Job Satisfaction and Employee Engagement among Human Resources Staff of Thai Private Higher Education Institutions

It is clear that job satisfaction and employee engagement are critical to organizational success. Therefore, the objective of this study was to discover the relationship of job satisfaction and employee engagement among human resources (HR) staff of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in Thailand. A questionnaire was developed from literature review and was administered to a sample of 220 HR staff from 58 PHEIs in Thailand. The responses were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis. This study revealed that there is a positive direct effect of job satisfaction on employee engagement (beta = 0.89,p < .001). Job satisfaction could explain 80% of the variance in employee engagement (R-2 = 0.80). The findings of this research could be helpful in encouraging further activities to improve the job satisfaction and employee engagement of HR staff in Thailand's PHEIs. It is recommended that the administrators should establish both intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors of job satisfaction to increase job satisfaction among staff, as well as build an engaging work environment consisting of aligning effort with strategy, empowerment, teamwork and collaboration, growth and development, and support and recognition for having an engaged work life.