and also when they are given task that they are capable of performing, their engagement level rises. Therefore when organisations such as PMMC Ltd. motivates their employees to be highly engaged in their work, its increases the organisation’s productivity. This indicates that when employees are given the needed resources to work with and give their best effort, it becomes a key element that will drive the employee’s level of engagement in the organisation, although other key elements such as concentration on the work itself, their positive attitudes towards work, being inspired to work and their initiative also drive their level of engagement.