Exploring Barriers to Employee Engagement: A Comprehensive Analysis

This essay delves into the critical concept of employee engagement, highlighting its significance in today's competitive business environment. It defines employee engagement as a mutual relationship fostering employee investment and enthusiasm. The essay then identifies key barriers to optimal engagement, including lack of clarity in roles, professional uncertainty, and inadequate leadership. It emphasizes the detrimental impact of an unsupportive organizational culture, which affects cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Drawing on real-world examples, the essay underscores the importance of a compassionate and motivational work environment. The discussion section explores measurement tools like the Shuck and Utrecht engagement scales, advocating for the Shuck scale's comprehensive approach. In conclusion, the essay stresses the importance of identifying and addressing engagement barriers to improve organizational performance and employee well-being.

Running head: BARRIERS TO EMPLOY ENGAGEMENT
Barriers to employ engagement
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1BARRIERS TO EMPLOY ENGAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction: 2
Employee engagement: 2
Barriers to employee engagement: 3
Example of barrier and its impact: 4
Discussion: 5
Conclusion: 6
Reference: 7

2BARRIERS TO EMPLOY ENGAGEMENT
Introduction:
In the current age of competition and excessive consumerism, all business practices need to
invest extra effort and dedication to retain the customer base and continue to sustain in the
dynamic economy. However, there are a myriad of different internal and external factors that
influence the business process and profitability of an organization, one such substantial factor is
the employee engagement in an organization (Anitha, 2014). In the face of growing cut throat
competition in the business market, all corporate entities need to improve both quality and
productivity; and employee engagement is a phenomenon that served to improve both quality
and productivity of employees working in a corporate organization. However, there are certain
barriers to optimal employ engagement in a particular organization, and they impact both the
quality and productivity of the organization and its employees (Abraham, 2012). This assignment
will focus on exploring employee engagement, barriers to it and their impact taking the help of a
contextual organization based example.
Employee engagement:
The concept of employee engagement can be defined as a mutual relationship between the
employees of an organization and the organization itself, that allows the employee to be
absolutely invested in the job responsibilities that the employee has and feel enthusiastic about
fulfilling these responsibilities extreme care and zeal. On a more elaborative note, employee
engagement is proactive and optimistic psychological state of mind in an employee,
operationalized by the intensity and impact of cognitive, emotional and behavioural energy in the
said employee while in a professional setting (Shuck & Reio Jr, 2014). There are different
contributing variables to formulation of the desirable employee engagement, such as

3BARRIERS TO EMPLOY ENGAGEMENT
involvement of the employee towards the organization and its culture, commitment of the
employees towards the betterment of the organization and lastly, the productivity of the
employee that serves for the betterment of the organization (Gupta & Kumar, 2012).
Barriers to employee engagement:
As important as employee engagement is facilitating contextual ambidexterity in the
employees improving the performance multiple-folds, there are prevalent barriers that restrict the
development of exceptional employee engagement, and the contributing factors behind those
barriers are the elements of the organizational environment. One of the key barriers to employee
engagement can be the lack of clarity in the staff regarding their position, their job responsibility
and their scope in the organization. Often the employees do not have a clear idea about employee
engagement to begin with, while some confuse it with just job satisfaction, some consider it just
organizational citizenship behaviour. Professional uncertainty is another very common barrier to
generating optimal employee engagement, in scenarios where the employees are not certain
about their exact position in the organization they cannot be expected to be completely invested
to their job. Another very common organizational barrier to employee engagement is the lack of
adequate leadership management and adaptable and motivational organizational culture in the
organization; it has to be understood that in order to foster an environment of complete employee
ambidexterity in the organization, it is crucial for the employees to feel valued, supported and
motivated. In a organization where the culture is not supportive of equality, compassion, justice
and inclusive diversity, an employee cannot feel any connection to the organization and its
growth (Mirvis, 2012).

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Example of barrier and its impact:
All the barriers mentioned above have differential impact on the employee engagement,
however one of the most common example of such a barrier that is experienced in almost all
kinds of contexts is the unsupportive organizational culture in the organization. According to
several research studies, the link between organizational commitment and a fortifying culture in
the organization is profound; the job satisfaction in an employee is brought forward by the help
of a congenial and collaborative culture in the organization. According to authors, the consistent
experience of an employee in an organization is a fundamental decisive factor in generating
engagement, in cases where the employee feels supported and encouraged, the rate of employee
engagement has been detected to be high in many of the cohort analysis studies, whereas in
companies where the employees feel pressurized, exploited and uncomfortable to voice their
grievances, the level of employee engagement has been discovered to be extremely low (Mirvis,
2012).
Considering the three main sector of employee engagement, a non motivational organization
culture disrupts the cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement at the same time. Where
the lack of equality and justice affects the mental state of the employee, the lack of bias and
inclusiveness affects the morale of the employee. Moreover the lack of supportive and
motivational leadership in the professional setting affects the behaviour of employee towards the
organization as well (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014).
Taking example from my own professional experience, the most vital barrier experienced
had been due to the lack of compassionate or supportive environment in the company. It has to
be understood in this context, that in present day, the most of the business process function in the
team setting, and motivational leadership is one influential factor in the organizational culture

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that has the potential to transform the culture to make the employees feel more welcome and
valuable to the organization. In case, proper conflict resolution, justice and encouraging
communication skills are lacking in the leadership sector, the employee engagement rate suffers
drastically and it gradually impacts not only the quality and productivity of the organization, but
also the staff retention rate, market reputation and brand image (Sarangi & Srivastava, 2012).
Discussion:
Employee engagement is an essential tool to facilitate ambidexterity in the organization and
continue sustainable growth in the market. Therefore, the need for maintaining optimal employee
engagement is an essential pursuit for the organization. However in order to determine how to
enhance employee engagement for a corporate organization, it is extremely important to identify
the barriers that restricts its progress. There are different scales and analytical tools to measure
the level of employee engagement in an organization, for instance Shuck employee engagement
scale, which outlines cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement of an employee to the
organization. It is an excellent tool for measuring the individual components of employee
engagement and having an overall idea as well (Shuck & Reio Jr, 2014). Another abundantly
used tool is the Utrecht engagement scale, that incorporates vigour, dedication and absorption of
an employee to their organization; although these scale only provides an overall scale, not giving
the opportunity to assess the individual contributing factors to engagement so that the sectors can
be individually assessed. Hence, the most beneficial engagement scale for assessment should be
the Shuck employee engagement scale which provides individual score for all three sectors
(Truss et al., 2013).

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Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that employee engagement is crucial for the benefit of
both the organization and the employee; on one hand where the organization gains improved
quality, productivity, and loyalty, the employee gains improved skills, understanding and
appreciation which will help him grow his career further. Therefore, the organization must take
initiative to judge the levels of employee engagement in the employees, taking the help of the
tools mentioned, so that the barriers can be identifies and addressed; and the organization can
facilitate absolute employee engagement and ambidexterity.

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Reference:
Abraham, S. (2012). Job Satisfaction as an Antecedent to Employee Engagement. SIES Journal
of Management, 8(2).
Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management.
Gupta, V., & Kumar, S. (2012). Impact of performance appraisal justice on employee
engagement: a study of Indian professionals. Employee Relations, 35(1), 61-78.
Mirvis, P. (2012). Employee engagement and CSR. California Management Review, 54(4), 93-
117.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2),
183-202.
Sarangi, S., & Srivastava, R. K. (2012). Impact of organizational culture and communication on
employee engagement: An investigation of Indian private banks. South Asian journal of
management, 19(3), 18.
Shuck, B., & Reio Jr, T. G. (2014). Employee engagement and well-being: A moderation model
and implications for practice. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(1), 43-58.
Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K., & Delbridge, R. (2013). Employee engagement,
organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing
the theory.