Crafting Employee Engagement in Public Sector Delayering: From Transparency, Leadership to Trust

  • Akhmad Heni Khurohman Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
  • Putri Mega Desiana Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

This study is based on the understanding that organizational changes, such as delayering, can influence the level of employee engagement. Previous studies have acknowledged the roles of transparent communication, transformational leadership, and employee organizational trust in enhancing the level of employee engagement. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of transparent communication and transformational leadership on employee engagement through the mediation of employee organizational trust in the context of organizational change. This study adopts a cross-sectional design with purposive sampling technique. The respondents are the Firstluo-Level Functional PD appointed through the delayering mechanism in the Indonesian Douane Authority. A total of 424 respondent data were collected and further analyzed. Hypothesis testing was conducted using Structural Equation Model with Lisrel 8.8. The results show that transparent communication and transformational leadership have a significant positive effect on employee engagement. Furthermore, employee organizational trust partially mediates the relationship between transparent communication and transformational leadership with employee engagement. This study provides valuable insights for human resource management practitioners, emphasizing the importance of fostering transparent communication, implementing transformational leadership practices, and nurturing organizational trust to effectively enhance employee engagement during organizational change, particularly in the context of delayering within public sector organizations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adhikari, G. P. (2021). Scholars’ Journal Calculating the Sample Size in Quantitative Studies. Scholars’ Journal, 4. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/scholars

Ahmed, U., Khalid, N., Zahurul Islam, D. M., & Abro, Z. (2019). Abuse, emotions, and workload in the distribution business: Implications for employees’ engagement. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 6(8), 90–99. https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2019.08.013

Alshaabani, A., & Rudnák, I. (2023). Impact of trust on employees’ engagement: The mediating role of conflict management climate. Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences, 31(2), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPso.18154

Bai, Y., Zhou, J., & He, W. (2023). How employee job burnout, work engagement, and turnover intention relate to career plateau during the epidemic. Social Sciences, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12070394

Balwant, P. T., Mohammed, R., & Singh, R. (2020). Transformational leadership and employee engagement in Trinidad’s service sector: The role of job resources. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 15(4), 691–715. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-01-2019-0026

Bo, S., Wu, Y., & Zhong, L. (2020). Flattening of government hierarchies and misuse of public funds: Evidence from audit programs in China. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 179, 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.045

Chanana, N., & Sangeeta. (2021). Employee engagement practices during COVID-19 lockdown. Journal of Public Affairs, 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2508

Cook, K. S. (2015). Exchange: Social. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition (pp. 482–488). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.32056-6

Cropanzano, R., Anthony, E. L., Daniels, S. R., & Hall, A. V. (2017). Social exchange theory: A critical review with theoretical remedies. In Academy of Management Annals (Vol. 11, Issue 1, pp. 479–516). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0099

Dahlia. (2020). Flattening Indonesia’s bureaucratic structure: A literature review on the urgencies and consequences. Jurnal Transformasi Administrasi, 10(1), 1–17.

Dhanesh, G. S., & Picherit-Duthler, G. (2021). Remote internal crisis communication (RICC)–role of internal communication in predicting employee engagement during remote work in a crisis. Journal of Public Relations Research, 33(5), 292–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2021.2011286

Faupel, S., & Süß, S. (2019). The effect of transformational leadership on employees during organizational change–An empirical analysis. Journal of Change Management, 19(3), 145–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2018.1447006

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis eighth edition. www.cengage.com/highered

Hooi, L. W., & Chan, A. J. (2023). Does workplace digitalization matter in linking transformational leadership and innovative culture to employee engagement? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 36(2), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-06-2022-0184

Indonesian Douane Authority. (2021). Laporan monitoring dan evaluasi delayering jabatan eselon V menjadi JFPD Ahli Pertama di Otoritas Douane Indonesia.

Islam, M. N., Furuoka, F., & Idris, A. (2021). Employee engagement and organizational change initiatives: Does transformational leadership, valence, and trust make a difference? Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 40(3), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22078

Jeong, S., Hsiao, Y. Y., Song, J. H., Kim, J., & Bae, S. H. (2016). The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership on Work Engagement: The Influences of Professionalism and Openness to Change. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 27(4), 489–516. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21265

Jiang, H., & Luo, Y. (2018). Crafting employee trust: from authenticity, transparency to engagement. Journal of Communication Management, 22(2), 138–160. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-07-2016-0055

Jiang, H., & Men, R. L. (2017). Creating an engaged workforce: The impact of authentic leadership, transparent organizational communication, and work-life enrichment. Communication Research, 44(2), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215613137

Jiang, H., & Shen, H. (2023). Toward a relational theory of employee engagement: Understanding authenticity, transparency, and employee behaviors. International Journal of Business Communication, 60(3), 948–975. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488420954236

Kang, M., & Sung, M. (2017). How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: The mediation of employee-organization relationships. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), 82–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-04-2016-0026

Lathabhavan, R. (2019). Glass ceiling beliefs, performance, and turnover intention through work engagement. In Int. J. Environment, Workplace and Employment (Vol. 5, Issue 4).

Li, J. Y., Sun, R., Tao, W., & Lee, Y. (2021). Employee coping with organizational change in the face of a pandemic: The role of transparent internal communication. Public Relations Review, 47(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101984

Lu, L., McDonald, C., Kelleher, T., Lee, S., Chung, Y. J., Mueller, S., Vielledent, M., & Yue, C. A. (2022). Measuring consumer-perceived humanness of online organizational agents. Computers in Human Behavior, 128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107092

Maden-Eyiusta, C. (2021). Role conflict, role ambiguity, and proactive behaviors: does flexible role orientation moderate the mediating impact of engagement? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(13), 2829–2855. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1616590

Malhotra, N. K. (2019). Marketing research: an applied orientation. Pearson.

Ministry of Funding. (2022). Hasil monev delayering Kementerian Pendanaan.

Mohanty, S. K., & P, A. (2020). Identification of drivers of employee engagement in Indian power companies. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 70(6), 1263–1290. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-08-2019-0414

Oreg, S., Bartunek, J., Lee, G., & Do, B. (2016). An affect-based model of recipients’ responses to organizational change events. Academy of Management Review, 43(1), 68–86. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0335

Saks, A. M. (2019). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness, 6(1), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOEPP-06-2018-0034

Sanjaya, J., & Nurhayati, N. (2024). The Influence of Business Ethics, Work Ethic, Employee Engagement Remuneration on the Company’s Reputation in Public Plantation Companies. Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Sharia Economics (IIJSE), 7(2), 3763-3781. https://doi.org/10.31538/iijse.v7i2.4935

Saputra, A. (2023). Analysis of the Effect of Leadership Style towards Employee Performance with Job Satisfaction as Mediator and Gender as Moderator. Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Sharia Economics (IIJSE), 6(1), 313-333. https://doi.org/10.31538/iijse.v6i1.2290

Seppälä, P., Harju, L., & Hakanen, J. J. (2020). Interactions of approach and avoidance job crafting and work engagement: A comparison between employees affected and not affected by organizational changes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17239084

Siddiqui, D. A., & Sahar, N. (2019). The impact of training & development and communication on employee engagement – A study of banking sector. Business Management and Strategy, 10(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.5296/bms.v10i1.14592

Ugwu, F. O., Onyishi, I. E., & Rodríguez-Sánchez, A. M. (2014). Linking organizational trust with employee engagement: The role of psychological empowerment. Personnel Review, 43(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2012-0198

Wang, Y. (2020). Exploring the linkages among transparent communication, relational satisfaction and trust, and information sharing on social media in problematic situations. Profesional de La Informacion, 29(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.may.07

Wu, W. N. (2020). Determinants of citizen-generated data in a smart city: Analysis of 311 system user behavior. In Sustainable Cities and Society (Vol. 59). Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102167

Yue, C. A., Men, L. R., & Ferguson, M. A. (2019). Bridging transformational leadership, transparent communication, and employee openness to change: The mediating role of trust. Public Relations Review, 45(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.04.012

Zainab, B., Akbar, W., & Siddiqui, F. (2022). Impact of transformational leadership and transparent communication on employee openness to change: mediating role of employee organization trust and moderated role of change-related self-efficacy. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 43(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-08-2020-0355

Zheng, Y., Graham, L., Epitropaki, O., & Snape, E. (2020). Service leadership, work engagement, and service performance: The moderating role of leader skills. Group and Organization Management, 45(1), 43–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601119851978

Published
2024-08-16
How to Cite
Khurohman, A., & Desiana, P. (2024). Crafting Employee Engagement in Public Sector Delayering: From Transparency, Leadership to Trust. Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Sharia Economics (IIJSE), 7(3), 5755-5773. https://doi.org/10.31538/iijse.v7i3.5393