{"title":"Work engagement and the impact of a social identity crafting approach to leadership: a case from Africa’s air transport industry","authors":"Vasilis Theoharakis, Robert Wapshott, Lamin Cham","doi":"10.1108/pr-02-2023-0099","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Purpose</h3>\n<p>Managers of public organizations in liberalized sectors face the dual imperative of retaining skilled employees who might be poached by commercial competitors and improving service performance levels without a free hand to invest resources. While employee work engagement (EWE) has been previously suggested as a solution to such management challenges, limitations in its ability to retain employees have been identified. We therefore examine how a social identity crafting (SIC) approach to public leadership that confers a sense of group identity among team members can enhance and extend beyond EWE in addressing this dual imperative.</p><!--/ Abstract__block -->\n<h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3>\n<p>We report findings from a survey of employees (<em>n</em> = 199) at “ATCO,” a state-owned national airline that is facing challenges from commercial rivals within a new, competitive environment.</p><!--/ Abstract__block -->\n<h3>Findings</h3>\n<p>We confirm previously identified limitations of EWE and, further, demonstrate that a social identity approach to leadership offers a promising avenue for public managers, not only by enhancing employee engagement but, more importantly, by enhancing retention and service performance.</p><!--/ Abstract__block -->\n<h3>Originality/value</h3>\n<p>We contribute to studies of leadership, particularly for managers operating in the public sector and resource-constrained environments, demonstrating how SIC, which does not require costly investment to attain, can deliver improved service performance and reduced employee turnover intention, operating beyond EWE, which reaches a plateau in respect of the latter.</p><!--/ Abstract__block -->","PeriodicalId":48148,"journal":{"name":"Personnel Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Personnel Review","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2023-0099","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose
Managers of public organizations in liberalized sectors face the dual imperative of retaining skilled employees who might be poached by commercial competitors and improving service performance levels without a free hand to invest resources. While employee work engagement (EWE) has been previously suggested as a solution to such management challenges, limitations in its ability to retain employees have been identified. We therefore examine how a social identity crafting (SIC) approach to public leadership that confers a sense of group identity among team members can enhance and extend beyond EWE in addressing this dual imperative.
Design/methodology/approach
We report findings from a survey of employees (n = 199) at “ATCO,” a state-owned national airline that is facing challenges from commercial rivals within a new, competitive environment.
Findings
We confirm previously identified limitations of EWE and, further, demonstrate that a social identity approach to leadership offers a promising avenue for public managers, not only by enhancing employee engagement but, more importantly, by enhancing retention and service performance.
Originality/value
We contribute to studies of leadership, particularly for managers operating in the public sector and resource-constrained environments, demonstrating how SIC, which does not require costly investment to attain, can deliver improved service performance and reduced employee turnover intention, operating beyond EWE, which reaches a plateau in respect of the latter.
期刊介绍:
Personnel Review (PR) publishes rigorous, well written articles from a range of theoretical and methodological traditions. We value articles that have high originality and that engage with contemporary challenges to human resource management theory, policy and practice development. Research that highlights innovation and emerging issues in the field, and the medium- to long-term impact of HRM policy and practice, is especially welcome.