Transformational leadership and employee engagement in the cameroonian civil service

This research arose from the observation that employees in the Cameroonian civil service show insufficient engagement at work. Several studies indicate that low work engagement has multiple consequences for organisations. Mowday and colleagues (1982) show that it contributes to increased stress and reduced vigilance; it also leads to reduced effort, lower performance and loss of efficiency (Aseron et al., 2020). Allen and Meyer (1996) argue that disengaged employees may become unpleasant and aggressive. In this context, the role played by the leader appears important for revitalising the organisational environment. The objective of this study is to show that transformational leadership predicts work engagement. A random sample of 179 employees in the city of Yaounde was selected. Data were collected using a questionnaire composed of measurement scales: work engagement was assessed using the Allen and Meyer (1993) scale, while transformational leadership was measured using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire developed by Bass and Avolio (2003). The results indicate that H1 (beta = 0.25; p < 0.05), H2 (beta = 0.26; p < 0.05), H3 (beta = 0.29; p < 0.05) and H4 (beta = 0.16; p < 0.05) are all significant. These findings show that transformational leadership predicts work engagement. The study concludes that leaders must lead by example in order to transform colleagues’ apathy into work engagement.