7: The Future of Engagement
Employees who are enthusiastically involved in their work contribute more to the organization than do those who are not as enthusiastic. The source of this engagement is a strong alignment between the values and mission of the corporation and those of the worker. Generally, this seems agreeable, but in many organizations there is still a significant problem of disengaged employees. This chapter discusses various business and academic models that are intended to bridge the gap.
Dysfunctional Definitions and Models
Admittedly, engagement has fallen into the hands of consultants, who latch onto trendy words and use them as a label to repackage existing services. So in that way the word "engagement" was grafted onto PowerPoint presentations and reports that covered very traditional concepts. Naturally, this practice has nothing to do with the concept of engagement as it is presently understood.
The author mentions academic research going back to 1997, which largely defined engagement as being the opposite of and antidote for burnout. In essence, engagement was defined as being everything that disengagement is not. If a disengaged worker has low morale, an engaged one must have high morale, etc.
Another problem of engagement is that it is not clearly linked to any monetary reward for the organization. It's said that an employee who is engaged is more productive, but threatening employees with termination if they fail to meet ever-increasing quotas will have the same effect, and is more established in management practices. So the various mathematical models meant to consider engagement often consider effects that can be achieved by other means.
Quality of Engagement
The author admits that engagement is still in its conceptual states, though research and experimentation are only "starting to move the model from concept to theory."
There is some debate as to whether engagement is a constant or variable quality. That is, is an "engaged" employee equally so at all times, or are there various levels of engagement that can fluctuate from day to day or moment to moment?
There is also the attempt to distinguish engagement from morale, or even from mood, in that an employee who exhibits high morale and a good mood is not necessarily more productive. While engagement correlates with a more positive mental state, the two are not synonymous.
Expanding Models and Further Research
Models of engagement largely focus on antecedents and consequences - what occurs and what results in terms of morale and productivity. While there are no conclusive or universal findings, such a model can help researchers to become better focused on the factors that lead to engagement. (EN: This seems to be a sophisticated way of suggesting a trial-and-error approach that includes taking notes on what was tried and what resulted in hopes of finding consistency.)
One promising model suggests that positive emotions are linked to engagement: the mood of an employee influences the way he perceives things. An employee who feels positive and empowered may embrace a change as an opportunity, whereas one who feels negative and disempowered may see the same change as a burden and an obstacle to success. However, this remains speculative and further research is needed to quantify and provide conclusive evidence to back the notion that "happy workers are productive workers." Until this occurs, it is unlikely organizations will place much value on engagement.
Ultimately, the ongoing developments provide "food for thought" for practicing organizational managers.
The Future Case for Work Engagement
The author senses that since there are strong correlations between engagement and financial outcomes, the topic of employee engagement is unlikely to be a passing fad. Research will continue, the causal factors of engagement will become better understood, and reliable and applicable models will be developed - though even now the problem is "to come to some agreement on at least a core definition" of the concept.
And of course, all of this is going on at a time when the structure of organizations seems to be shifting: globalization and offshoring are in full sway, the concept of the virtual office and remote employees are being experimented with, and even "job crafting" to loosen and broaden the definition of occupations continues.
Finally, engagement is a psychological factor, and as such it is subject to the idiosyncrasies of individual psychology. Not all employees think alike, not all are engaged by the same things, and each reacts in his own way to changes in the workplace. The "right" profession, workplace environment, and work-life balance are not the same for all people.
If nothing else, considerations around the subject of engagement enable managers to be more circumspect about the risk of employee burnout - which in effect brings the topic back to where it began.