Organisational compassion, happiness at work and employee engagement in selected HIV/AIDS programme focused organisations

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between organizational compassion, happiness at work and employee engagement in selected HIV/AIDS programme focused organizations. The study was based on three objectives; to examine the relationship between organizational compassion and employee engagement; to examine the relationship between happiness at work and employee engagement; to examine the relationship between organizational compassion and happiness at work. A conceptual model was developed to illustrate the relationship between the variables. A quantitative and correlation research design was adopted for this study. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a sample of 175 respondents from the two selected HIV/ AIDS programme focused organizations in Uganda (AIC & Hospice Africa). Descriptive statistics were run to describe the characteristics of the respondents while Pearson Correlation and multiple linear regression analysis tests were run to test the relationships between the variables. The findings revealed that there is significant positive relationship between organizational compassion and employee engagement (r = .315, p<.01). Furthermore the findings a significant positive relationship between happiness at work and employee engagement (r = .481, p<.01). the findings also showed that there was a significant positive relationship between organizational compassion and happiness at work (r = .386, p<.01). Both organizational compassion and happiness at work explained 23.9% of the variation in Employee Engagement (Adjusted R Square = .239). The study recommended that management of HIV/AIDS organizations in Uganda should create an environment where employees have a positive feeling of pain and suffering for fellow worker in they in deep sorrow of family and organizational challenges. They should also enhance happiness through having a fair and equitable reward system in place as well as caring about their personal needs as well as encouraging employee teams, delegation and creation of SACCOs so that employees have cohesion and a common bond hence increasing employee engagement.