Relationships and Mediating Effects of Employee Engagement: An Empirical Study of Managerial Employees of Sri Lankan Listed Companies

Abstract

This study is a systematic and scientific attempt to fill five identified research gaps in the existing literature with regard to employee engagement through the use of empirical evidence from Sri Lankan listed companies. This study focuses on investigating employee engagement, its selected dynamics such as high-performance work practices (HPWPs), religiosity, personal character, leadership, work–life balance, and mediating effects of employee engagement on the relationship between the selected dynamics and employee job performance. The data gathered from 272 executives and managers in the Sri Lankan listed companies were analyzed and a set of hypotheses established and developed based on the theoretical and empirical accounts with regard to the dynamics of employee engagement, the combined effect of the dynamics of employee engagement, employee engagement as an independent variable, and the mediating role of employee engagement. A total of 12 hypotheses were tested with minimum researcher interference, in a noncontrived setting as a cross-sectional study and they were substantiated. Implications of the research findings have been discussed.