Assessing Employee Engagement in an ODL Context: Some Observation from the Zimbabwe Open University

Abstract

Employee engagement is the amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees in their jobs; (Frank et al 2004). ODL institutions are characterised by numerous semi autonomous geographically dispersed centres which are administered from a central administration centre. Direct supervision of employees in the geographical dispersed centres is usually impossible or too expensive for most ODL institutions hence the need for high employee engagement. The importance of employee engagement is that it could be used as a yardstick to show the effectiveness of employees in the organisation. This study assesses the level of employee engagement at the Zimbabwe Open University. The University has 10 regional centres located in the 10 geographic regions in Zimbabwe, a Virtual region which serves international students and the National Centre which is responsible for supervising all University operations. Direct control and supervision by management therefore becomes difficult due to geographic dispersion, this then calls for highly engaged and committed employees. This study falls within the qualitative research paradigm and employs an anti-positivist philosophy. The case study research design was used and data was collected using questionnaires. The research revealed that the University’s employees were highly committed and engaged in their work. They were knowledgeable and committed to the achievement of the institutional, departmental and their own individual goals. Employee engagement however was hampered by inadequate resources, perceived lack of consultation by management, lack of employee involvement and generally low empowerment. It is recommended that the institution take more risk in trusting the capabilities of its employees and grant them more autonomy in their operations. The University could enhance performance and engagement by providing employees with adequate modern, quality resources consistently so that employees are not inconvenienced and discouraged by lack of resources.

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