The purposes of this research were 1) to study Buddhist concepts and psychological traits theory for sustainable employee engagement; 2) to develop the causal model for sustainable employee engagement with Buddhist psychological traits and; 3) to validate and propose the causal model for sustainable employee engagement with Buddhist psychological traits. Mixed methods research applying quantitative methods to extend qualitative results was used for research design. For qualitative research, a purposive sampling of in-depth interview of 15 key informants was used. Interview form was used for data collection, and then data was analyzed by using content analysis and analytic induction. For quantitative research, survey by using developed questionnaire was used and data were collected from 540 employees who were working in Bangkok. Research tool was questionnaires and the reliability of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) was 0.947. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and advanced statistics of measurement models and structural equation model using LISREL.
Research results were as follows:
1) Buddhist concepts and psychological traits theory for sustainable employee engagement were studied and developed to be a framework of causal model for sustainable employee engagement with Buddhist psychological traits and Kalyāṇamitta traits. Buddhist principle of Saṅgahavatthu four consisted of good heart, good speech, good sociable and good consistency behavior. Psychological personality traits of big five theory consisted of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Sustainable employee engagement was developed by using Iddhipāda four composed of self-passion, self-dedication, self-evaluation and self-development. Kalyāṇamitta traits of leader also composed of be lovable, be respectable, be admirable, be good counsellor, be patient listener, be good explainer and be good advisor.
2) The development of research framework, there were 18 observed variables. Buddhist psychological traits composed of 8 observed variables which were good heart, good speech, good sociable, good consistency behavior, conscientiousness, optimistic, recognition of difference and friendliness. Sustainable employee engagement composed of 4 variables which were self-passion, self-dedication, self-evaluation and self-development. The observed variables of Kalyāṇamitta traits of leader composed of 6 observed variables which were be lovable, be respectable, be admirable, be good counsellor, be effective communicator and be good advisor.
3) The causal model for sustainable employee engagement with Buddhist psychological traits by Kalyāṇamitta traits of leader as mediator, the results of goodness of fit statistics of the model was fitted with the empirical data. The results were Chi-square ( 2) = 79.06, df = 63, p = 0.833, GFI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.022 and the variation in sustainable employee engagement was 95 percent. Buddhist psychological traits had the direct effect and indirect effect to sustainable employee engagement at value of 0.86 and 0.11 at .01 level of significance. This model was shown that Kalyāṇamitta trait of leader was not significant as mediator to sustainable employee engagement. If the employees have their own Buddhist psychological traits of good heart, good speech, good sociable, good consistency behavior, conscientiousness, optimistic, recognition of difference and friendliness, the employees can be sustainable engaged employee that occurred from their inner-self which composed of self-passion, self-dedication, self-evaluation and self-development.
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