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American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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ISSN (Print): 2328-3734, ISSN (Online): 2328-3696, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3688 AIJRHASS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA (An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research)

INTERPERSONAL NEED ORIENTATION AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Anu Singh Lather1 Shilpa Jain2 University School of Management Studies Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Sector 16 C, Dwarka, Delhi-110078 INDIA Abstract:The present study was aimed to map the effect of interpersonal need orientation on employee engagement with respect to the demographic profile of employees working in the public and private organizations A sample of 100 employees was chosen from public and private sector organizations. Interpersonal need orientation was mapped through FIRO-B by Schutz (1958) and employee engagement was measured through job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intent to stay, pride, advocate, and emotional connect. The results show that Males higher on ‘people gatherer’ attitude are less engaged while females high on inhibition, submissive and dependent attitude are less engaged. The results of the study also reveal different interpersonal need orientations that effect engagement level of employees belonging to different marital status, types of organizations, level of management, and age groups. Keywords: Interpersonal need orientation, employee engagement, demographic factors, Oversocial behavior, Neurotic behavior. I. Introduction Employee Engagement is arguably the most critical metric for organizations in the 21 st Century. Most, if not all, of the other key measures that reflect and drive organizational performance (customer satisfaction, innovation, profitability, productivity, loyalty and quality) are products of engaged committed employees (Sidhhanta & Roy, 2010). It has achieved sizeable attention amongst academicians and practitioners (Shuck and Wollard 2011), due to its links to increased financial returns and improved organizational reputations (Saks 2006). The benefits of an engaged workforce contribute to these organizational outcomes through increased productivity, higher job satisfaction, and decreased turnover (Saks 2006). While these benefits have resulted in an increased priority, focus, and resourcing by managers worldwide to foster an engaged workforce (Shuck and Wollard 2011), recent industry studies suggest these efforts may not be working (see e.g., Gullup 2010; Towers Perrin 2008). Priyadarshi and Raina (2014) on the basis of a study of more than 200 middle and senior level executives from India, profess work engagement as an important mediator between job and personal resources, which has an impact on employees' work attitudes. One of the most important ingredients of job and personal resources is considered to be interpersonal relations of the employee with colleagues and superiors. Iyer and Israel (2012) identified internal communication as a key driver of employee engagement. Dachner (2011) purports that interpersonal relations at work promote a number of beneficial outcomes for individual and organizations. Swinscoe (2013) from an interview with the Luis Surez the leading thinker of IBM reported that employee engagement is not just about communicating more. Just because you are communicating more does not mean that you are communicating well or to the needs of the recipients. Employee engagement is about human relationships, not human resources. Communication and interpersonal relationships in the workplace can be traced back to social exchange theory and the most researched and applied aspect of social exchange theory is workplace relationships (Cropanzano and Mitchell 2005). Various mutually dependent associations exist within workplaces; these are referred to as social exchange relationships (Cropanzano, Byrne, Bobocel, and Rupp 2001). While several characteristics of social exchange exist, the most important is reciprocity, whereby positive and fair exchanges between two parties (individuals or groups) result in favorable behaviors and attitudes (Cropanzano and Mitchell 2005). The work engagement literature advocate that high quality interpersonal relationships encourage work engagement. Together, work engagement and interpersonal relationships may promote proactive work behaviors associated with improved organizational performance (Warshawsky et al, 2012). As professed by Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) and Bakker and Demerouti (2008), the model of work engagement purports the effect of job resources and job demands on the development of work engagement in employees. Here Job resources are defined as physical, psychological, social, and organizational features that reduce job demands; enhance an AIJRHASS 15-742; © 2015, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved

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employee's ability to meet work goals; and stimulate personal growth, learning, and development. Job resources are obtained from organizational structures, through social and interpersonal relationships, from the organization of the work, or from the task itself. Job resources found to increase work engagement for managers include autonomy, performance feedback, supportive colleagues, and supervisory coaching. Research has also shown that friendships at work foster individual employee attitudes such as job satisfaction, job commitment, engagement and perceived organizational support (Cherniss, 1991; Ellingwood, 2001; Jehn & Shah, 1997; Morrison, 2009; Riordan & Griffeth, 1995; Robinson, Roth, & Brown, 1993; Song & Olshfski, 2008; Zagenczyk, Scott, Gibney, Murrell, & Thatcher, 2010). II. Review of Literature Byrne (2015) in her recent book on employee engagement reported that interpersonal characertistics of leaders are what employees relate to or respond to when becoming engaged at work (Aryee et al., 2012; Tuckey et al., 2012; Xu and Thomas, 2011). Karanges et al (2014) conducted a study to understand the mediating role of social factors, namely perceived support and identification in the relationship between internal communication and engagement. A sample of 200 non-executive employees was taken using an online self-administered survey. The study applies linear and mediated regression to the model and finds that organizations and supervisors should focus internal communication efforts toward building greater perceptions of support and stronger identification among employees in order to foster optimal levels of engagement. Byrne et al (2013) conducted a study to understand the relationship between supportive and interpersonal leadership and employee engagement. They defined supportive leadership as supervisory support combined with interpersonal and informational justice. Interpersonal justice here refers to being treated with respect and consideration. They collected two data sets and applied structural equation modeling. For both data sets they found that interpersonal leadership was positively related to employee engagement. Warshawsky et al (2012) conducted a study to test the effects of interpersonal relationships on nurse managers’ work engagement and proactive work behavior. A sample of 323 nurse managers completed Rational Coordination Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and Proactive Work Behavior Scale. The result of the study revealed that interpersonal relationships with nurse administrators were most predictive of nurse managers’ work engagement and interpersonal relationships with physicians were most predictive of nurse managers’ proactive work behavior. They further professed that organizational culture that foster quality interpersonal relationships will support the job performance of nurse managers. Gyosberg and Slind (2012) identified four elements of organizational conversation that reflect the vital characteristics of interpersonal conversation: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality. They interviewed more than 150 professional communicators as well as top leaders of more than 100 companies in a span of two years at a variety of organizations—large and small, blue chip and start-up, for-profit and nonprofit, U.S. and international. The interviewees revealed both implicitly and explicitly, their efforts to “have a conversation” with their people or their ambition to “advance the conversation” within their companies. This conversation resembles an ordinary person-to-person conversation more than it does a series of commands from above. Furthermore, they initiate practices and foster cultural norms that instill a conversational sensibility throughout their organizations. By talking with employees and having interpersonal sensibility, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders have been able to retain or recapture operational flexibility, high levels of employee engagement, and tight strategic alignment that further facilitated start-ups to outperform betterestablished rivals. Tuckey et al (2012) examined the role of empowering leadership by using a multilevel framework at the group level by fire brigade captains in facilitating the individual level motivational processes that underpin work engagement in volunteer firefighters. 540 volunteer firefighters from 68 fire brigades completed the survey and the 68 captains of these brigades also completed the survey. The study predicted that increased levels of cognitive demands and cognitive resources partially mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and work engagement. Here, cognitive demands and resources includes interpersonal relations. Broeck et al (2008) furthers the Job Demands-Resources model and profess that the presence of job demands (e.g., work pressure) and the absence of job resources (e.g., social support) relate to burnout through a psychological, energetic process, whereas the existence of job resources leads to work engagement through a motivational process. They further supported this with an empirical evidence wherein they conducted a study on 745 employees of Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. The study examined the role of basic need satisfaction in the relationships between job demands, job resources, and employees’ exhaustion and vigour, the main components of burnout and engagement, respectively. Structural equation modelling confirmed that satisfaction of basic psychological needs partially explained the relationships from job demands to exhaustion and from job resources to vigour. It fully accounted for the relationship between job resources and exhaustion. Broeck et al at the end concluded that need satisfaction is a promising underlying mechanism for employees’ thriving at work. It is important to know here that this need satisfaction is in terms of interpersonal relationships.

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Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) conducted a study on four independent samples (N= 1698) to understand the relationship between job demands, job resources, burnout and engagement. A model was tested in which burnout and engagement have different predictors and different possible consequences. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously analyze data from four independent occupational samples (total N ¼ 1698). Results confirmed the hypothesized model indicating that burnout and engagement are negatively related, sharing between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of their variances; burnout is mainly predicted by job demands but also by lack of job resources, whereas engagement is exclusively predicted by available job resources; burnout is related to health problems as well as to turnover intention, whereas engagement is related only to the latter; (4) burnout mediates the relationship between job demands and health problems, whereas engagement mediates the relationship between job resources and turnover intention. Again, it is important to mention here that one of the prime factor of job resources is interpersonal relations at the workplace. III. Research Gap The research has shown that social support or job resources, including interpersonal support leads to work engagement. But there are no studies predicting relationship between interpersonal need orientation and levels of employee engagement. IV. Rationale of Present Study On the basis of the identified gap and understanding the need to find a relationship between interpersonal need orientation and employee engagement, the present research was planned to be conducted on employees working in public and private sector organizations in the National Capital Region, Delhi, India. The study was conducted on a sample of 100 from these organizations. V. Methodology A. Objective of the Study To understand the relationship between interpersonal need orientation and employee engagement levels of managers with respect to their demographic differences working in public and private sector organizations in National Capital Region Delhi, India. B. Sample The sample consisted of 100 employees, out of which 50 were males and 50 were females working in public and private sector organizations located in Delhi and NCR region. (Table 1). Out of 100 managers, 64 were entry level managers, 32 were middle level managers and 4 were top level managers. Out of 100 managers, 61 were in from the age group of 18-30 years, 23 were from 31-45 years and 16 were above 45 years of age. Out of 100 managers 80 were unmarried and 20 were married. Table 1: Demographic profile of the Respondents (N=100) Gender Organization Level of Management

Age

Marital Status

Value Label

Males

Females

Public Sector

Private Sector

Entry Level Managers

Middle Level Managers

Top Level Managers

18-30 Years

31-45 Years

45 Years and Above

Unmarried

Married

C. Survey Instrument Employee Engagement Scale: A 26 item questionnaire developed by Lather et al (2014) was used to measure Employee Engagement. The scale consists of six dimensions of employee engagement. These dimensions were organizational commitment, job satisfaction, advocate, intent to stay, pride and emotional connect. The validity of the questionnaire was established by confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability score of various dimensions are as for Job Satisfaction (.870), Organizational Commitment (.858), Advocate (.831), Pride (.891), Intent to Stay (.806), and Emotional Connect (.784). Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B): A 54 item scale developed by William Schutz in 1958. The test measures two types of interpersonal behavior i.e. ‘expressed’ and ‘wanted’ and three interpersonal need i.e. ‘inclusion’, ‘control’, and ‘affection’. Reliability coefficients for all measures are satisfactory, ranging from.85 to .96. Test-retest reliability coefficients also demonstrate good reliability— ranging from .71 to .85—for three different samples reported in the FIRO-B® Technical Guide (Hammer & Schnell, 2000). AIJRHASS 15-742; © 2015, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved

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VI. Results and Discussions Pearson correlation was applied to see the relationship between interpersonal need orientation and employee engagement (Table 2). The results show that employee engagement has significant negative correlations with expressed and wanted inclusion, wanted control, total need score, total wanted, total inclusion, and total affection score. As explained by Schutz, a high score on FIRO-B indicate anxious interpersonal need orientation, a high expressed and wanted inclusion shows that a person is ‘people gatherer’. Such a person will do less and talk more. A high total wanted, total inclusion and total affection score indicate to neuroticism. Such people lack emotional stability and thus may tend to lower on their engagement levels. Total expressed score correlates significantly negatively with employee engagement. Total control score correlates significantly negatively with employee engagement (Table 2). High expressed score indicates over social behavior while a high total control score indicates conflict between dependent-independent. In both the cases the emotional stability is less, thus may be relating negatively to employee engagement. Table 2: Correlations between Interpersonal Need Orientation and Employee Engagement Expressed Inclusion Expressed Control Expressed Affection Total Expressed -.329** -.059 -.185 -.225* Wanted Inclusion -.378**

Wanted Control -.271**

Wanted Affection -.253*

Total Wanted -.407**

Total Inclusion -.399**

Total Control -.201*

Total Affection -.249*

Total Need Score -.342**

*=p<.05, **= p <.01 level of significance

Table 3: Stepwise regression of Employee Engagement on Interpersonal Need Orientation with respect to their Demographic Variables Un standardized Coefficients F (sig)

Adjusted R2

Total Inclusion

6.41 (.015)

.119

.099

Total Wanted

14.58 (.000)

.233

.217

21.31 (.000)

.307

.293

5.532 (.023)

.103

.085

14.02 (.000)

.268 .047

625.00 (.001)

.997

.995

8.789 Expressed Control (.000)

.131 .102

31-45 years

Wanted Control

8.576 (.008)

.290

.256

45 Years and above

Expressed Affection

48.18 (.000)

.775

.759

Gender Wise Males Females

Organization Wise Public Sector Total Inclusion Private Sector

Wanted Affection

Standardized Coefficients

Std. Error Beta

Sig.

-1.594

.630

-.343

-2.532

.015

-1.588

.416

-.483

-3.819

.000

-2.282

.494

-.555

-4.616

.000

-3.107

1.321

-.321

-2.352

.023

.256

-2.106

.398

-.615

-5.294

.000

.037

1.793

.874

.238

2.051

.045

-1.316

.053

-.998

-25.000

.002

.116

-3.791

.926

-.538

-4.094

.000

.090

2.544

.919

.364

2.768

.008

-2.766

.944

-.538

-2.928

.008

-15.485

2.231

-.880

-6.941

.000

-4.245

1.040

-1.282

-4.08

.000

-2.421

.820

-.571

-2.951

.000

Level of Management Wise Entry Level Managers

Total Wanted

Top Level Managers

Total Wanted

Expressed Control

Age wise 18-30 years

Wanted Inclusion

Marital Status wise Unmarried

Total Wanted

13.94 (.000)

.189

.179

Married

Total Expressed

8.711 (.009)

.326

.289

Stepwise regression analysis was applied to see the effect of interpersonal need orientation on employee engagement. The employee engagement scores were firstly regressed gender wise on interpersonal need orientation. The results indicate that for males it is only total inclusion which contributes negatively to 12% (R2=.119) change in their employee engagement while for females, Total wanted behavior contributes negatively to 23.3% (R2=.233) change in their employee engagement (Table 3). A high total inclusion score indicates to ‘people gatherer’ behavior, such people only talk but do not work. They want to be included in all AIJRHASS 15-742; © 2015, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved

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the activities of others and try to include others also in their activities, even if not required, just to shed away responsibilities. The males who are high on such tendencies are low on their employee engagement up to 12% as compared to others. Individuals high on total wanted behavior are inhibited, submissive, dependent and overly cautious. They will wait for others to approach them and if not approached then they will feel rejected, not supported. Females high on such tendencies are lower than others by 23% on employee engagement. The organization wise regression of the employee engagement score on interpersonal need orientation shows that in public sector organizations total inclusion contributes negatively up to 30.7% (R 2=.307) to their employee engagement while in private sector organizations, wanted affection contributes negatively to employee engagement by 10.3% (R2=.103). The high total inclusion score indicates oversocial behavior, while in public sector organizations, everyone has to work within their hierarchical protocols. In such a working environment, individuals high on oversocial behavior feel suffocated and thus are less engaged. Higher scores on wanted affection means individual want others to show affection towards them. In a private sector organization, where everyone is trying to sustain in cutthroat competition, there is little interpersonal trust. Thinking to receive true affection in such an environment is a mere desire. Individuals high on wanted affection thus feel less engaged by 10% in such an environment. The level of management wise regression of employee engagement on interpersonal need orientation shows that for entry level managers total wanted score contributes negatively up to 26.8% (R 2=.268) to their employee engagement while an expressed control score contributes positively to employee engagement by 4.7% (R2=.047). For top level managers, total wanted score contributes negatively to employee engagement by 99.7% (R2=.997). Individuals high on total wanted behavior are inhibited, submissive, dependent and overly cautious. They will wait for others to approach them and if not approached then they will feel rejected, not supported. Entry level managers who are higher on these scores feel less engaged by 26.8% as compared to others while top level managers higher on total wanted score feel 99.7% less engaged as compared to others. The age wise regression of employee engagement on interpersonal need orientation shows that for managers in the age group of 18-30 years, wanted inclusion score contributes negatively up to 13.1% (R2=.131) to their employee engagement while an expressed control score contributes positively to employee engagement by 10.2% (R2=.102). An individual high on wanted inclusion is reserved and want others to approach him to include in their activities. Such a person has low emotional control and is thus less engaged. Individuals high in expressed control are autocratic. If they are able to exercise their control, then they remain happy. For the managers in the age group of 31-45 years, wanted control score contributes negatively to their employee engagement to the tune of 29% (R2=.290). An individual high on wanted control is dependent and submissive. Such a person would want others to control him/her but will never say it out. Managers in the age group of 3045 years high on Wanted Control If do not get controlled they feel less engaged. Managers in the age group of 45 years and above having a high score on expressed affection feel less engaged by 77.5% (R 2= .775). The marital status wise regression of employee engagement on interpersonal need orientation shows that for unmarried managers total wanted score contributes negatively to their employee engagement score by 18.9%, while for married managers total expressed score contributes negatively to employee engagement by 32.6% (Table 3). As discussed before a high total wanted score means inhibited, submissive, dependent behavior, while high total expressed score means oversocial behavior. In both the cases emotional stability is low and individual is high on neurticism, thus being less engaged. VII. Conclusion and Managerial Implications The results show that employee engagement is driven by different interpersonal need orientation for employees belonging to different gender, age group, marital status, level of management and type of organizations. As evident from the results of the present study individual bring in organizations their own deep rooted psyche. This is developed out of their socialization in life. That is why any amount of efforts by organizations to improve employee engagement is showing frail results. The organizations can handle this situation by conducting timely employee engagement surveys and surveys to understand the behavioral orientation of their employees so as to develop strategies to manage them accordingly. References [1].

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