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ABSTRACT
It is said a company that unlocks the secrets of employee engagement is promised profits beyond its wildest dreams. Jack Welch, former General Electric CEO and business consultant, lists employee engagement as the number one measure of a company's health (Vance, 2006). Unfortunately, the quest for the key to these secrets is leading challenge seekers down long roads of confusion and misdirection. The primary causes of confusion and misdirection are a lack of congruity concerning the definition and measurement of employee engagement and a lack of distinction from other closely related concepts. This paper addresses these issues in greater detail as well as provides advice for human resource leaders.
Keywords: Engaging Employees, Work Engagement, Organizational commitment, Job satisfaction, Organizational citizenship behaviour.
INTRODUCTION
Employee engagement is a key business driver for organizational success. High levels of engagement in domestic and global firms promote retention of talent, foster customer loyalty and improve organizational performance and stakeholder value. A complex concept, engagement is influenced by many factors-from workplace culture, organizational communication and managerial styles to trust and respect, leadership and company reputation. For today's different generations, access to training and career opportunities, work/life balance and empowerment to make decisions are important. Thus, to foster a culture of engagement, HR leads the way to design, measure and evaluate proactive workplace policies and practices that help attract and retain talent with skills and competencies necessary for growth and sustainability.
DEFINITION
One of the most glaring issues concerning the concept of employee engagement is that there is no clear definition. If you take a cross section of employee engagement definitions from practitioners, corporations, and academic researchers you will find extensive variations.
William H. Kahn (1990) completed some of the earliest work on engagement and defined engagement as, "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances."
The Gallup Organization, potentially the most widely recognized name associated with employee engagement due to their bestselling book, "First, Break All the Rules," defines engaged employees as those who, "work with a passion and feel a profound connection to their company" and "drive innovation and move the organization forward" (GMJ, 2006).
Melcrum Publishing recently produced a research report,...