The Relationships among Perceived Employer Branding, Employee Engagement, and Discretionary Effort in the Petroleum Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the relationships among perceived employer branding, employee engagement, and discretionary effort via the effect of employee expectation. A survey was completed by 1,349 current employees working in Thai petroleum industry using quota sampling, random sampling, and snowball sampling. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and the structural equation modeling by using statistical software programs. The results indicated that there were strong positive relationships between employer branding and employee engagement, employer branding and employee expectation, employee expectation and employee engagement, employee engagement and discretionary effort, and employer branding and discretionary effort. Moreover, there was a partial effect of employer branding on employee engagement through employee expectation, while there was also a partial effect of employer branding on discretionary effort through employee engagement. The results of this study strongly supported the expectancy theory and the social exchange theory.