Employee Engagement: A Literature Review

Employee Engagement: A Literature Review Dharmendra MEHTA 1 Naveen K. MEHTA 2 ABSTRACT Motivated and engaged employees tend to contribute more in terms of organizational productivity and support in maintaining a higher commitment level leading to the higher customer satisfaction. Employees Engagement permeates across the employee-customer boundary, where revenue, corporate goodwill, brand image are also at stake. This paper makes an attempt to study the different dimensions of employee engagement with the help of review of literature. This can be used to provide an overview and references on some of the conceptual and practical work undertaken in the area of the employee engagement practices. KEYWORDS: relationships. Employees, leadership, engagement, performance, satisfaction, JEL CLASSIFICATION: M10, M12, M19 & M51 INTRODUCTION The concept of employee engagement is a measurement of how happy employees are with their respective jobs, working environment and how efficient their performance levels are? Managing high morale among employees can be of remarkable benefit to any organization, as actively engaged workers are more productive and stay loyal to the company. Organizations with high employee engagement levels are more productive and more profitable than those organizations with low levels of employee engagement. 1. OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The present paper aims to understand the basic concept of employee engagement and to study the different dimensions of employee engagement with the help of review of literature. This paper is based upon review of literature and secondary data collected from various websites, journals, magazines, newspapers and reference books. Literature review has shown prior research work done in this area. 2. LIMITATIONS There are limitations to this review of the literature. Research was also limited to peerreviewed business, organizational psychology, and management journals, online journals to identify the state of the employee engagement practices at work and to study the different dimensions of employee engagement with the help of review of literature. 1 2 Reader, FMS PtJNIBM, Vikram University, Ujjain (MP), email: Associate Professor, MIT, Ujjain (MP) email: Economia. Seria Management Volume 16, Issue 2, 2013 3. LITERATURE REVIEW Kular et al. (2008) explored Five key areas: What does ‘employee engagement’ mean?; How can engagement be managed?; What are the consequences of engagement for organisations?; How does engagement relate to other individual characteristics?; How is engagement related to employee voice and representation? Robertson-Smith and Markwick (2009) throw light on what engagement is and reveals that it is an important yet complex challenge, and there remains a great deal of scope for discussing the various approaches. Simpson (2009) discussed that the current state of knowledge about engagement at work through a review of the literature. This review highlighted the four lines of engagement research and focuses on the determinants and consequences of engagement at work. Susi & Jawaharrani (2011) examined some of the literature on Employee engagement, explore work-place culture & work-life balance policies & practices followed in industries in order to promote employee engagement in their organizations to increase their employees’ productivity and retain them. Work-life balance is key driver of employees’ satisfaction. Ram & Gantasala (2011) investigated the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in Jordanian Industry. Bhatla (2011) focused on the need for such employees and how their presence can improve the progress and work efficiency of the organization as a whole .Also focused on the challenges faced by the HR managers to improve employee engagement for an organization’s survival. Shashi (2011) reinforced the importance of employee communication on the success of a business. She revealed that an organization should realize the importance of employees, more than any other variable, as the most powerful contributor to an organization’s competitive position. Bijaya KumarSundaray (2011) focused on various factors which lead to employee engagement and what should company do to make the employees engaged. Proper attention on engagement strategies will increase the organizational effectiveness in terms of higher productivity, profits, quality, customer satisfaction, employee retention and increased adaptability. Siddhanta & Roy (2012) explored implications for theory, further research and practices by synthesizing modern 'Employee Engagement' activities being practiced by the corporate with the review of findings from previous researches / surveys. Singh & Shukla (2012) tried to find out what variables are significant to create an engaged workforce. The study was exploratory in nature and the data has been collected from a tin manufacturing organization. 4. DIMENSIONS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT In 2006, The Conference Board published an article ‘Employee Engagement – A review of current research and its implication’ on the basis of some major studies conducted by Gallup, Towers Perrin, Blessing White, The Corporate Leadership Council and others. It identified following key drivers related to employee engagement as:  Trust & integrity – managers should communicate well and go by their words.  Nature of the job – employees should find their job challenging enough to motivate themselves.  Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – employee should have clear understanding as to how they contribute to the company’s performance. 209 Dharmendra MEHTA, Naveen K. MEHTA  Career growth opportunities – employees should have clear career path and growth.  Pride about the company – employees should feel esteemed by being associated with the organization.  Coworkers / team members – relationship with colleagues significantly increase employee engagement level. Figure 1. Dimensions of Employee Engagement Source: Kumar (2012) There are few more drivers’ enables to enhance employee engagement like as:  A culture of respect where good job is appreciated.  Feedback, counseling and mentoring.  Fair reward, recognition and incentive scheme.  Effective leadership.  Clear job expectations.  Adequate tools to perform work responsibilities.  Motivation. 5. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT LEVELS AND INVOLVEMENT According to Deci and Ryan (1987) management which fosters a supportive work environment typically displays concern for employees’ needs and feelings, provides positive feedback and encourage them to voice their concerns, develops new skills and solve work related problems. Purcell et al. (2003) highlighted that employee engagement is only meaningful if there is a more genuine sharing of responsibility between management and employees over issues of substance. Their study also revealed that involvement in 210 Economia. Seria Management Volume 16, Issue 2, 2 (...truncated)