Unveiling mysteries of employee engagement: Sri Lanka’s unique path

• Research reveals surprising insights into how employee engagement differs in Sri Lanka

In the ever-evolving world of business, one term has been making waves across boardrooms and cubicles alike: employee engagement. This catchphrase has captivated the corporate realm, not merely as a buzzword but as a transformative concept. Research asserts that engaged employees bring about a cascade of positive outcomes – heightened job satisfaction, enhanced motivation, improved mental well-being, low absenteeism and diminished turnover intentions – all translating into amplified profitability for organisations.

However, a critical question looms large: Is the same employee engagement formula suitable for every country? Does the context – the social, political, economic and cultural features – matter? To address these questions, a groundbreaking study was conducted in the private sector of Sri Lanka, involving leading companies in the services, industry and agriculture sectors and knowledge workers representing both management and non-management levels from a variety of departments. This research provided insights into the unique dynamics of employee engagement in a non-Western, developing country setting. This article is based on these research findings. 

Sri Lanka’s employee engagement equation: Unveiling secrets

The mixed-methods study (combining quantitative and qualitative data) undertaken in Sri Lanka uncovered some fascinating results. Factors commonly associated with employee engagement in extant research, predominantly from Western countries, include supervisor support, co-worker relations, training, reward (salary and benefits), meaningful work, psychological safety (comfort and ease to express one’s self without fear) and mental and emotional readiness. These were examined in Sri Lanka. 

While all these factors were positively associated with employee engagement in Sri Lanka, co-worker relations and supervisor support have the most significant relationships with employee engagement. Surprisingly, reward has the lowest association with employee engagement. This shows that increasing salaries of employees does not have a great impact on an employee’s engagement with the organisation.

 
What was more surprising was that these factors, analysed using quantitative data, revealed an incomplete picture, which prompted a dive into the qualitative data. It became clear that Sri Lankan employees have a unique perspective when it comes to engagement. Their focus, intriguingly, gravitates towards disengagement. The study participants emphasised the importance of having resources that are essential for them to perform their work and that the absence of these resources could lead to disengagement (withdrawing physically, mentally and emotionally from work). These essential factors include:

• Adequate and capable human resources: A recurring comment from participants across the three sectors (services, industry, agriculture) was about their teams being severely understaffed and how new recruits lacked experience. This meant that the existing staff members needed to spend time training the new recruits, which added to their existing workloads. Managers felt that they were doing work that they could potentially distribute to lower levels of staff but due to the paucity of those human resources, they ended up doing the work themselves. 

• Work-related training: Both managers and non-managers in all three sectors commented on how they needed training that was directly related to their work areas; i.e., job-specific training, to be able to perform their work better. 
• Reward: Participants in all three sectors were of the view that their salary was insufficient and was not a reflection of the work they did.
• Fair treatment: Participants across the three sectors commented on the need to have fair and transparent processes. They highlighted the need to avoid preferential treatment that created unequal opportunities in the workplace. They stressed on eliminating favouritism. 
• Technological resources: Participants from the services and agriculture sectors commented on the need to have more advanced and efficient systems, considered essential to perform their work. 
• Workplace layout: Participants from the agriculture sector commented on the need for a better workplace layout, commenting on the need to move to open-plan seating without cubicles and walls and the need to improve the ‘look and feel’ of the premises.

These are the building blocks that need to be addressed first, before embarking on an engagement agenda. 

Economics at play: Sri Lankan difference

These findings suggest that the disparities in employee engagement between Western countries and Sri Lanka cannot be solely attributed to cultural distinctions, as is often assumed. A potential factor appears to lie in the economic divide. Sri Lanka, a developing nation, faces resource constraints that set it apart from the developed countries where most engagement research originates. In developing countries, like Sri Lanka, organisations may lack the resources to provide essential support for their employees. This fundamental resource disparity could potentially redefine the drivers of employee engagement in Sri Lanka, making such drivers different from their counterparts in developed countries.

This also explains why employees in Sri Lanka consider supervisor support and co-worker relations as crucial for their engagement—as these relationships could help navigate the challenges posed by limited resources at work. In essence, the economic situation of a country shapes the resources that organisations can provide to their employees, directly impacting employee engagement. 

Employee engagement is an employee’s physical, mental and emotional state directed toward achieving organisational outcomes

Beyond culture – A unique perspective

This research breaks the mould of traditional Western-centric thinking about employee engagement. In a developing country like Sri Lanka, organisations must provide essential resources to ensure that employees work effectively, thereby preventing disengagement. Once these basic requirements are met (e.g. adequate human resources, technology, reward, work-related training), then the focus can shift towards enabling employees to feel engaged through factors such as career progression and increased responsibilities. For instance, if an organisation promotes an employee but is unable to provide adequate human resources to enable them to achieve organisational goals, then the employee is not going to be ‘engaged’ with the organisation. Instead, they will be looking at leaving the organisation! 

On the other hand, for an organisation to provide career opportunities, advanced technology and more human resources, business and the country’s economy at large need to grow. This suggests the intricate relationship between the economic conditions of a country, performance of organisations and employee engagement.

Redefining employee engagement – Way forward 

In conclusion, this landmark study challenges the status quo of understanding employee engagement in non-Western, developing countries such as Sri Lanka by applying Western-developed engagement models. It suggests that what works in the West may not necessarily apply elsewhere. Organisations operating in such diverse contexts must adapt their engagement strategies to account for not just cultural differences but also economic and other context-specific factors. It also suggests that organisations should look beyond the numbers captured in surveys and engage in two-way dialogue with employees at the ground level. As was shown in this study, capturing employee experiences in their own words can lead to powerful insights about the state of the organisation. 

This research provides valuable insights for foreign firms looking to navigate the local market, after all, Sri Lanka is often considered a gateway to South Asia by investors. It’s a reminder that employee engagement is a multifaceted concept, influenced by a complex interplay of factors. Understanding these nuances is essential for creating a thriving, engaged workforce in any part of the world. In the realm of employee engagement, it’s clear that one size does not fit all and that what works for the West, may not work for the rest!

(Dr. Vindhya Weeratunga, a Lecturer at the School of Business of the University of New South Wales, Canberra, can be reached at [email protected])