Abstract:
This paper reports on findings related to factors that affect employee engagement in the case of Banks in Alemketema based on social exchange theory. Descriptive & cross-sectional survey research designs were employed; quantitative research approach was also used. Census method was used to collect data from professional employees and managers who work on three banks in Alemketema. Accordingly, 56 questionnaires were distributed and 56 were returned & used for further analysis. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20; to analyze the collected data descriptive statistics (frequencies, means & standard deviations) and inferential statistics (correlation & regression analysis) were used. Based on the evidence of the R square value obtained which indicates that 67.7% of the variance on employee engagement can be predicted by the independent variable (Job characteristics, Reward & Recognition, perception of organizational justice and perceived organizational support). So the four independent variables as a cumulative have a positive and significant effect on employee engagement. However, this study is subjected to limitations since the research project applied descriptive, cross sectional, quantitative, small sample size and only 4 independent factors where a common method bias is a serious limitation. Hence, future research might apply a longitudinal in large scale by considering banking sector in Ethiopia and by including many factors that might help to explain employee engagement.
