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Employee Engagement in Contemporary Organizations pp 85–111Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

A Model for Employee Engagement

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Abstract

A synthesis of the research shows that employee engagement can be viewed at an individual level, in the local context of a team, department, business or service unit and in the larger context of the organisation as a whole. It is a tripartite construct and at each of these three levels employee engagement unites concepts which are physical—the positive energy that an individual feels or which emanates from a positive environment; emotional—a convergence of individual and organisational aims and objectives; and cognitive—including awareness, experience and skills. These take place within a specific organisational context including its management and leadership, and the physical working environment. Employee engagement is now regarded as a multidimensional, motivational construct or a ‘multi-componential’ experience; a relational concept developing in a relational context; a systemic phenomenon that permeates many aspects of individual and organisational life. The complexity inherent in the outcomes of research and practice findings—covering as they do, multiple elements across the behavioural sciences and in a complex contemporary working environment, require sense making of different interpretations as they relate to the loci of the team, department or organisation. The arguments may be summed up as firstly relating to psychology—which is cognitive engagement, something that happens on a silent, personal level. Secondly what might be referred to as the sociology of work including social relationships and their impact on well-being and the physical environment in which human interaction takes place—relating to work-spaces with the objective of establishing a flexible, humane and inclusive workplace. And thirdly, the organisation of work includes organisational and managerial aspects of engagement will have a broad range of considerations from the capability and competence of leaders and managers to the allocation of resources to enable the job to be competed efficiently, to the dynamics, structure and governance of the organisation

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  1. Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Paul Turner

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Turner, P. (2020). A Model for Employee Engagement. In: Employee Engagement in Contemporary Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36387-1_4

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