COGNITIVE STRATEGY AS A MECHANISM FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: A JD-R MODEL EXTENSION

Abstract

Despite the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model’s promise of a link between the resources an employee possesses and their engagement, there is no indication in the model of how the employee cognitively transforms the resources into engagement, especially in the context of the Indian IT sector, which is experiencing high attrition, cognitive overload, and a decline in employee engagement due to the post-pandemic digital transformation. Cognitive strategy as a mechanism for engagement was tested by comparing five engagement gaps with five cognitive strategy interventions: leadership communication failure, team cohesion difficulty, competency development deficiency, poor feedback and organizational awareness deficit. A cross-sectional survey of 131 IT staff working in Tamil Nadu, India was analyzed using Pearson correlation (SPSS 26.0; α = .913). All five gap–strategy pairs were significantly positively associated (r = .567–.614, p < .001) and a new Employee Cognitive Engagement Strategy (ECES) model was developed that extends JD-R theory and has implications for HR practice for sustainable engagement.