Employee Engagement: Concept, Theories, Contributors, Importance and Ways to Improve

This article discusses the concept, theories, contributors, importance and ways to improve employee engagement within organisations. It covers theoretical perspectives of employee engagement, factors that drive employee engagement, and ways to improve employee engagement.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational Behaviour
Assignment 1
Student’s Name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:
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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Table of Contents
Concept of employee engagement...................................................................................................3
Theoretical perspectives of employee engagement.........................................................................3
Contributors of employee engagement............................................................................................4
Importance of employee engagement within organisations............................................................5
Factors that drive employee engagement........................................................................................6
Ways to improve employee engagement.........................................................................................6
Reference List..................................................................................................................................8
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Concept of employee engagement
Engaged and motivated employees within the organisational environment tend to
contribute more in terms of profitability, productivity and support in maintaining a higher level
of commitment leading to the higher customer base and satisfaction. The present paper seeks to
identify the concept and different dimensions of employee engagement by reviewing a range of
literature.
The concept of employee engagement refers to the measurement of employee
involvement with their respective jobs, performance level and working environment. It is worth
mentioning that an engaged employee refers to the individual who is completely enthusiastic
about and fully absorbed by their work and thereby takes action to improve the reputation of the
organisation. According to Pandita and Bedarkar (2015), leadership, work-life balance and
communication have a significant impact on the employee performance that leads to the
employee engagement within the workplace environment. The author also stated that these
factors impact on the spontaneous involvement, muscular effort and visible investment of
attention of an employee in the respective job role by managing high morale among the
employees. Hence, as opined by Mone and London (2018), employee engagement refers to the
elusive force that motivates workers to improve the productivity of the company. Thereby, it is
worth mentioning that managing high morale amid the workforce is beneficial for an
organisation as it can be stated that actively engaged employees are more productive and loyal
towards the company.
Theoretical perspectives of employee engagement
Herzberg’s theory
These days employee engagement becomes high on the business agenda and the theory of
Herzberg is effective in defining employee engagement and motivation within the workplace.
According to Herzberg, the ‘motivational factors' and ‘hygiene factors' are responsible for
improving job security and employee recognition that lead to improving employee performance
in the workplace. The five motivational factors that impact on the higher employee engagement
are recognition, opportunities for growth, sense of achievement, meaningful work and
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responsibility. Providing the opportunities for training and development plays a significant role
in the Herzberg's theory in improving employee engagement. On the other hand, hygiene factors
such as reasonable policies, safe and clean workplace and relationship with co-workers are also
associated with the worker-involvement in the workplace (Alshmemri et al. 2017).
Kahn’s theory of personal engagement
The theory of Kahn on employee engagement refers to the three psychological conditions
that have a significant impact on the development of workers' involvement in the workplace.
These factors regarding employee engagement include psychological meaningfulness,
psychological availability and the psychological safety (Bailey et al. 2015). The psychological
meaningfulness refers to the value of work goal and hence, lack of meaning in work can lead to
detachment and apathy of one’s work. Thereby, according to the theory, the organisations need
to focus on these factors for fostering individual’s motivation for improving productivity.
Contributors to employee engagement
The concept and the theories of employee engagement come out with the significant
contributors to employee engagement with the various organisational priorities. The contributors
are
Involvement
The high-involvement practices such as training, the power of decision-making, rewards
of high performance, teams, incentive pay systems and other factors show superior performance
of the employees. In addition to this, it can be stated that the employees in high-involvement
practices show a more positive attitude such as organisational commitment, trust and intrinsic
enjoyment of the work. It is often linked to the effective and higher notion of employee
empowerment. According to the viewpoint of Slack et al. (2015), high-involvement
management practices are associated with the employee retention, higher morale and financial
performance of the company positively.
Commitment
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The employees along with the highest level of commitment are responsible to perform
20% more effective and they are less likely to leave the company and it indicates that the higher
level of employee engagement is linked to higher level of organisational performance. Thereby,
it can be stated that commitment from the management has a significant impact on the employee
engagement with the culture and the transparency of the company.
Productivity
The organisations with effective employee engagement are 43% more productive and
they are more likely to gain customer satisfaction positively. However, it is worth mentioning
that the job satisfaction is linked to the significant employee engagement that leads to the
productivity of the company.
Importance of employee engagement within organisations
Employees can be perceived as the asset to an organisation. For gaining competitive
advantage in the cutthroat market, organisations are now using intellectual property as an
essential source and it is worth mentioning that one way the companies can navigate the
challenges and capitalise the intellectual property is by fostering employee engagement. As
mentioned by Kumar and Pansari (2015), high levels of employee engagement are associated
with the improved rates of organisational growth and profitability as the engaged employees are
more passionate and energised about the work they perform. The authors further stated that an
engaged employee has that potential to consistently outperform and gain new standards of
excellence. These factors within the engaged employees impact over the improvement of the
company productivity significantly.
Along with this, it can be stated that with the help of improved employee engagement, it
can be possible to improve the customer satisfaction. By engaging with the employees, it can be
possible to improve the quality and the quantity of the productions that lead to the higher level of
customer base and bring a significant brand image among the customers. At the present time, the
organisations and the public relation professionals are identifying the needs of strengthening
internal communication among the employees for improving employee engagement (Mishra et
al. 2014). By communicating with the employees, it can be possible to build a culture of
transparency between the employees and the management and it can engage the workforce with
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the priorities of organisations. By engaging employees with the decision-making procedure, the
management can be able to understand customer preferences and thereby can improve customer
relationship significantly.
Factors that drive employee engagement
A range of factors within the workplace climate is responsible for driving employee
engagement with the work process, culture and other priorities of the organisational entity.
Hence, the study of Popliand Rizvi (2016) shows the relationship between the employee
engagement and leadership styles. According to this study, effective leadership plays a
significant role in developing a culture of employee engagement and it is worth mentioning that
the proper human resource practices and leadership styles drive engagement that needs to be
fostered by an organizational entity in order to drive the performance of the company in the
existing market.
On the other hand, the study of Albrecht et al. (2015) stated that the HR practices such as
socialisation, selection, training and performance management facilitate and improve employee
engagement and this helps organisations to achieve competitive advantage potentially. Along
with this, the study of Mishra et al. (2014) deals with the role of internal communication as one
of the key drivers in improving employee engagement and hence, the study defined a range of
communication styles (such as face-to-communication, written and other styles) in improving
employee relations in the workplace environment. Hence, it can be stated that with the help of
effective communication styles, it can be possible for the public relation executives to find
themselves in an enhanced role of fostering employee engagement. In addition to this,
organisational culture plays one of the key roles in driving employee engagement. Hence, the
culture that defines job role to each employee effectively that improves employee engagement.
Thereby, these are the factors that drive employee engagement in the workplace environment.
Ways to improve employee engagement
At the present time, most of the companies rely on commitment, engagement and energy
of the workforce for the purpose of driving and surviving in the competitive market. Hence, there
are some steps that the organisations need to consider for fostering employee engagement in the
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workplace. As opined by Karanges et al. (2015), relationship-oriented behaviours, enhanced
visibility, increased face-time with the employee as well as accessibility plays one of the major
roles in improving employment involvement with the entire work process of the company.
On the other hand, Pandita and Bedarkar (2015) argued that the consideration of high-
level measures such as company-wide awareness training as well as worker-involvement
programs impact on the development of employee engagement and it leads to the improvement
of the customer satisfaction dimension positively.
Along with this, different worker involvement programs such as health and safety
measures help to engage employees with the company more than anything. Thereby, facilitating
the company's safety program can foster employee-involvement that could lead to improved
productivity and financial profitability.
However, Mone and London (2018) argued that the concept of working in teams can
enhance engagement and thereby, the organisational culture that fosters strong relationship
among the co-workers makes the employees more engaged with the entire work procedure. Apart
from this, it can be stated that the reconfiguring company bonus scheme can be identified as one
of the key steps to improve worker involvement as it makes the employee more motivated
towards their respective job roles.
Thereby, on the basis of above-held discussion, it can be stated that the companies need
to employ the key ways for the purpose of developing employee engagement in order to improve
more productions, profitability and reputation in the market.
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Reference List
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., 2017. Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life
Science Journal, 14(5), pp.12-16.
Bailey, C., Madden, A., Alves, K. and Fletcher, L., 2017. The meaning, antecedents and
outcomes of employee engagement: A narrative synthesis. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 19(1), pp.31-53.
Bedarkar, M. and Pandita, D., 2015. A study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting
employee performance. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp.106-115.
Eldor, L. and Harpaz, I., 2016. A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate
and its relationship with extra‐role performance behaviours. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
37(2), pp.213-235.
Karanges, E., Johnston, K., Beatson, A. and Lings, I., 2015. The influence of internal
communication on employee engagement: A pilot study. Public Relations Review, 41(1),
pp.129-131.
Kumar, V. and Pansari, A., 2015. Measuring the benefits of employee engagement. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 56(4), p.67.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2),
pp.183-202.
Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement through effective performance
management: A practical guide for managers. Abingdon: Routledge.
Popli, S. and Rizvi, I.A., 2016. Drivers of employee engagement: The role of leadership style.
Global Business Review, 17(4), pp.965-979.
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Slack, R.E., Corlett, S. and Morris, R., 2015. Exploring employee engagement with (corporate)
social responsibility: A social exchange perspective on organisational participation. Journal of
Business Ethics, 127(3), pp.537-548.
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