Early insights around employee engagement originated with George Elton Mayo and his work at Hawthorne Works (a General Electric Company) in the 1920s. In studying human behavior, Mayo’s research challenged Taylor’s principles of scientific management by providing alternative motivation theories outside of self interest (Mayo, 1933). This opened the door for additional research on employee motivation with future work by Argyris and Likert continuing to drive understandings of the relationship between environment and worker productivity. While the book First Break All the Rules (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999), helped popularize the concept of employee engagement, the first real mention of employee engagement appeared in a 1990 Academy of Management Journal article by William Kahn. Basing his initial work on Goffman, Kahn looked to further develop the concept around varying individual role attachment by extending the concept to fit organizational life (Kahn, 1990). Specifically, Kahn (1990), utilized an ethnographic, grounded theory method to better understand how experiences with various work variables including manager satisfaction, role clarity and availability of resources influenced an individual’s experience and involvement with work tasks. Kahn looked to build upon prior work by Hackman & Oldham (1980) and Alderfer (1972) to enhance or undermine the individual’s motivation and sense of meaning at work (Kahn, 1990). The research premise was that 1) individual
The CIPD (2014) factsheet states that Employee Engagement is a concept that ‘is generally seen as an internal state of being – physical, mental and emotional – that brings together earlier concepts of work effort, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and ‘flow’ (or optimal experience)’. An engaged workforce willingly demonstrates discretionary effort within their roles; their goals and values reflect that of their employers/organisation; they express a passion for work, feel valued and that their work has meaning.
1.3 Compare and contrast employee engagement with other related concepts; ‘flow’, organisational commitment, job involvement and job satisfaction
Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organisation which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Thus engagement is distinctively different from employee satisfaction, motivation and organisational culture.
The study conducted by Joseph L. Rotman (2006) has a purpose to test a model of the antecedents and consequences of job and organization engagements based on social exchange theory in a descriptive design, quantitative method and a survey technique. A survey was completed by 102 employees working in a variety of jobs and organizations. The average age was 34 and 60 percent were female. Participants had been in their current job for an average of four years, in their organization average of five years, and hadon average 12 years of work experience. The survey included measures of job and organization engagement as well as the antecedents and consequences of engagement. The results indicate that there is a meaningful difference between job and
This article discusses the topic of employee engagement and offers an approach to address this deficit from a contemporary, rather contentious, auto ethnographic point of view that employee engagement is an individual concept and argues that organisations would benefit from this method. It is noted that employee engagement has been presented as a solution in the search for sustainable economic growth. Kahn’s concept of personal engagement at work emphasises the importance of understanding self in employee engagement. Although employee engagement is a recent term, it ties into the larger conventional concepts of personal and work engagement. Auto ethnography is where the researcher connects personal experience for the purpose of understanding
Those individuals with high job satisfaction tend to have positive feelings towards their job, their colleagues and the company that hired him or her. On the other hand, those who are not satisfied have strong negative notions towards their organization (Robbins and Judge, 2015). Employee involvement has a direct correlation with job satisfaction. Companies that allow their employees to be involved in the decision-making process and give them the freedom to show their talent through their work, has become the forefront of employee engagement. For many years, businesses have been following archaic traditions in the sense of people would go to work, complete their hours under supervision and go home. Today, employees look forward to going to work for a company where the workplace is more friendly and connected (Suma and Lesha,
The purpose of this descriptive qualitative research is to explore how employees define understands, and link engagement to productivity within the workplace. Without a well-defined rigor understanding of engagement, employees remain unfocused, disengaged, and unproductive during working hours. Moreland (2013) found that too many individuals pursue opportunities that are not aligned with their experience, behavioral competencies, and education background. This impact of disengaged productivity undermine the success of other co-workers, and decrease employee morale across organizations. By exploring these factors this research will capture data that represent the contributing influences to improve the levels of engagement to increase productivity.
Employee engagement is a concept whereby an employee feels an emotional attachment to their employers and the goals and values the employer holds. There doesn’t appear to be a definitive description of employee engagement, but most agree that the emotional attachment is a key element to being an engaged employee. “The term employee engagement has gained considerable popularity in the past 20 years yet it remains inconsistently defined and conceptualized”, Shuck B & Wollard K (2010) - Human Resource Development Review. This emotional attachment could be described as a passion for the organisation and their part in it and a feeling that they can make a difference.
Aon Hewitt (2012) indicates that the business success is critical regarding company’s performance on employee engagement. Engaged employees have a clear understanding of their roles in business strategy and deliver greater performance; they get more involved as well as having a strong connection and commitment to the company and strive to go above and beyond in their jobs (Aon Hewitt, 2012). Aon Hewitt (2012) also mentions that engagement is about measuring the state of emotional and intellectual involvement or commitment of the workforce. It goes beyond satisfaction (“how much I like things here”) and commitment (“how much I want to be here”) to engagement (“how much I want to, and actually do, improve the business results”) (Forde, 2014).
An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results. Some of the advantages of Engaged employees are • • • • Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success. They will normally perform better and are more motivated. There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. They form an emotional connection with the company. This impacts their attitude towards the company’s clients, and thereby improves customer satisfaction and service levels • • • • • • It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization’s strategies and goals Increases employees’ trust in the organization Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment Provides a high-energy working environment Boosts business growth Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company
The monkeys at the top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes. The unknown author of this metaphor provides a descriptive analogy on the view of the executives who are at the top of the organizational chart which is completely opposite of the view that everyone else in the company sees. These different perspectives are just one of the reasons why employee engagement continues to be an important topic of research among consultants and company leaders. Engaged employees are defined as being committed to their organizations’ goals and values, motivated to contribute to organizational success, while enhancing their own sense of well-being. Even though engagement is a personal feeling, it still requires a combination of effort between the employee and the leaders of the organization. The bottom line is that organizations need highly engaged employees working in their companies because at the end of the day every employee’s productivity is affecting the bottom line of the company.
Employee engagement is a business management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and therefore will act in a way that furthers their organisations interests. Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organisation which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. A well and engaged employee is efficient and effective and a valuable asset in the workplace.
The past decade has seen an explosion of research activity and heightened interest in employee engagement among consultants, organizations, and management scholars. Perhaps this is not so surprising given the many claims that employee engagement is a key factor for an
Employee engagement is the buzzword in any organization. Several articles and studies have highlighted on how to measure and manage engagement. This is an essential area in an organization to draw on because it translates into an organizational success. However, engagement is two-way process: organizations must bring about a design to engage the employee, who in turn has a choice about the level of engagement to offer the employer. Each reinforces the other. An engaged employee comes across a mix of job contentment, organizational commitment, job connection and feelings of empowerment. It is where the concept of synergy comes in, where a creation of a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The disconnect, between the top level organization and employees, has resulted in a significantly reduced level of engagement among employees. “Gallup research shows that 13% of