Contextualising employee engagement in crisis: a protective caring approach to employee engagement in the banking sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
| Date | 20 February 2024 |
| Pages | 42-59 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-12-2023-0623 |
| Published date | 20 February 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Almina Bešić,Christian Hirt,Zijada Rahimić |
Contextualising employee
engagement in crisis: a protective
caring approach to employee
engagement in the banking sector
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Almina Be
si
c
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
Christian Hirt
University of Graz, Graz, Austria, and
Zijada Rahimi
c
University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Purpose –This study focuses on HR practices that foster employee engagement during Covid-19.Companies
in transition economies are particularly vulnerable to crisis and downsizing and other recessionary practices
are frequently used.
Design/methodology/approach –Drawing on the model of caring human resource management, we utilise
interviews with human resource representatives of 10 banks in the transition economy of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. We analyse the banks at two different times to demonstrate how and why companies adapt their
HR practices.
Findings –Our findings show a changing mindset in the deployment of highly context-specific HR practices.
Strengthening company culture through a sense of community and communication ensure stability and
continuity in work. Rather than layoffs, flexible work has become standard.
Practical implications –By highlighting the interplay between HR practices and employee engagement, we
contribute to the discussion on engagement in exceptional circumstances and challenging settings and
demonstrate how caring responsibilities “migrate”into HR practices in the professional context of a transition
economy.
Originality/value –We propose a context-specific “protective caring approach”to foster employee
engagement during crises.
Keywords Caring HRM, Employee engagement, Crisis, Context, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Covid-19
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Imagine working in a country with no job security or regular payment. You go to work every
day, but your employer tells you that your salary will be paid late (sometimes months later). In
addition, the country suffers from a protracted political crisis, relatively little investment, and a
persistent discourse about permanent emigration. Imagine you have a family, a partner and
children. Would you find this to be an attractive environment for you to live and work? We
assume the clear answer to this question is no.
ER
46,9
42
© Almina Be
si
c, Christian Hirt and Zijada Rahimi
c. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This
article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may
reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-
commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of
this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 5 December 2023
Revised 1 February 2024
5 February 2024
Accepted 5 February 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 9, 2024
pp. 42-59
Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-12-2023-0623
Now imagine an international (or domestic) company in the banking sector. Although the
political situation has always been challenging, employees were seeking secure employment in the
sector, and for decades the reputation of an international company or a company paying
salaries on time was enough to attract skilled labour. Banks regularly received best place to work
awards. Despite having a well-developed human resource management (HRM), banks did not
have to worry about employee wellbeing or flexible work, as there was a constant flow of new
employees. Times have changed. Over the past years banks have become less appealing, making
it harder for them to recruit new employees and, more importantly, to retain them. Because of
this, banks have started to consider what HRM can do to alleviate this situation.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, leaving banks unsure how to react or what might
happen next. The government’s deficiencies became immediately apparent as there was little to
no support, guidance or equipment. Companies fired people left and right, and salaries were cut.
In some cases, people were put on furlough without clear guidance on the short or mid-term
developments.
Banks had to decide whether to follow the general reaction with recessionary human
resource (HR) practices or whether to leverage the crisis situation to keep employees and ensure
their wellbeing and engagement.
The above vignette is the starting point of our study which is set during the Covid-19
pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The context of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a transition
economy serves as a fitting empirical context with its strong banking sector and complex
institutional environment (Ortlieb et al., 2019). Due to decades of political and economic
instability that followed the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, the country seems to
be in perpetual crisis. The labour market suffers from skilled labour emigration and many
jobs have limited prospects for good salaries or promotion. Organisations face a paradoxical
situation with high unemployment and a lack of qualified and motivated employees. The
banking sector was severely affected by Covid-19 and governmental failure in mastering the
pandemic. This has left banks with considerable discretion as how to react to the crisis and
how to care for their employees.
Employee engagement, as the “simultaneous investment of an individual’s physical,
cognitive, and emotional energy in active, full work performance”, aims to increase
productivity, work quality, retain talent and improve performance (Rich et al., 2010, p. 619).
Especially employee-intensive organisations, such as banks, have a considerable need for
knowledgeable and dedicated employees. Employee engagement gained significance ,
especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and its resulting changes in work
environments. Questions on how to engage employees during a crisis and the role of HR
practices in fostering engagement are increasingly important for businesses (Collings et al.,
2021a;Kulik, 2021;Minbaeva and Navrbjerg, 2023), and engagement is a crucial topic in
research and practice (Davis and Van der Heijden, 2023;Conway et al., 2016;Saks, 2022).
We shed light on HR practices organisations adopt for employee engagement during
crises. We examine how HR professionals in the banking sector respond to the crisis and how
they try to demonstrate a caring approach to HRM. Such HRM can result in an organisational
climate of care to which employees will respond with higher levels of engagement (Saks,
2022). Based on Gilligan (1982) managers may have attitudes towards their employees that
are rooted in care, and go beyond serving the needs of the business. Applying such a
perspective to HR practices (e.g., Magrizos and Roumpi, 2020) helps us to understand how
people interpret and apply caring responsibilities in a professional context and allows us to
better grasp managers’motives and emotional experiences as they interact with employees
as required staff members (Au et al., 2023). Since businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are
vulnerable to crises and struggle with employee engagement, adopting caring HR practices
rather than downsizing is a novel and comparably understudied approach. We pay attention
to broader contextual factors (Davis and Van der Heijden, 2023;Farndale et al., 2022;
Employee
engagement in
the banking
sector
43
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