TRANSFORMATIONS IN BUSINESS & ECONOMICS , Vol. 25, No 2

A Study on Employee Engagement Practices and Their Impact on Organizational Productivity

Employee engagement has moved from being a fashionable HR phrase to a serious boardroom concern, mainly because disengaged employees quietly drain productivity in ways that balance sheets do not immediately show. The present study examines the employee engagement practices followed in selected organizations and measures the extent to which these practices influence organizational productivity. Primary data were collected from 120 employees working in IT/ITeS, banking and finance, manufacturing, and retail and service organizations through a structured questionnaire built on a five-point Likert scale. Six engagement practices were studied: communication and transparency, rewards and recognition, training and career development, work-life balance, participation in decision making, and work environment and peer relations. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, simple linear regression and one-way ANOVA. The results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between overall employee engagement and perceived organizational productivity (r = 0.576, p < 0.01), with engagement explaining about 33 per cent of the variation in productivity. Communication, training and recognition emerged as the strongest individual contributors, while work-life balance recorded the lowest mean score among the practices studied. The paper closes with practical suggestions for strengthening engagement and thereby productivity.

TRANSFORMATIONS IN BUSINESS & ECONOMICS , Vol. 24, No 3

Beyond mediation: Direct effects of psychological capital on adaptive performance

Purpose: Employees’ adaptive performance is critical for responding effectively to dynamic and uncertain work environments. This study addresses inconsistent findings regarding the role of motivational mechanisms in linking psychological capital to adaptive performance by examining the mediating role of work engagement. Method: A quantitative survey design was employed, involving 158 employees from the Sales and Field Management Division of PT Fastrata Buana. Data were analyzed using mediation regression. Results: The findings reveal that work engagement does not mediate the relationship between psychological capital and adaptive performance (β = 0.002, p = 0.973). Psychological capital significantly influences work engagement (β = 0.643, p = 0.001), while work engagement does not significantly predict adaptive performance (β = 0.087, p = 0.249). Instead, psychological capital exerts a significant direct effect on adaptive performance (β = 0.625, p = 0.001), indicating that employees’ personal resources play a central role in enabling adaptability to changing work demands. Conclusion: These findings challenge the assumption in JD-R Theory that motivational states universally mediate the effects of personal resources, suggesting that psychological capital may function as a proximal driver of adaptive performance independent of work engagement. The results indicate a significant direct effect of psychological capital on adaptive performance (β = 0.625, p = 0.001). Unlike prior studies emphasizing mediation mechanisms, this study supports a direct-effect model of psychological capital on adaptive performance and highlights the importance of developing psychological capital to enhance employee adaptability in dynamic organizational environments.

Predictors of Employee Engagement and Its Mediating Role in Organizational Performance: Evidence from a Lusaka City Council

Abstract Employee engagement is widely regarded as a determinant of organizational performance, yet the evidence still clusters in private-sector firms in high-income economies, leaving municipal government in sub-Saharan Africa thinly studied. This article examines the predictors of engagement and their influence on organizational performance at Lusaka City Council, Zambia’s largest local authority. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources model and Social Exchange Theory, the study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, pairing a survey of a stratified random sample of 300 employees with 15 semi-structured key-informant interviews. Data were analyzed through reliability and validity testing, correlation, multiple regression, and structural equation modelling with bootstrapped mediation, alongside reflexive thematic analysis. Job design and resources (β = 0.31) and reward and recognition (β = 0.35) both significantly predicted engagement, and engagement was the strongest predictor of performance (regression β = 0.46; structural path β = 0.51). Engagement partially mediated the effect of both antecedents, with significant indirect effects for job design (β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.10, 0.26]) and rewards (β = 0.19, 95% CI [0.11, 0.28]); the model explained 58 per cent of the variance in performance. Qualitative evidence set these relationships against a governance backdrop of centralized decision-making, inconsistent recognition, and political interference, with perceived political interference in promotion and resource allocation emerging as an institutional-level breach of the fairness premise that individual human resource interventions cannot repair. The study provides the first structural-equation-modelled, mixed-methods account of the engagement–performance relationship in a Zambian municipal authority, and argues that, in fiscally constrained municipalities, the perceived fairness of rewards and the decentralization of authority matter more for engagement than the absolute level of financial reward.

Sustainable workforce development: Examining work engagement through the Lens of green human capital and psychological ownership.

Background Organizations increasingly invest in Green Human Capital (GHC) to develop sustainability-oriented capabilities, yet evidence on how it enhances employee Work Engagement (WE) remains limited. Psychological Ownership (PO) rooted in motivation and responsibility research, may explain this relationship, but its mediating role in sustainability contexts remains underexplored.ObjectiveThis study examines the direct relationship between GHC and WE and the mediating role of PO, while also analyzing these relationships across four WE dimensions: Vigor, Dedication, Absorption, and Sustainable Engagement.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 400 employees from small to large-sized Indian organizations engaged in sustainability initiatives was conducted between January and June 2025 using validated questionnaires. Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) with AMOS was used to test the measurement model, direct effects, and mediation.ResultsGHC significantly and positively predicted overall WE (β = 0.405, p < .001) and had a particularly strong effect on Sustainable Engagement (β = 0.775, p < .001), while its effect on Absorption was not statistically significant. GHC also strongly predicted PO (β = 0.752, p < .001). Although PO exhibited a weak direct association with WE, mediation analysis revealed a statistically significant but modest partial mediating effect, with no significant mediation observed across individual engagement dimensions.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that GHC enhances employee WE primarily through direct capability-based mechanisms, especially sustainability-related engagement, while PO plays a limited yet complementary mediating role.Originality/ValueThis study pioneers a sustainability-driven engagement framework by revealing how GHC directly and psychologically drives employee WE through PO.

Moving Goalpost Phenomenon and Its Psychological and Behavioural Responses among Corporate Employees – An Exploratory Study

This study identifies and describes the Almost-Enough Phenomenon (AEP) as a cumulative psychological experience that develops when employees repeatedly demonstrate competence but receive little or no recognition. The Moving Goalpost Phenomenon (MGP), in which performance standards shift selectively and without transparency after being met, is proposed as the primary trigger. Repeated exposure to MGP produced a sequence of internal responses in participants, namely Learned Helplessness, the Impostor Phenomenon, Effort Adjustment, and eventual Turnover Intention. Using a qualitative, interpretivist, phenomenological design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 entry- to mid-level corporate employees across industries. Thematic analysis revealed AEP as a complete, harmful experience. Key contributions include extending MGP to macro-structural influences (for example, AI-driven change), identifying managers as mediators, highlighting self-concept strength as a moderator, and noting cognitive reframing as a disruption mechanism. Prolonged AEP exposure also fostered more transactional workplace relationships. Naming this experience shifts the focus from individual inadequacy to organisational accountability, suggesting directions for practice and future research.