EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: A DRIVING FORCE IN IMPROVING PERFORMANCE
Ramneek Kaur
Research Scholar, Department of Commerce
Punjabi University, Patiala
Abstract
Employee engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today’s
competitive marketplace. Therefore, it has become more important than ever for employers to
develop and maintain a highly engaged workforce. This paper focuses on understanding
employee engagement and how engagement affects performance. Additionally, it attempts to
investigate into factors that affect employee engagement. For this purpose an in depth analysis of
the available literature was undertaken. Suggestions for future research have also been given.
Keywords: Employee Engagement, Organisational Citizenship, Empowerment
Introduction
The concept of employee engagement has naturally evolved from past research on high
involvement, empowerment, job inspiration, organisational commitment and trust. Supervisors
have been coping with numerous difficulties to succeed and put their organisation ahead of the
competitors. As technologies continue to evolve, it poses a threat for managers because
organizations require increasing number of workers with increased technical and professional
abilities. These knowledge workers cannot be managed with old styles of management. They
expect work fulfilment, operational autonomy and status from the management. It is a result of
these factors that the supervisors are shifting their attention towards employee side of the
organisation.
During uncertain times, organizations must concentrate on mobilising the discretionary effort
from engaged employees. This makes a difference in how organizations are influenced during
the financial downturn, how rapidly they rise up out of it, and how solid they are after the
downturn passes. The present research paper attempts to define employee engagement, to
understand the relation between employee engagement and performance and lastly, to study the
factors that affect employee engagement.
Defining Employee Engagement
Much of the academic research on engagement has been inspired by the definition proposed by
(Kahn, 1990) who defined engagement in terms of a psychological state as “the harnessing of
organisation members selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express
themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance.” (Perrin, 2003)
uses the definition “employees willingness and ability to help their company succeed, largely by
providing discretionary effort on a sustainable basis.” (Robinson, Perryman, & Hayday, 2004)
define employee engagement as “a positive attitude held by the employee towards the
organization and its value.” Thus, engaged employees go above and beyond the responsibilities
outlined in their job descriptions, advancing and breaking new ground to push their organisations
ahead, and ready to go the additional mile for their manager.
Employee Engagement and Performance
Why should companies invest in employee engagement? The answer is because employee
engagement is interwoven significantly with important business outcomes. In this part we will
see how employee engagement impacts organizational performance in the light of various
research works done. Employees who are engaged with their job and employer are more
productive because they are motivated beyond personal factors. Engaged employees exhibit a
wide range of productive behaviors that enhance synergetic team efforts toward organizational
goals (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). The reason behind these efforts and performance is the
ability of engaged employees to transfer their feelings throughout the organization (Bakker &
Demerouti, 2008). Once workers react to goals as a group, their productivity increases
(Knippenberg, 2000).
(Harter JK, Schmidt FL, 2002) conducted a meta-analysis encompassing 199 research studies
across 152 organisations. They statistically calculated the available data on business/work unit
level relationship between employee engagement and performance outcomes within each study.
The results indicated significant differences between business units ranking in the top and
bottom on engagement. A drop of 18% was found in productivity between the top and bottom
performers.
Research (Demerouti & Cropanzano, 2010) also suggest that the presence of high levels of
employee engagement enhances job performance, task performance, organisational citizenship
behaviour, productivity, discretionary effort, affective commitment, continuance commitment,
levels of psychological climate, and customer service.
Significant attention has been given to linkage of employee engagement to financial results of
organisations. (Meere, 2005) in a survey conducted by ISR on 360000 employees from 41
companies in the world’s 10 economically strong countries finds that both operating margin and
net profit margins reduced over a three year period in companies with low engagement, while
these measures increased over the specified period in companies with high levels of engagement.
ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE
The following table shows the literature summary in chronological order for 21 research papers.
Authors Objective Data Factors/Variable Results
Collection Studied
Mohan., Factors that influence work 30 women - Leadership Communication, job security
engagement among women employees - Psychological compensation, work culture
(2013) employees of in Trivandrum selected from 10 Contract are key drivers for employee
district different - Organisational engagement.
government Citizenship
departments. - Communication
(Simbula & Examine longitudinal Sample of 157 -Mental health Relationships among work
Guglielmi, relationships between work school teachers -Job satisfaction engagement, wellbeing and
engagement and mental-health contextual performance are
2013) problems, job satisfaction and best explained when both
extra role performance causal and reversed causal
relationships are taken into
account.
Rothmann & Investigate the antecedents of Sample Size: - Work role fit Work-role fit and job
Welsh, employee engagement in the 309 respondents - Communication enrichment showed strongest
context of a developing country. - Resource Availability affect on employee
(2013) - Job Enrichment engagement, while rewards,
co-worker and supervisor
relations, resources,
organisational support
showed moderate affect on
employee engagement
Aanza et al., Determine the influence of Sample size of - Employees By providing an employee
talent management practices on 495 employees psychological with a development plan
(2013) employee engagement Systematic connection includes structuring
sampling used -Development competencies and skills that
Opportunities an employee can develop
-Extensive work would lead to increased work
training engagement
- Career planning
Breevaart, Examining how self- 162 maternity -Working conditions Finding of various studies
Bakker, & management is related to nurses -Work-role fit show that employee
Demerouti, employees engagement on a participated -Career advancement engagement is positively
daily basis activities -Salary Structure related to job performance,
(2014) improved salaries, weekly
meetings, employee core self-
evaluations.
Bedarkar & Throw light on key drivers of Literature was -Communication Employees are the key assets
Pandita, employee engagement sourced from - Work life balance to any organisation and if
internet -Leadership they are not given the right
(2014) searches and space and time to make a
use of perfect blend of work and fun
management at workplace then the sense
journal of disengagement sets in.
databases.
Alshammari, To understand and determine Study reviews -Co-worker Training & development,
the factors enhancing employee various relevant Relationship Supervisor’s support, Team
H. (2015) engagement research studies. -Rewards & recognition & Co-worker Relationship,
-Working conditions Rewards & Recognition,
- Work-role fit working conditions, work
-Career advancement role fit enable engagement
Rashid & To explore the vital factors of Snowball - Profitability By identifying the critical
employee engagement and its sampling - Productivity factors affecting
Harif, (2015) outcomes. technique used. - Business Growth organizational level
- Absenteeism outcomes, will help the top
management of SMEs and
the policymakers to optimize
engagement and to propose
well designed support
programs and strategies for
performance improvement in
SMEs.
Imna & To examine the effect of reward Questionnaires -Career Development The results showed positive
Hassan, and compensation on employee containing 30 -Training & influence of career
engagement. items, Likert Development development on employee
(2015) Scale used to -Performance Appraisal engagement even though
collect data. -Health and Safety career development is not a
regular practice among the
organizations.
Haider, Rasli Study examines the human Sample size of -Training and Research showed that the
resource practices that promote 250. Development employees feel that effective
et al, (2015) employee retention and -Organization Culture HR practices have a direct
engagement. and positive relationship with
employee retention
Gupta, Explore factors that affect 60 individuals - Implicit Benefits Improvement in the
Ganguli, & employee engagement in interviewed - Organisational knowledge and skills, the
Ponnam, financial offshore organizations using an culture level of fairness, flexibility in
in India. interview - Organisational working and attitude of the
2015) schedule. policies colleagues enable employee
engagement.
Cheallaigh, To determine the key drivers of Participants - Work Environment Research concludes that there
employee engagement. were selected at - Training & is positive and significant
(2015) from different Development correlation among impact of
departments. - Compensation organizational culture on job
- Work – Life Balance satisfaction and engagement.
Chandani,et Identify factors critical for Conceptual -Career Development Various factors responsible
effective implementation of Study -Leadership for employee engagement
al (2016) employee engagement -Clarity of Company identified: individual and job
Values, Policies and characteristics, gender
Practices diversity; ethnic diversity,
-Respectful Treatment strong induction programs
Hong, Hao, et Study the effectiveness of Non-probability - Empowerment There is significant
training programs, employee sampling used - Compensation relationship between training,
al (2016) empowerment, job appraisal to collect data -Performance appraisal compensation and appraisal
and compensation in engaging from 278 on University lecturer’s
employees. individuals retention & engagement.
(Singh, 2016) To find out key drivers of Secondary Data - Compensation & Pay Findings: Employee
employee engagement was used. - Career opportunities engagement depends on four
- Quality of Leadership major conditions in the
- Communication workplace: Organization
- Work- life balance culture, continuous
reinforcement of people
focused policies, meaningful
matrices and
organizational performance.
Bailey et al, To identify antecedents Literature - Job Design Engagement was found to be
associated with engagement. review of 214 - Leadership positively associated with
(2017) studies was - Organisational and individual morale, task
conducted team factors performance, extra‐role
performance and
organizational performance,
and the evidence was most
robust in relation to task
performance.
Pandita & Enhance the understanding Conceptual - Organisational Empirical review showed that
how talent management study Commitment for organizations to do a
Ray, (2018) culminates in employee - Continuous leaning better work in retaining
engagement - Feedback employees they should
- Coaching & understand the factors that
Mentoring motivate employees.
Sridevi, Study the factors affecting Sample Size: 82 - Work Environment There is positive relationship
Kulenur, & Employee Engagement in employees - Image of the between work environment,
HDFC bank. Questionnaire Organisation image of the organisation,
Shetty, 2019) method used - Incentives and Pay, supervisor and co-worker
- Supervisor and co- relationship, training and
worker relationship development on employee
- Decision making engagement.
Mercy & Examining various 385 - Organisational Findings suggest that having
Choudhary, organizational factors impacting academicians Supportiveness supportive and empowered
employee engagement. selected using - Procedural Justice environment affect employee
(2019) Non- Purposive - Perceived Trust engagement.
sampling. - Job Characteristics
Questionnaire - Role Efficacy
method applied
Rozana Binti Study factors that affect 150 employees - Organisational Organisational culture was
Othman, et al employee engagement among selected using Culture found to be most influential
employees in the construction convenience - Leadership factor towards employee
(2019) industry. sampling. - Compensation engagement.
Discussion of Key Findings
‘One size fits all’ approach to enabling engagement is ineffective as, (Markwick & Robertson-
Smith, 2009) suggests that it is very clear that “an organisation, personal characteristics, job
characteristics and employee experiences all influence engagement levels.” Overall, review of
the available literature most frequently highlights seven key drivers of employee engagement,
namely;
Development Opportunities
(Levinson, 2007) that organisational cultures where there is a belief in and practice of employee
development enables employees to engage in the organisation. Moreover, research by (Roffey
Park Institute, 2008) suggests that managers have a critical task to play in promoting clear,
shared vision and values, effective communication and recognition.
Pay, Reward and Working Hours
A survey by CHA asked one thousand employees what single action their employer could take
immediately to help improve engagement during the economic downturn (CHA, 2008 cited
(Peacock, 2008). First and foremost, was found to be pay rise including bonus or incentives,
followed by company organised social events, praise, flexible working hours and reassurance
about job security. Additionally, adequate level of employee development by means of training,
skills and learning can eventually lead to making employees more engaged towards their job and
the organisation.
Safe Environment
Feeling able to express and employ oneself without fear of negative consequences to self‐image,
status or career is another key determinant of engagement according to (Kahn, 1990). People
personally engage in situations perceived as safe, trustworthy, predictable and clear in terms of
behavioural consequences (Kahn, 1990).
Manager’s Influence
Throughout an individual’s employment in the organisation, it is the quality of the relationship
between a manager and employee that can be a crucial driver of engagement and satisfaction
with the organisation. Kenexa Research Institute found that managers are critical to engagement,
with effective managers having more engaged staff than ineffective (Kenexa, 2008) cited in
(WFC, 2008).
Leadership
(Xu & Cooper-Thomas, 2011) state that leadership behaviours have clear association with
engagement constructs such as motivation, job satisfaction, organizational commitment,
proactive behaviours and organizational citizenship behavior. Trust in leader, support from the
leader, and creating a blame-free environment are considered as components of psychological
safety, a condition proposed by (Kahn, 1990), which leads to employee engagement.
Communication
(MacLeod, D. and Clarke, 2009) emphasize employees require clear communication from
superiors to relate their role with leadership vision. Internal communication is an organizational
practice, which effectively conveys the organizational values to all employees and in return
obtains their support in reaching organizational goals, as cited in (Welch, 2009).
Meaningful and purposeful work
A perception that the work undertaken is important, and has a clear purpose and meaning, is an
important precursor for engagement. Employees need to feel proud of the work they and their
organisation do, and they need to feel as though they are making a difference (Bakker, Albrecht,
& Leiter, 2011). Having a line of sight between individual and organisational performance, and
an organisation that shows how significant people's jobs are to organisational goals, might be
significant in empowering this.
Conclusions
Engaged employees care about their organization and work to contribute towards its success.
After analyzing various research papers a definition of engaged and retained employee came out
that employee engagement is the time and effort an employee is ready to expend and find ways
to add value to the organisation. The studies concerned with employee engagement reveal that
factors like nature of job, communication ease, leadership styles, and trust level and job
autonomy, level of motivation, work involvement, support from organization, performance
appraisal, quality of work life, level of involvement in decision making, opportunity to grow are
the strongest drivers of employee’s engagement. It is important for HR professionals to apply a
mix and match of various engagement strategies to engage and retain talented workforce for a
longer period of time. There is also a need for longitudinal studies of engagement, to
demonstrate a clear link between engagement and organisational performance, and also to assess
long term outcomes and benefits.
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