Mitigating Precarity to Boost Engagement among Nigeria's Casual Telecommunication Workers? Investigating Employee Resilience and Organisational Support as Possible Factors

Abstract

This study explores the role of employee resilience and perceived organisational support (POS) in promoting engagement among casual workers in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector—a key industry increasingly characterised by precarious employment and job insecurity. Grounded in the Conservation of Resources (COR) and Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theories, the research adopts a positivist paradigm and employs a quantitative cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 487 casual employees across major Nigerian cities and analysed using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM). The findings reveal that POS has a significant positive effect on employee engagement, while resilience does not directly predict either engagement or POS. Moreover, POS does not mediate the relationship between resilience and engagement. These results suggest that while personal attributes such as resilience are valuable, organisational factors—particularly perceived support—play a more decisive role in sustaining engagement within insecure work environments. The study contributes to the limited body of research on casual labour in developing economies and underscores the importance of supportive HR practices, inclusive organisational cultures, and policy reforms aimed at improving the well-being and engagement of precarious workers in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry.