Employee Engagement Among the Academic Workforce Within Private Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

Abstract

Employee Engagement has been part of management research for the past decades, but within the private higher education industry in Malaysia, there is a limited degree of academic research on this subject. The growing trend of research in employee engagement has expanded within countries such as Nigeria, Philippines, Indonesia, and India. Malaysia has in the past been seen as an education hub within the Asia Pacific region but the relatively high level of labour turnover, absenteeism and low level of commitment among the academics, justifies the need to focus attention towards studies on employee engagement, as a means to retaining its current position as the educational hub for the region. This conceptual paper discusses some determinants of employee engagement such as benchmark practices, the role of human resource management (HRM) function, faculty support strategies, individual attributes and strategic partnerships. The discussion hopes to propose a further empirical study to be conducted among private universities within Malaysia.