CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Employee disengagement is one very serious unnerving issue that results in anxiety for the employee. Oftentimes the situation is unforeseen and doesn’t necessarily lie in the hands of the employer, other times it is even very undesirable for the employer who has given in time and money into the training and mentoring of the latter. But ours is a society and time where profit maximization and it’s entire trajectories are at the forefront of decision making in business management both for private and public establishments.
It is also a very serious issue with very deep economic importance as it offsets the disengaged employee's confidence and belief in himself and leads to an overall doubt about his competence in his area of expertise by other hiring establishments. Whatever the case, there are as much causes of employee disengagement as there are the number of disengagements recorded.
1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Employee disengagement is something that most times seems unavoidable and can either be as a result of inadequacies on the part of the disengaged employee. Or it can be from the employer like in the cases of mass retrenchment owing to financial setbacks or a merger. In most cases it is not a single factor that conspire to cause it rather it is a number of factors. Some of these factors can hardly be noticed.
1.3   RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.3.1      what are the causes of employee disengagement
1.3.2      What are the factors that bear upon these causes
1.3.3      What are the effects of employee disengagement on the employees
1.3.4      How can one recognize these factors and ameliorate them
1.3.5      Does employee disengagement also affect the employers and in what ways.
1.3.6      What are the possible remedies to the situation.
1.4  OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to enquire into the major factors that bear upon employee disengagement. By studying the various cases of disengagement both in the form of retrenchment and termination of employment in order to create a pattern of occurrence and if possible an algorithm to see these causes ever before they become very visible.
The research also aims at studying the processes culminating into disengagement of an employee. What this hopes to achieve is that employers and employees would put measures in place to reduce the risk of having to be in the position of terminating or having one’s employment terminated.