Orientation: Employee engagement has become an impetus behind business success and a deciding factor for service delivery, especially in the Zimbabwean public sector.Research purpose: This study sought to investigate the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery with reference to selected government departments in Harare.Motivation for the study: The government departments in Harare have witnessed gross employee disengagement as indicated by reduced employee commitment and high absenteeism.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative research design was adopted for this study. A structured questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to 260 employees and management working in five selected government departments.Main findings: This study showed that the antecedents of employee engagement such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures greatly influenced employee engagement in the public sector. The study also noted that employee engagement positively impacted service delivery in the public sector.Practical/managerial implications: An important implication of this study is the need for the public sector management to understand the significance of the social exchange for employee engagement and to provide employees with resources and benefits that would oblige them to perform productively.Contribution/value-add: This study is expected to enrich the empirical evidence on the antecedents of employee engagement and also provide recommendations for practitioners in investigating the influence of employee engagement on service delivery in the public sector.

Orientation: The advent of social media has taken new dimensions becoming one of the most significant methods of how people communicate all over the world. In particular, the usage of social media and networking sites is a phenomenon that has brought great negative and positive impact to organisations and employees nowadays.Research purpose: The primary aim of the study sought to determine the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector with particular reference to government departments in Harare.Motivation for the study: There have been rising concerns about the use of social media sites in the workplace because of loss of labour productivity through time wasted at work.Research approach/design and method: The study adopted a positivist research approach because it had ontological assumptions of representationalism and objectivism. Because of the nature of the research objectives, a descriptive research design was found to be necessary. A sample size of 278 management and employees from five selected government departments was targeted. Structured questionnaires were used for the collection of relevant primary data.Main findings: The study revealed that social media usage in the workplace resulted in significant drop in employees’ productivity because of time spent online keeping in touch with friends, sharing pictures and communicating with colleagues.Practical/managerial implications: As social media cannot be completely eradicated during working hours, the human resources departments need to monitor deadlines and job deliverables with the need to ensure that jobs are performed efficiently.Contribution/value-add: The study sought to fill the existing research gaps with regard to the use of social media at workplace and employee productivity.

Orientation: Occupational stress has become a major challenge for employers with potentially damaging physiological and psychological effects on employees as it negatively affects their health and contribution to the effectiveness of organisations.Research purpose: The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance.Motivation for the study: Public health care employees such as doctors, nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians had become more likely to have higher workload and inflexible working hours as they keep up with the increasing demand. Owing to shortages of staff, most of the health care employees had become stress ridden as they had to work for long working hours, face incompatible demands and find lack of support from superiors.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative research design was adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to 260 employees and management personnel working in five selected government departments.Main findings: The study concluded that there is a negative relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and job performance. The findings also noted a negative relationship between work overload and job performance.Practical/managerial implications: The data collected from this study might form part of policy-making for both the government and the management of public health care institutions. Moreover, the findings on the stress factors affecting the performance of health care workers may be used to develop strategies and provide an environment that ensures improved employee performance.Contribution/value-add: The study is expected to enrich the empirical evidence on the stressors in public health care institutions and also provide recommendations for practitioners in investigating the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in the public sector.