Employee engagement touches every aspect of human resources management and human resources is found in every field and sector of every organization. This makes this topic about employee engagement important to both the employer and the employee if the company wants to be successful. Research by (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009) defined employee engagement as:
Creating an environment where employees are motivated to want to connect with their work and really care about doing a good job…It is a concept that places flexibility, change and continuous improvement at the heart of what it means to be an employee and an employer in a twenty-first century workplace.” (as cited by Professor Katie Truss, 2009, p. 8).
Employers and employees should
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When viewed positively by others in the organization, workers deem themselves to be more qualified and accomplished which causes them to believe that they are an essential part of the firm’s success. (Khan, 2016), discovered a positive relationship between participation, satisfaction, motivation, quality, productivity, and business performance (as cited by Hollander & Offerman, 1990) found that “empowered employees have a sense of ownership, responsibility, and satisfaction in their accomplishments, a sense of control over what and how things are done…which leads towards employee engagement and organizational performance”. As a result, these senses can develop trust between the employee and employer. (Rosen, 2001) conducted a research to find correlations between managerial trust and employee empowerment. He discovered that:
“A manager’s trust in an employee was positively and significantly associated with the employee’s perceptions of being part of the in-group…and that perceptions of a high-quality relationship were significantly associated with an employee’s experience of psychological empowerment (as cited by Spreitzer, 1995) …experiencing higher levels of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact”
As concluded by (Shuck, 2011), results suggested that the employees who reported experiencing a positive psychological climate were more likely to report
Establishing team development, team empowerment, employees joining forces with management to cut costs, self-directed teams, shared fate, incremental progress, and open and timely information increase the employees feeling of commitment to the company and help them strive to better the company, themselves and the environment. Effectively having happy, empowered, employees will increase the value of the company in the present and the future. (Thompson, 2012)
The single most important component associated with managing a successful organization, entails the empowerment of employees. People that are empowered are able to make smart decisions without always having to rely on authority, to point them in the right direction. Creating an empowered organization involves interest in the workplace; minimal absence from work, high retention rates; loyal and motivated team members; as well as efficient results and effective communication amongst team members. In the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
There are three levels of engagement in which an employee can be measured at (Catado, P. 2011); fully engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged. A fully engaged worker takes it upon themselves to stay relevant and up-to-date in company’s and their professional field and take on additional responsibilities as the opportunities arise. They also show respect towards their fellow colleagues, are willing to put in more effort than is expected, and exhibit high levels of enthusiasm.
Competent leadership is important to establishing a climate in which empowerment can occur. Key to employee empowerment is creating an environment for positive communication, shared decision-making, and trust (Ongori & Shundra, 2008). An organization’s management must nurture employee empowerment; that is, employees must be able to recognize that empowerment is a priority in the organization.
According to Russ Forrester (2000), empowerment is a descendant of participation and involvement. High involvement management was founded on the idea that employees could be trusted to make decisions about their work. Whetten and Cameron states that trust, which is very important in empowerment means having a sense of personal security. The people that hack a sense of trust are more self-determined and willing to learn. Forrester also believes that the organization will function more effectively if mangers will let the ones doing the work become more involved. Forrester lists four components that of high involvement and they are; sharing information, developing knowledge, rewarding performance and distributing power (Forrester, R 2000).
Those individuals with high job satisfaction tend to have positive feelings towards their job, their colleagues and the company that hired him or her. On the other hand, those who are not satisfied have strong negative notions towards their organization (Robbins and Judge, 2015). Employee involvement has a direct correlation with job satisfaction. Companies that allow their employees to be involved in the decision-making process and give them the freedom to show their talent through their work, has become the forefront of employee engagement. For many years, businesses have been following archaic traditions in the sense of people would go to work, complete their hours under supervision and go home. Today, employees look forward to going to work for a company where the workplace is more friendly and connected (Suma and Lesha,
Employee engagement has been a trend of management since 2004.(CMI 2015) ‘Some people may believe that engagement is just about employees ‘going the extra mile’, but it is much more.’(CMI 2014) Within globalization, how to apply employee engagement is significant for an organization to achieve their performance. A key aspect of employee engagement concerns how employees manage their position, performance and development in relationship to the company’s strategies. Therefore, according to Moenguc (2013), employee engagement has been personalized as a“persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment.” To demonstrate how this process affects the overall performance of an organization, John Lewis has been selected as the case study
Organization and employee are all pursuing their own definition of success and these intersect daily at the job, when both are getting what they need it is called employee engagement (Blessingwhite.org, 2012). An example of employee engagement is when an employee has a sustainable level of high performance that mutually benefits both parties. This usually means that the employee is high on contribution and is satisfied with his/her organization. All other’s are lacking in one area or the other for example an employee can be either disengaged with low satisfaction and low contribution, a Honeymooner, high satisfaction with little knowledge of their duties and responsibilities, or a “Crash and Burner” high in contribution but not getting what they want from the organization, they soon either quite or become disengaged (Blessingwhite.org. 2012) .
Both management and employees interpret empowerment from their own viewpoints to suit their own needs and build up expectations of what the programme will bring. For management, empowerment promises a more committed and involved workforce who are willing to take responsibility at lower levels. Whilst for employees, empowerment pledges autonomy and the ability to move to a more equitable position within their organization. The failure of these expectations to share similar intentions or goals means that the psychological contract between management and worker could fail, promoting feelings of is trust on both sides (Hill & Huq, 2004)
This report explores the art of empowerment and the key dimensions needed to create such a work environment. It exposes the empowerment techniques needed for managers to foster in their employees. It suggests that management empowerment is critical in creating a successful organization. Employee empowerment will incite loyalty and tenure which subsequently will increase productivity. The purpose of adopting and implementing this principle is to promote talent management through human capital investment.
Launching a change from the normal work culture to one of empowerment can become a situation where both managers and employees feel intimidated. Managers may feel they will lose control of their departments while employees may feel they will lose support or may feel anxious about acquiring this new standing which they may feel unqualified. It is therefore important for the manager to demonstrate that they value and trust their employees, as well as realize. Displaying appreciation for employee uniqueness is the first step in achieving trust and loyalty. The appreciation displayed will help people feel that they are part of the organization, not only their individual job (Niehoff, Moorman, Blakely, & Fuller , 2001, p. 97). By allowing the characteristic of trust and valuing the individuals, both the manager and employee can experience a sense of control and support. Insuring all employees know and have access to the organization's overall mission, vision, and strategic plans, and including them in the actual planning and accepting their input on the overall planning, will lead them in a direction that will display their commitment and competency (Allen, 2012).
In this era of advanced technology and increased competition it is very important for a company to be stable in the competitive market. Employees are the prime source of the company to gain profit, the hard work of employees depends on their attitude towards the organisation that is how they feel working in the company, their trust and pride towards the firm (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra 2014). The companies now days are not only strengthening the external environment for example, customer focus , stakeholders partnerships, but also the internal environment of the firm as well which involve employee engagement through motivation (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra 2014). In other words it can be
Next, the new leadership team at Sloans recognized that the employees needed to believe that they were part of a team. Mutual engagement allows employees to participate in designing the changes and making the changes (Emergence Consulting, 06). This helped the employees feel more comfortable with the change by allowing them to experience a certain degree of control, therefore, eliminating the unknown. The empowerment and participation of employees is motivational because it meets the human need for autonomy, responsibility, challenge, esteem, social interaction, and personal development (Hofler, 2009).
Involving employees in the decision making related to the processes of their jobs is fundamentally good management (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Employee empowerment is considered to be one of the most powerful and effective practices that organizations make, where the greatest contribution is by the people who are creating the product or service (Prathiba, 2016). It enhances job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and organizational commitment. Empowered employees add value and create competitive advantage to the organization. Employee empowerment is a motivational technique that is designed to improve performance if managed properly through increased levels of employees participation and self-determination. There is clear evidence to suggest what employees look for in their work is a mixture of both tangible and intangible elements that creates a stimulating environment where their contribution is recognized and rewarded. Management commitment plays an important role in shaping attitudes and thoughts. They contribute significantly to the view that the employees also have a stake in the organization. Managerial commitment is said to be the force that binds an employee’s course of action to achieve one or more targets. Studying management skills show that subordinates’ empowerment and engagement is an important part of organizational and managerial effectiveness. It further increases organizational effectiveness and commitment. Empowered and engaged
This study will tackle about the definitions of employee engagement and disengagement. Internal, external, and interactive impacts of lack of employee engagement are determined in order to full comprehend the consequences. Suggestions and recommendations are provided addressing about enhancing employee engagement with the applications of relevant theories. Representative engagement may appear like an irrelevant idea yet it has an undeniable impact on an organisation 's main concern. For better profitability, consumer loyalty, and benefit, developing connected with and driven representatives is an unquestionable requirement. Disengagement is a channel on assets and time that cannot be permitted to rot in today 's economy for organisations of all sizes.