Is Work Engagement More Important than Job Satisfaction to Increase Employee Synergy and Performance? Studies at State-Owned Companies in Indonesian

This study aims to investigate how job attitudes, specifically employee satisfaction and engagement, affect both synergy and performance among employees. The research was conducted at a state-owned enterprise (BUMN) in Jakarta, which manages ports across Indonesia and operates in four regional areas nationwide. The study utilized a quantitative design with a survey method, and sampling was performed through a census, taking all workers as the unit of analysis with a response rate of 91.3% (6,378 respondents out of 6,986 workers). Both job attitude components simultaneously predict employee synergy by 66% and performance by 65%. Employee engagement had a higher path coefficient in predicting both employee synergy and performance compared to employee satisfaction. This supports the view that employee engagement more significantly represents an individual’s psychological aspects towards their organization and the tasks associated with their work roles, indicating that high employee engagement reflects a robust psychological attachment—physical, cognitive, and emotional—and plays a more significant role in influencing performance. Employee satisfaction and engagement are two crucial job attitude components for workers and should continue to be a focus in the state-owned company to maintain their attachment to the organization and enhance their contribution and optimal performance. The findings of this research reinforce the viewpoint that differentiates the two; employee engagement is more related to the psychological aspects and the nature of the relationship between workers and the organization, whereas employee satisfaction pertains to the positive-negative affective process, or satisfaction-dissatisfaction regarding what is received from the company, both in terms of rewards and recognition, whether intrinsic or extrinsic.