ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL ON WORK ENGAGEMENT AMONG BANKING SECTOR EMPLOYEES

Abstract

It has become vital to propose new forms of engaging employees in the banking industry in order to retain critical customers and increase profits. The banking industry operates in an exceedingly complicated and competitive atmosphere characterised by ever-changing conditions and an extremely unpredictable financial climate; it is also faced with economic recession and depleted employee confidence. With the reported challenges experienced by the banking industry, it has become imperative to find mechanisms to improve work engagement. The traditional methods of fostering engagement have proved ineffective, and managers are on the lookout for new ways of engaging employees. This research proposes that embracing and encouraging the self-leadership strategies and creating a positive psychological environment which facilitate employee thriving can be part of the new methods to boost work engagement. The main purpose of the inquiry was to determine the extent to which a combination of self-leadership strategies and psychological resources may influence work engagement. Using 303 banking sector employees a cross-sectional quantitative survey was applied. Results indicated that self-leadership strategies combined with psychological capital explain 69.4% variance in work engagement. Constructive thought patterns and hope are the main contributors to work engagement. Combining self-leadership strategies (constructive thoughts, self-efficacy, and hope) yields favourable levels of work engagement for banking sector employees. To enhance the energy levels and the quality of work among banking sector employees, managers can focus on encouraging the utilisation of self-leadership strategies and enhancing psychological resources to formulate practices that may improve work engagement. This study contributes to new knowledge pertaining to strategies that could be utilised by mangers to improve or enhance work engagement in the banking industry. The study also produced compelling implications for advancing theory through the identification of personal resources from self-leadership and psychological capital. These resources can be utilised to enhance individual work engagement based on the Job Demands Resource Model.