A Comparative Study on Work Engagement in Relation to Leadership in Private and Public sector Undertakings in Bangalore

A Comparative Study on Work Engagement in Relation to Leadership in Private and Public sector Undertakings in Bangalore

Employee contribution becomes a critical business issue because in trying to produce superior output, companies have no choice but to try and engage not only the body but the mind and soul of every employee. Most organizations today realize that a satisfied employee is not necessarily the best employee in terms of loyalty and productivity. The best employee is really an engaged employee, one who is intellectually and emotionally bound with the organization, who feels passionate about its goals and committed towards its values. This employee goes the extra mile beyond the basic job requirements. Leadership in organizations ought to be authentic in order to be effective and successful over the long term. Philosophers, religious leaders, and thinkers from ancient times have given emphasis on the importance of authenticity and ethicality for leaders, if they are to attain effective governance in any circumstances. Leaders are obliged to demonstrate the highest moral standards and ethical demeanour in their everyday talk, actions, decision, and behaviours, so that others in their organizations can follow suit. The most recent financial crisis has originated from failed corporate leaders who believed in manipulations of accounts and indulged into obvious unethical corporate practices. Engaging employees of an organization is critical to the organizations success. Work Engagement is often the most significant differentiator between private and public organizations. This is true particularly for service based companies as revenues are directly proportional to number of workforce engagement in the organization. Based on the review of literatures and identified the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to pursue with the current research. The sample consisted of 240 employees from both private and public sector organizations. The judgmental sampling technique was adopted for selecting the respondents. Two standard tools were used to measure the variables of the study- 1.The measuring instrument used for the independent variable (Leadership) is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form 5X) (Bass & Avolio, 1997). The reliability of the scale was 0.701 2.The measuring instrument used for the dependent variable (Work engagement) is the Schaufeli & Bakker (2003). The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The reliability of the scale was 0.783 The major findings of the study were- 1. The dimensions of work engagement viz. vigor, absorption, dedication are found to have no significant relations with participative and democratic leadership style. 2. The dimensions of work engagement viz. vigor, absorption, dedication are found to have significant relations with autocratic leadership style. 3. For the dimension of Vigor, the difference between private and public organization on Vigor is statistically significant. It was found that the private sector employee scored high value(5.51) than the public sector employees(5.12) on the dimension of vigor.

T.A Kohila

Management Studies