Introduction
The purpose of the article is clearly stated in the second last paragraph of the introduction. The authors specify that the article is exploring the connection between two elements of employee loyalty namely continuance and affective commitments. The elements are compared with employee engagement (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014). The background elucidates the need to improve performance in the public sector due to the high rate of development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is relevant to the research study.
Literature Review
The review of literature is broad enough and includes different views of loyalty by different authors such as employee attitude. Some regard it as commitment whereas others consider it a psychological obligation (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014). However, the argument is focused on the relationship between engagement and loyalty. The theoretical framework has also been developed including applying the social exchange theory to explain employee engagement.
Research Design
The authors gave 50 respondents questionnaires to interview them on different aspects of interest. The questionnaires were private and confidential; hence, the identities of the participants were secure. However, there is no explanation for choosing this method of data collection. Nevertheless, the research method was appropriate for the research question because the participants responded to demographic and loyalty-related questions. The independent and dependent variables included employee loyalty and engagement respectively (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014). Data was collected from government employees at different managerial levels from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which fell within the area under the study (UAE). The validity of the collected data was also tested and considered reliable. The results were found to be consistent with the findings of other previous studies on the same topic.
One limitation highlighted in the study is the small number of participants involved. Only a total of 50 respondents participated in the research, 44 of them from Dubai and only six from Abu Dhabi (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014). This position creates a loophole for bias because the 44 participants sampled in Dubai were from the same organisation. Furthermore, using the small number of respondents increased the likelihood of a sampling error. The error margin was estimated at 95% with a confidence of only 13.8% (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014).
Results and Findings
The findings presented are relevant to the research question, which relates employee engagement and loyalty to high performance and job satisfaction. For instance, one of the findings indicated that the employees were willing to remain in an organisation if they were motivated, happy, engaged, and self-directed. This situation would most likely lead to high productivity in the organisation (Ibrahim & Al Falasi 2014). The steps taken in the data analysis were elaborately explained and substantiated. The use of log sheets, as well as data coding, is discussed under the subtopic of measures and variables used in the analysis. All the variables have been appropriately applied to develop and validate the three hypotheses used in the research. Results and data analysis have been simplified by the representation of values and steps using tables, enhancing the understanding of numerical values involved in the study sample demographics.
Discussion
The authors have discussed all the findings related to the study question. For example, employees under the age of 46 who consistently worked for the same organisation for 15-19 years were found to be 12%. The long working duration has been associated with employee engagement and loyalty, which is linked to worker retention. The results of this research are very relevant in the field of management because they give managers insight into how to increase employee performance and loyalty effectively. Their findings affirm a research that was conducted by Eisenberger et al. (2001). In his study, he found that employer reciprocity was positively related to employee loyalty and affective commitment.
Conclusion
The article ends with a summary of the main points that were covered in the article. The findings prove that employee loyalty and engagement should be improved to increase organisational performance. Ibrahim and Al Falasi (2014) finally recommend strategies such as the provision of education, rewards, and improvement of working conditions to increase employee loyalty and performance. They suggest that future research should not be confined to Western culture and a small number of people. Other parameters such as communication, systems of reward, and leadership should also be considered in future endeavours in research.
References
The 47 sources cited in the main text have been listed in the reference list. However, the format used does not follow APA bibliographic referencing style. For instance, quotation marks are included in journal titles, and the short forms of the words volume and number of the publication are not written except the numerals (OWL Purdue 2011).
Reference List
Eisenberger, R, Armeli, S, Rexwinkel, B, Lynch, P & Rhoades, L 2001, ‘Reciprocation of perceived organisational support’, Journal of applied psychology, vol. 86 no. 1, pp.1-42.
Ibrahim, M & Al Falasi, S 2014, ‘Employee loyalty and engagement in UAE public sector,’ Emerald Insight, vol. 36 no. 5, pp. 562-582.
OWL Purdue University 2011, APA formatting and referencing style. Web.