Employee engagement and task performance in state‐owned enterprises in developing countries: The case study of the power sector in Ghana

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2021
• Author: Frank L.K. Ohemeng,Theresa Obuobisa Darko,Emelia Amoako‐Asiedu
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

Employee engagement and task performance in state-owned

enterprises in developing countries: The case study of the

power sector in Ghana

Frank L.K. Ohemeng

1

| Theresa Obuobisa Darko

2

| Emelia Amoako-Asiedu

3

1

Department of Political Science, Concordia

University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2

Department of Human Resource and

Management Studies, Methodist University

College, Ghana, Accra, Ghana

3

Department of Human Resource and

Marketing, Wisconsin International University

College, Ghana, Accra, Ghana

Correspondence

Frank L.K. Ohemeng, Department of Political

Science, Concordia University, 1455 de

Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec

H3G 1M8, Canada.

Email: frank.ohemeng@concordia.ca

A growing number of studies prove a relationship between employee engagement

(EE) and performance. Unfortunately, almost all originate in the developed world; the

few that look at developing countries, including their public sectors, have focused

more on the civil service and agencies, and neglect state-owned enterprises (SOEs),

despite their importance for delivery of public services. The purpose of this paper is

to examine the impact of EE on task performance in SOEs in developing countries,

with particular reference to Ghana. We purposively selected SOEs in the power sec-

tor and quantitatively surveyed their employees. We employed regression analysis to

examine the link between EE and employee task performance. Our study, like those

before it, shows that EE has a positive and significant effect on employee task perfor-

mance. Our findings further suggest that for SOEs to achieve their targets with

employees' performance, appropriate strategies should be adopted to ensure that

employees are highly engaged.

1|INTRODUCTION

Employee engagement (EE) and its impact in both the public and pri-

vate sectors are subjects of growing interest, inspired by the belief

that it stimulates the task performance (TP) that enables an organiza-

tion to meet its objectives (Shantz, Alfes, Truss, & Soane, 2013). It is

believed, for instance, that engaged employees tend to be high per-

formers (Anitha, 2014) and career “satisficers”(Anand et al., 2016)

who give their organizations a competitive advantage (Albrecht,

Bakker, Gruman, Macey, & Saks, 2015; Lockwood, 2007) and who are

ready to go the extra mile for them (Schaufeli, 2012). Unfortunately,

our knowledge about the impact of EE on TP is limited to studies from

the developed world (Burch & Guarana, 2014; Salanova, Lorente,

Chambel, & Martínez, 2011), with a paucity of research on developing

countries. At the same time, such studies, even those of the public

sector, have focused more on the civil service and other agencies, to

the neglect of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), despite the fact that

SOEs are crucial to the delivery of public services to citizens in these

countries.

SOEs continue to be significant players in the economies of devel-

oping countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Devel-

opment [OECD], 2015), despite the years of retrenchment imposed

by what the literature calls the policies of the Washington Consensus

that were adopted by those countries, which in turn led to the privati-

zation of a number of such enterprises (Estrin & Pelletier, 2015). The

reform initiatives of many developing countries designed to maximize

SOE performance have failed (Dewenter & Malatesta, 2001; World

Bank, 2015). Effective reform is thus still on the agendas of govern-

ments and international financial institutions (IFIs), in the hope that

such enterprises can be turned around and contribute meaningfully to

their national economies (OECD, 2015).

What kinds of reforms are necessary? Some policymakers and

researchers have consistently advocated the privatization of SOEs;

others vehemently oppose and criticize it. To the latter, these enter-

prises should, rather, be well structured, with effective and efficient

boards, devoid of politicization. The scholars, in short, believe in what

the literature describes as good governance in the SOE sector (Kane

& Christiansen, 2015; OECD, 2015).

Received: 2 January 2019 Revised: 26 February 2019 Accepted: 2 September 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2021

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