Influence of idealized influence on employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya

Abstract

Parastatals continue to experience difficulties in trying to achieve employee engagement. Consequently, governments have transitioned to the transformational leadership style to effectively achieve employee engagement. Nevertheless, it is still ambiguous whether the institution of transformational leadership style dimensions has boosted employee engagement levels in parastatals in Kenya. The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of idealized influence on employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya. Also, the study sought to determine the moderating influence of employee motivation on the relationship between idealized influence and employee engagement. This study targeted the 10 parastatals within the energy sector in Kenya with a population of 315 middle-level managers. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy to examine how idealized influence influences employee engagement and data were collected using structured questionnaires. A correlational research design was conducted with the purpose of determining the strength of the relationship between parameters of idealized influence and employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya. The findings showed that employee engagement has a statistical significant relationship with charisma, r(166) = 0.590, p < 0.01; ethical leadership, r(165) = 0.553, p < 0.01; teamwork, r(166) = 0.531, p < 0.01. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that employee motivation positively and significantly moderates the relationship between idealized influence and employee engagement, R2= 0.405, F(2, 159) = 54.100, p <0.05, β = 0.225, p < 0.05. The study concluded that charisma, ethical leadership, teamwork, and employee motivation positively enhance employee engagement.

The Effects of Charismatic Aspects of Transformational Leadership on Personal Outcomes: An Empirical Literature Review

“…Secondly, the employee's performance is the main concern of researches when considering the impact of idealized influence and inspirational motivation, examples like performance of the staff (Ngaithe et al, 2016), manager performance (Nyokabi et al, 2017), work performance of employees (Langat et al, 2019a), knowledge sharing innovation performance (Le & Le, 2021), teacher performance (Alzoraiki et al, 2018), HR performance (Sutanto et al, 2021) well supported the idea. Only few literature explored their impact on other aspects, such as employees' job satisfactions (Sahibzada et al, 2016) and employees' engagement (Change et al, 2019).…”

“…Applying only dimension of idealized influence, Change et al (2019) investigated the impact of idealized influence having on employee engagement in energy sectors in Kenya. This research also aimed to determine how inspirational motivation impacts the link between idealized influence and staff Statistical analysis shows a strong correlation between employee engagement and charisma, ethical leadership, and teamwork.…”

Mechanism of Transformational Leadership on Team Performance and Recommended Interventions on AI-Lab

“…Employees motivated by such articulate vision could be more dedicated to accomplishing team goals. Change et al (2019) sought to examine the influence of idealized influence on team members' engagement in state-owned companies in the energy sector in Kenya. The research adopted a positivist approach and a descriptive correlational research design to analyze how idealized influence shapes employees' work engagement.…”

Evaluating employee engagement drivers in Nigeria's downstream electricity sub-sector

“…Still, there is no universally accepted definition of employee engagement. As a result, Dernovsek (2008), Chandan et al (2016), and Change et al (2019 believed that employee engagement could be defined as the way in which a worker feels about their employer and its values. According to the literature, a variety of factors, including emotional and rational ones related to work and the overall work experience, have an impact on employee engagement.…”