Psychological Capital and Achievement Motivation as Predictors of Work Engagement among Micro and Small-Scale Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The study examined how psychological capital and achievement motivation predict work engagement among micro and small-scale entrepreneurs in Accra. One hundred and seventy-one (171) micro and small-scale entrepreneurs operating small IT firms, beauty parlour, food businesses, wood businesses, construction and plumbing, retail shops, event planning and decorations, management consulting firms, fashion businesses, poultry farming, cold stores, auto mechanic businesses, shoemaking businesses, pub businesses among others were purposively sampled from various locations in Accra. Participants fell between the ages of 24-64 years. The number of male participants stood at 104 (60.8%) and females were 67 (39.2%). A high proportion of the participants (78.4%) had been in business operation from 1 to 5 years, Majority of the participants (97.7%) had from 1 to 10 employees of study of the participants, while 4 (2.3%) participants had employees numbering between 11 and 30. A cross-sectional design was adopted where respondents were administered a set of questionnaires measuring psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism), achievement motivation and work engagement. Standard hierarchical regression and independent t-test were used to analyse the data. The results showed that work engagement had a significant positive relationship with psychological capital and its sub-dimensions but no significant relationship was observed with achievement motivation. Psychological capital predicted work engagement but self-efficacy predicted work engagement more than the other dimensions of psychological capital. Additionally, no significant difference existed between male and females; young and old entrepreneurs on work engagement. Based on the findings, there is the need for the design and implementation of interventions that offer support systems to help entrepreneurs in the micro and small-scale business sector of Ghana to develop their psychological capital as a way of improving their work engagement.