Employee Engagement Is The Buzzword

Mood of the persons defines their socio-psychological well being that reflects positively or negatively in their work performance. Social scientists have recognized the importance of psychological well-being of the employees (Cropanzano & Wright, 2001). It is a comparatively long-term, emotional situation. Mood is less powerful and less likely to be set off by a particular stimulus or happening. Hence, moods are important aspect of personality traits that has considerable impact on the overall organizational behavior and needs to be addressed with appropriate psychological needs and paradigms. Quick et al. have stressed ‘it is possible that psychological well-being and employee performance are related’ (Quick et al, 1997).

Positive psychology is concerned with three issues: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. The first aspect “positive emotions” examines contentment in terms of the past present and future (Seligman, 2007). The second aspect, “positive individual,” identifies one’s virtues and strengths. Furthermore, where positive individual looks at the person, “positive institution examines the community (p. 75). In terms of happiness, this is considered an emotional state and is achieved when balance occurs between the stresses of life and the person’s ability to let the things that are bogging him or her down. It is interesting to note that because of the large amount of

A study by Seth Kaplan and Jill C. Bradley-Geist (2014), conducted two positive psychology interventions to measure the increase in employee well-being. The article indicates from previous research done in the are of positive psychology, that encouraging specific behaviors and activities can have dramatic and enduring effects on psychological well-being (Kaplan & Bradley-Geist, 2014, p. 368). Two types of positive psychology interventions were developed, one focusing on “gratitude” exercises and the other on “social connectedness” exercises, these were conducted for two weeks to examine potential changes in job-related performance. They defined gratitude as an “orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive ‘in one’s work life (versus

The link between empowerment and emotional dissonance was first visualized by Lashley (2001a) where he claimed that the emotional feature of authorization plays an important role and gives impression on the importance of emotion. Lashley hypothetically claimed that the positive feeling that is controlled by the authorized employee will support in creating positive feelings in personnel where this could most likely propose some help to personnel, particularly before they get involve to ‘emotional dissonance’. Basically, personnel need to get involve in a specific amount of emotion in order to create the suitable feelings (Conger and Kanungo, 1988, Lashley, 1999) and to follow the necessary job rules (Hochschild, 1983; Ashforth and Humprey, 1993; Morris and Feldman, 1996a; Grandey, 2000).

In 2009 Larry Froman observed a post 2008 economy crash workplace environment (Froman 2010) Froman observed that because of the fear of job loss, the economy in a depression, and little job opportunities created a negative workplace environment that help decrease productivity. Even though this study was done almost 10 years ago, the core traits are still present in today’s workplace. From Froman’s study, an all-encompassing question about positive psychology in the workplace surfaces. How does positive psychology not only diminish the increasing stress of the US economy but also helps people flourish?

In today 's corporate world, where reliability to organizations is fading fast, engagement has been growing by companies to maintain employees. Employee engagement is “a level of commitment and involvement of employees towards their organization and its value,” (Maslach, 2008). An engaged employee works with his/her colleagues to progress their productivity within their job, for the ultimate benefit of the organization. Effective managers have the talent to get things done by other employees. This is done by motivating employees to accomplish tasks. A manager must be able to represent these tasks to employees. Motivated employees will work with the manager to accomplish company objectives. Those employees who are displeased will work against company objectives. In this study it examines to see what enhances employee engagement or what can create the employee to be disengaged. Employee engagement drives employees ' motivation, job satisfaction, and loyalty to their companies. A manager’s capability to build solid relationships with employees generates engaging employees which then they can accomplish at the highest level and be a successful employee, (Judge, 2001). Employee motivation is seen as an important building block in the growth of effective businesses. A motivated employee symbolizes both a modest advantage and as a strategic asset in the corporate world, which is why the issue of building self-motivation in employees has sparkled interest in managers. Not

Therefore, this manager’s mood has serious implications for employees. EIT should be provided so leaders with positive affect energize their employees.

Predictors of employee engagement are satisfaction with leadership, employee development, communication and innovation (Persson, 2010). Job demands and job resources foster contradictory psychological processes, one connecting to burnout and the other to employee engagement (Persson, 2010). Burnout is a process that occurs when job demands causes weakening of health and depleted energy as the negative outcome (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Persson, 2010). Employee engagement develops from a motivational process dependent on job resources (Persson, 2010). The Intrinsic and extrinsic reasons that motive employees are feeling of belonging, competency, autonomy, financial compensation and benefits. These reasons are shown to enhance employee engagement, whereas the absence will weaken engagement and result in frustration and failure to achieve company objectives (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Persson, 2010).

Employee Engagement is an approach to ensure that employees are engaged to the organizational goal’s and values. Employee engagement is acknowledged as a strong predictor of employees and work unit performance. Employees are motivated to contribute to the organizational success and at the same time they are involved in enhancing their own sense of well-being. This is beneficial for both the organization as well as the employee in the growth and development. Various trainings are given to the employees to engage in their work and thus the performance is been measured by the indicators as performance appraisal (Boyne, 2002).

Emotions in the workplace can have a negative and positive effect. As a leader, you work to decrease or minimize the negative and build on

Management that takes care and acknowledges the importance of employees’ skills tends to achieve superior management outcomes. The term affect is defined as being capable of involving a person’s mind or as being capable of provoking deliberate responses in a person’s mind (Umemuro, 2009). Employees are the fundamental mechanism that drives and maintains an organisation. The study, based on the Hawthorne effect, have indicated that employees who experience more positive affects are more productive, and thus people are at their most productive when experiencing positive moods (Harter, Schmidt, and Hayes 2002). Positive affect is associated with the process of motivating employees (Fisher, 2010, Frederickson, 2003). Studies indicate that organisations with strong employer-employee engagement achieve higher profits (Harter et al., 2002, 2010).

Over the last decade, various scholars have defined employee engagement as a two-way relationship between the employer and the employee based on an intellectual commitment of the employee to the organisation (Baumruk et al, 2006; Shaw, 2005). As employees perform their role they expresses themselves physically, cognitive and emotionally (Kahn, 1990), they are psychologically present (Saks, 2005) and have a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour (energy and involvement), dedication (enthusiasm, pride to work for the organisation, inspiration, and challenges), and absorption (concentration) (Schaufeli et al, 2002; Baker et al, 2008).

The purpose of this study was to study the level of employee engagement and strategies practiced to engage the employees and recommend the measures that improves the employee engagement in the organization.

Khan’s (1990’s) defined engagement as ‘harnessing of organisational members, self to their work’ he has stated employee show this through three dimensions, it could be physically, cognitively and emotionally, which has a base of psychological state. In the early 2000, (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes (2002 p.269) defined engagement as ‘the individual involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work’. Gallup’s human sigma websid (2005) likens employee engagement to the concept of customer engagement which has the dimensions of confidence, integrity, pride and passion. The base for many researches has been factors that bring engagement and disengagement, traits that have influence on the level of engagement are meaningfulness, safety and availability. This highly resonates with (Maslow 1954) , According to Maslow you need to know where a person is on the hierarchical pyramid in order to motivate him/her. Then you need to focus on meeting that person’s needs at that level, this has been linked with how engagement can be achieved. Kahn’s model was conducted by (May et al., 2004) , and found the

Thesis Statement: Mood has a strong effect on job performance. Positive mood results in higher quality of work and negative mood reduces task performance. Employers/employees should do everything they can to maintain a positive mood at the workplace.