Managerial Communication Style and Employees’ Engagement: Study of a Selected Nigerian Organization

Toluwalope OLATUNJI , Adebukola Esther OYEWUNMI and Lynda Opeyemi OGUNYEMI

Abstract:

Communication is concrete bedrock upon which organizational cultures and values are entrenched and operational information is disseminated. Communication aids organizational evolution and amplifies a firm’s ideals and the reasons for its existence to its employees. Business analysts and researchers are unified in the belief that employees are the most valuable assets of any organization. However, employees are subject to managers, charged with the responsibility of directing and leading them. The manager’s duty is majorly achievable through communication. Today, organizational communication experts are propagating the need for the in-depth unraveling of the effects of managerial communication style on employees, especially its impact on employees' affective, behavioural and cognitive engagement. While studies on the topic have been conducted in many countries, there is a shortage of literature that focuses on managerial communication style and its effect on employee engagement within the Nigerian context. Hence, this study attempts to bridge this research gap. The descriptive research design was adopted for this paper. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents through the simple random sampling technique. The target population comprised 246 employees of a Nigerian organization. Despite the derivation of a sample size of 150 respondents using the Yamane (1967) formula, data were only extracted from 135 appropriately filled questionnaire copies. The data obtained were analysed using the Structural Equation Model (SMART-PLS). The research finding revealed that passive, assertive, and aggressive communication styles significantly affected employee engagement. Furthermore, findings revealed that organizations stood to benefit more from embracing the assertive communication style than other styles. The study recommended that managers be trained on the various communication styles to harness the inherent benefits of using an effective managerial communication style to steer employee engagement on an upward climb.