CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Employee disengagement is one very serious unnerving issue that results in anxiety for the employee. Oftentimes the situation is unforeseen and doesn’t necessarily lie in the hands of the employer, other times it is even very undesirable for the employer who has given in time and money into the training and mentoring of the latter. But ours is a society and time where profit maximization and it’s entire trajectories are at the forefront of decision making in business management both for private and public establishments.

It is also a very serious issue with very deep economic importance as it offsets the disengaged employee's confidence and belief in himself and leads to an overall doubt about his competence in his area of expertise by other hiring establishments. Whatever the case, there are as much causes of employee disengagement as there are the number of disengagements recorded.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Employee disengagement is something that most times seems unavoidable and can either be as a result of inadequacies on the part of the disengaged employee. Or it can be from the employer like in the cases of mass retrenchment owing to financial setbacks or a merger. In most cases it is not a single factor that conspire to cause it rather it is a number of factors. Some of these factors can hardly be noticed.

1.3   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.3.1      what are the causes of employee disengagement

1.3.2      What are the factors that bear upon these causes

1.3.3      What are the effects of employee disengagement on the employees

1.3.4      How can one recognize these factors and ameliorate them

1.3.5      Does employee disengagement also affect the employers and in what ways.

1.3.6      What are the possible remedies to the situation.

1.4  OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to enquire into the major factors that bear upon employee disengagement. By studying the various cases of disengagement both in the form of retrenchment and termination of employment in order to create a pattern of occurrence and if possible an algorithm to see these causes ever before they become very visible.

The research also aims at studying the processes culminating into disengagement of an employee. What this hopes to achieve is that employers and employees would put measures in place to reduce the risk of having to be in the position of terminating or having one’s employment terminated.

1.5   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Apart from shedding very significant light on the immediate and remote causes of employee disengagement both in public and private establishments, the present research would significantly reduce cases of unnecessary employee disengagement through it’s recommendations.

For both employees and employers this research work will serve as a reliable guidelines of ways to checkmate the possibility of it’s occurrence.

1.6   RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis behind this work is that there often isn’t a single cause of employee disengagement especially in private establishments where such cases are abound. In the cases of public establishments the bureaucratic process doesn’t make for a common and problematic situation like in the private sector.

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research focuses mainly on the causes of employee disengagement. The study handles mostly the disengagement that occurs mostly in the private sectors as the most cases are found occurring there as opposed to that of the public sector which sees such speedy disengagement found in private establishments only with contract employees. The research studies the causes the processes that culminates in the termination of employee upon which the recommendations made in the last chapter is arrived.

1.8   LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Most establishments are usually not very open about the reasons for disengaging am employee due to fear of litigation. They either close their files or give very vague responses. This has been the major limitations of this research work so that the more available source of the causes are from the employees who have been disengaged rather than the employers from who the major causes can be established.

1.9   DEFINITION OF TERM

Employee Disengagement

This is the formal termination of an employment appointment by the employer due to a contract violation on the part of the employee