# The role of awareness, appreciation, and communication satisfaction in shaping employee engagement: evidence from the organizational health behavior index

## TL;DR

This study explores how awareness, appreciation, and communication satisfaction influence employee engagement in Saudi Arabian organizations.

## Contribution

The paper introduces the Organizational Health Behavior Index (OHBI) as a framework for assessing organizational health and employee engagement.

## Key findings

- Awareness, appreciation, and communication satisfaction significantly predict employee engagement.
- Communication satisfaction strengthens the relationship between awareness and engagement but slightly weakens the effect of appreciation.
- The OHBI framework shows applicability across diverse sectors and countries.

## Abstract

A healthy organization fosters an environment in which employees feel valued, motivated, and connected to their work. This study examines the relationship between organizational health and employee engagement using the Organizational Health Behavior Index (OHBI) as a multifaceted diagnostic framework, focusing on the joint effects of awareness, appreciation, and communication satisfaction. Data were collected from 7,548 employees across public, private, and semi-government sectors in Saudi Arabia, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test direct and moderating relationships among the study constructs. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) demonstrated excellent model fit (CFI = 0.978; RMSEA = 0.048), with all factor loadings exceeding 0.70, supporting convergent and discriminant validity. The results indicate that awareness (β = 0.230), appreciation (β = 0.152), and communication satisfaction (β = 0.070) significantly predict employee engagement (p < 0.001). Moderation analysis further reveals that communication satisfaction strengthens the relationship between awareness and employee engagement (β = 0.082), while slightly attenuating the effect of appreciation (β = −0.027), highlighting its dual role as a contextual moderator. The findings offer actionable insights for enhancing employee engagement and fostering healthier organizational environments across diverse sectors. Although the study is situated within the Saudi Arabian context, the OHBI demonstrates broad applicability across different countries, industries, and organizational settings, providing a practical framework for assessing organizational health and supporting human resource management interventions