ABSTRACT

This study examined the key drivers of employee engagement in the Nigerian Public Media Corporations with emphasis on Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA), Nigeria. In view of the importance attached to drivers of employee engagement, this study assessed and measured the levels of employee engagement in BCA and FRCN and employees' demographic characteristics; identified drivers of employee engagement, established a relationship between the drivers of employee engagement and levels of employee engagement and determined the relative importance of the drivers of employee engagement, in influencing employee engagement in FRCN and BCA. Mixed methodology research design involving both quantitative and qualitative techniques was used to generate data. The study adopted Stratified Random Sampling (SRS) with simple random selection. A total of four hundred and forty-five (445) questionnaires were distributed and only three hundred and eighty-four (384) representing 86.3% were found usable for analysis. Data generated were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, ranking method, regression analysis, Kendall's tau-b, correlation analysis and thematic content analysis. The findings of the study revealed four categories of employees in the public media according to the levels of engagement namely: the 'Highly Engaged, 'Engaged', 'not Engaged', and 'Actively engaged' employees'. The study revealed that the percentage of the highly engaged employees were significantly higher in BCA (30.2%) than FRCN (22.7%) P=0.004. The results showed that levels of engagement in BCA were influenced by sex, age, educational status, professional status, department and length of service while age and educational status influenced the levels of engagement in FRCN. Furthermore, the result revealed that the drivers of employee engagement which are leadership, communication, compensation/reward/recognition, learning and development, perceived organisational support, career development, job crafting and work environment (P 0.001, 0.0001,