Effect of work environment on employee engagement: Mediating role of ethical decision-making

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly being responsible for providing good and healthy work environment that can help in supporting employees performing their duties. Supportive work environment can increase the degree of employee engagement, which in turn, makes them more attached to their roles. The purpose of the current study is two-folded: to investigate the effect of work environment on engagement, and to test ethical decision making as a mediator between environment and engagement. Data were collected from a sample of 237 employees from transportation corporations listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (2019) in Jordan. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the model. Results proposed that engagement was significantly related to work environment and ethical decision-making. Work environment has a greater effect on employee engagement than on ethical decision-making. Moreover, the effect of ethical decision-making on employee engagement was greater than the effect of work engagement on ethical decision-making. Furthermore, the study yielded support for the claim that ethical decision-making played a significant role in the relationship between work environment and employee engagement. Therefore, employees having good working conditions and making ethical decisions tend to get higher levels of employee engagement.