The influence of workforce diversity and job meaningfulness on employee engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors

BACKGROUND: This study was done after the COVID-19 pandemic that brough a lot of disruptions and changes in behaviors of employees. This study focused on behaviors of Z employees in the new normal environment after the COVID-19 pandemic. Generation Z presently form the biggest age group in Malaysia, accounting for 29% of the total population. They have their own way of behavior and working patterns that is different from previous generations. Despite the increasing number of Gen Z employees, there is a dearth of studies that examined the effect of workforce diversity and job meaningfulness on employee engagement and OCB after the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to find out the association between workforce diversity and job meaningfulness to employee engagement and Organization Citizenship Behavior (OCB) among Gen Z employees in Malaysia after the COVID-19 pandemic. This research also investigated the relationship between employee engagement and OCB. METHODS: This was a quantitative study, and a survey strategy was used to collect data from 160 respondents. SPSS and Smart-PLS were used to generate descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The results revealed that workforce diversity was the strongest predictor of employee engagement among Gen Z employees after the pandemic. Workforce diversity also had a significant impact on OCB. Comparatively, job meaningfulness had a significant impact only on employee engagement but there was also a significant impact of employee engagement on OCB. CONCLUSIONS: The study that was done after the pandemic is one of the first to examine the relationship between workforce diversity, job meaningfulness, employee engagement, and OCB and has extended the current literature through the focus on Generation Z employees. The results suggest that workforce diversity and job meaningfulness to be adopted by organizations to upgrade engagement of Gen Z employees after the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in employee engagement post-COVID, will lead to lower employee turnover, improved productivity and motivation.