Literature Review: Employee Engagement in Leading and Managing

This report provides a comprehensive literature review on employee engagement within the context of leading and managing organizations. It begins by defining employee engagement and exploring the roles of job crafting and employee motivation in boosting engagement levels. The report then examines how contemporary workplaces engage employees, discussing the importance of tailoring engagement practices to different staff members. Furthermore, it delves into the value of investing in employee engagement, supported by research findings that highlight the positive impact on productivity and profitability. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of maintaining high employee engagement for fostering a positive work environment and achieving successful organizational outcomes.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Leading and Managing Organizations
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Abstract:
The report is a literature review on the employee engagement that explains how the various
aspects like employee motivation and job crafting play a vital role in enhancing the employee
engagement. The report also put forward a discussion as to how the workplace presently
engages the employees. There is also discussion on why different engagement practices are
important for the different staffs. The report through the literature review also explains the worth
of the employee engagement.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
1. Literature Review:.......................................................................................................................3
1.1 Employee Engagement..............................................................................................................3
1.2 Job Crafting in Empowering Employees for Boosting Engagement.........................................4
1.3 Employee Motivation to Increase Engagement.........................................................................5
1.4 How Present Day Workplaces Engages Employees..................................................................6
1.5 Are Different Engagement Practices Required for Different Staff...........................................7
1.6. Is the Investment in Engagement Worthwhile?........................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into leading and managing organizations through
a literature review on the employee engagement. The literature review commences with the
definition of employee engagement and then goes on to explain how job crafting and employee
motivation plays a key role in boosting employee engagement. The report also focuses attention
to the fact as to how the workplaces are presently engaging the staffs. The report also portrays
how different engagement practices are necessary for different staffs. Further, through the
literature review the report provides an insight into worth of investment in employee engagement
followed by a conclusion.
1. Literature Review:
1.1 Employee Engagement
According to Anitha (2014), employee engagement is defined as harnessing the
organizational member to their specific work roles and in the process of engagement, people not
only express and employee them physically but also emotionally and cognitively during the
performance of their roles. The cognitive feature of the employee engagement involves the
beliefs regarding the organization, the leaders and the working condition (Saks and Gruman
2014). The emotional aspect, on the other hand, is concerned about the feelings of employees in
each of the three factors mentioned and whether they deliver a positive or negative attitude
towards the leaders and the organization while the physical aspects of the employee engagement
is concerned with physical energies exerted by the individual in accomplishing their roles.
Therefore, according to Garg (2014), engagement represents the psychological as the physical

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presence while performing or occupying organizational role. More, often the aspect of employee
engagement is defined as the intellectual and emotional commitment towards the organization or
it represents the discretionary effort exhibited by the employees on the jobs. Thus, it can be said
that, employee engagement refers to the multi-faceted construct that defined the employee
engagement not only as a passion for the work but as psychological state encompassing three
engagement dimension thereby capturing a common theme.
1.2 Job Crafting in Empowering Employees for Boosting Engagement
According to Wrzesniewski et al. (2013), job crafting represents the term that is used for
describing the process by which the individuals are believed to be shaping the personal
experiences at the work for increasing the meaningfulness that leads to greater engagement and
satisfaction. The guidelines that are required to be followed for supporting job crafting within an
organization are as follows (Demerouti, Bakker and Gevers 2015):
Elimination of Micromanagement: Employees engages in the job crafting behavior
provided they have the provision in doing so. Empowering the employees by providing them
with the latitude of their job performance allows them in carrying out the works that seems
meaningful and satisfying to them.
Leading by an Example: Learning to craft the job through reflecting on parts of the job
is found more meaningful. By determining the aspects to be modified about the job at hand and
increasing the engagement at the work, one is able to motivate others to be thoughtful regarding
how their work can be crafted.

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By Serving as a Mentor and a Resource: Serving as sounding board in guiding the
employees towards productive behavior while helping them in the things beneficial to growth.
Thus, by serving as resource to employees they can be reminded of their expectations and limit
that would influence the decision making.
1.3 Employee Motivation to Increase Engagement
Dobre (2013) stated that employee motivation represented the level of the creativity,
commitment and energy that is brought to the jobs by the workers of the companies. Irrespective
of whether the economy shrinks or grows, finding the ways of motivating the employee’s acts as
the management concern. Employee motivation acts particularly problematic for the smaller
business since the owners puts in a lot of effort in building the company and might find difficulty
in delegating meaningful responsibilities. However, the employers should remain careful about
the pitfalls along with the impact of lower employee motivation on smaller business. The
problems include disinterest, complacency and discouragement that lead to the culmination of
crisis.
Wang and Hou (2015) put across that there are various reasons that determines the
importance of the employee motivation. One of the primary reasons is that it allows the company
in meeting its goals. It is to be noted that without a motivated workplace a company stand at a
riskier position. On the other hand, motivated employees not only lead to enhanced productivity
but allow the organization in achieving higher output level. A non motivated employee might use
the time at the desk in surfing internet for the personal pleasure which implies a sheer wastage of
time as well resources.

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1.4 How Present Day Workplaces Engages Employees
According to Edmonds (2014), modern day workplaces engage employees through the
adoption of various strategies. These strategies include (Shields et al. 2015):
Keeping Informed about Employees: This means spending time with employees and
adopting effective means for employee engagement. Present day workplaces also try learning
about the families, personal goals and the backgrounds that helps the manager in developing
stronger rapport with them. In other words, workplaces take steps in making the employees feel
valued.
Provide Tools for Success: Modern workplace help employees in understanding what
they needed to do to enhance performance. Hence, the workplace provides training within the
specific job descriptions thereby helping in enhancing their confidence.
Informing them About the Doing of the Company: As the employees represent the
backbone of an enterprise so its success or failure will be dependent on them. In order to derive
their vested interest in well being of the business, modern workplaces are made aware of the
concerns, struggles and the success. Thus, they provide the employees with briefings about the
fruitful or unfruitful ventures of the company. This grant them with an opportunity for
developing newer ideas and continue being proactive in the concerned sectors.
Employee Growth: The modern day workplaces give them room for branching out and
performing the jobs in best possible manner. It has been found that micromanaging and hovering
results in stress and underperformance. Hence, the today’ s manager ensured that the employees
are encouraged and appreciated to increase their workplace engagement even when there is a
rejection of their idea.

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1.5 Are Different Engagement Practices Required for Different Staff
Alfes et al. (2013) stated that different engagement practice is necessary for the different
staffs since every member of the staff do not perform at the same level. This helps in improving
the employee engagement. It has been found that the engaged employees will be more efficient
and productive compared to the ones who remain unhappy with the role. Some of the
engagement practices adopted by the firms include (Albrecht et al. 2015):
Building Trust, Being Human and Remaining Open: It any kind of relationship,
people is found to favor human connection. Similarly employees have greater trust on their
bosses when they know them at the personal level.
Ensure Consistent Level of Engagement with Management and Executives: This
implies that giving each project a 110 percent valuation reflects the best way of embodying level
of engagement one is looking for. The tactics would be soon embraced by employees following
suit.
Articulation of Responsibilities and Goals: This practice acts essential in improving
the employee engagement which requires more than verbal articulation.
Offering Help to Non-Performing Employees: Special attention to these employees will
help in fixing the problem and this will also show how the employers deliver enough care in
providing help.
Spotting and Encouraging the Power Employees: This helps in recognizing employees
who makes greater achievements within the organization and are referred as the power
employees who helps in making a huge difference to the state of the company.

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1.6. Is the Investment in Engagement Worthwhile?
According to van Beek et al. (2013), the investment in the engagement is worthwhile
since engaged employees act beneficial for the organization. It is to be noted that the engaged
employees helps in increasing then profit revenue of the company on a yearly basis. According
to the study put across by Workplace Research Foundation found that a mere investment of 10
percent on employee engagement can increase profits by close to $2000 for each employee. The
study also portrayed that the employees who remain highly engaged are believed to enhance the
productivity by close to 40 percent. The benefits put forward by the engaged employees delivers
a trickle-down effect across entire company. The employees showing up with the feelings of
motivation and pride provide higher quality of service to the customers. Higher level of customer
satisfaction also works towards increasing profits. This allows the shareholders in getting a better
return for the investment.
Thus, fostering an environment that allows the employees to feel supported and conduct
responsibilities with a focused atmosphere for the team acts good for the whole company. A
business having strategies for employee engagement seems to have lesser sick days. Companies
having engaged employees have reduced number of the work days missed.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that the idea of maintaining satisfied employees
might be sufficient for certain managers but it is important to maintain the higher employee level
engagement for various reasons. It has been found that engaged employees leads to positive
attitude within workplace ambience. The literature review portrays that the engaged employees
improves the atmosphere of the office thereby leading to minimal amount of internal disputes .In

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other words, engaged workers works in turn and helps the business in reaching successful
outcomes.

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References:
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.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A.D., Truss, C. and Soane, E.C., 2013. The link between perceived human
resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation
model. The international journal of human resource management, 24(2), pp.330-351.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), p.308.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A.B. and Gevers, J.M., 2015. Job crafting and extra-role behavior: The
role of work engagement and flourishing. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, pp.87-96.
Dobre, O.I., 2013. Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of applied
socio-economic research, 5(1).
Edmonds, S.C., 2014. The culture engine: A framework for driving results, inspiring your
employees, and transforming your workplace. John Wiley & Sons.
Garg, P., 2014. Impact of employee engagement on it sector. International Journal of
Management Research and Reviews, 4(1), p.62.
Saks, A.M. and Gruman, J.A., 2014. What do we really know about employee
engagement?. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), pp.155-182.

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Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns,
R., O'Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing employee performance &
reward: Concepts, practices, strategies. Cambridge University Press.
van Beek, I., W. Taris, T., B. Schaufeli, W. and Brenninkmeijer, V., 2013. Heavy work
investment: its motivational make-up and outcomes. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(1),
pp.46-62.
Wang, W.T. and Hou, Y.P., 2015. Motivations of employees’ knowledge sharing behaviors: A
self-determination perspective. Information and Organization, 25(1), pp.1-26.
Wrzesniewski, A., LoBuglio, N., Dutton, J.E. and Berg, J.M., 2013. Job crafting and cultivating
positive meaning and identity in work. In Advances in positive organizational psychology (pp.
281-302). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.