Increasing Level of Employee Engagement to Sustain High Performance - Assignment Example

Question 2: Increasing levels of employee engagement is a key responsibility of leadership at every level, and of critical importance to sustaining high performance in organisations by releasing intellectual, social, and emotional capital for the benefit of all stakeholders.’ Discuss this assertion, with reference to the relevant literature, and relate it to your personal experience in organisations. Make practical recommendations as to how this might be achieved in your own organisation, or in an organisation in which you have worked. September 30, 2014 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 5 1. Introduction 5 2. Literature Review 5 2. Literature Review 5 2.1. Intellectual, social, and emotional capital 7 2.2. Types of engaged employees 9 2.3. Leadership responsibility 11 2.4. Drivers to increase employee engagement and capital 13 2.7. Examples of employee engagement practices 15 3. Conclusions and Recommendations 17 3. Conclusions and Recommendations 17 3.1. Recommendations 19 References 23 References 23 1. Introduction The term employee engagement refers to increasing the motivation, and enthusiasm of employees, so that they are absorbed in their work, they make meaningful contributions to improve the work processes, and take they take positive action to increase the work level quality (Menguc, 2013, p. 2164). Organisations with higher levels of employee engagement experience high employee involvement in the work processes (Truss, 2013, p. 2659). Consequently, such organisations outperform other similar firms, where employees work to the rule (Mone, 2014, p. 43). This paper examines the role of leadership in increasing the level of employee engagement, the methods, and drivers to increase the engagement and examines important predictors, intellectual, social, and emotional capital, which helps to achieve higher employee engagement. 2. Literature Review While employee engagement, and a motivated workforce, that takes on extra responsibilities, while volunteering for extra work is desirable, the main task for the leadership is to obtain and channelize the employee interest and motivation, so that the organisation objectives are met (Saks & Gruman, 2013, p. 158). The second task of directing and focussing employee motivation to meet organisation objectives is facilitated by using structured work allocation, problem identification, brainstorming, group discussions, suggestion box, discussion forums, and by using work collaboration software (Shantz, 2013, p. 2613). However, the first task of motivating the staff, and increasing employee engagement is more challenging (Guest, 2013, p. 223), and, this topic remains the focus of this paper. This section critically reviews the literature on the subject of leadership responsibility and increasing employee engagement. 2.1. Intellectual, social, and emotional capital In the discussion of employee engagement, three contexts become important, and these are intellectual, social, and emotional capital (Mone, 2014, p. 161). Intellectual capital refers to the intellectual property of an organisation, and it has two components (Edvinsson & Malone, 2007, p. 23). The first is the collection of work processes, patents, and expertise, and the second is the skilled staff or the human capital (Sullivan, 2000, p. 56). Human capital is highly valued in organisations because of the innovation and new idea generation capabilities that talented employees can bring in (Wiederhold, 2013, p. 67). Social capital is the economic benefit, accrued from the cooperation and social exchange between groups and individuals (Baker, 58). Therefore, social networks create value, and modern organisations create collaborative and knowledge sharing networks, to facilitate knowledge exchange (Kwon, et al. 2013, p. 248). Emotional capital refers to the value of perceptions, feelings, and beliefs that the customer and external stakeholders, feel for an organisation (Newman & Kenneth, 2014, p. 45). Customers positively interact with organisations that they like (Vincent & Braun, 2013, p. 752). Other than a high quality product, the service level of the staff, and the manner in which they interact is very important in developing a bond between the customer and the organisation (Deshmukh, & Madhur, 2014, p. 837). Emotional capital emerges from staff who are highly motivated, and where the employee engagement is high (Ayranci, & Colakoglu, 2013, p. 7). The above discussion indicates that while intellectual, social, and emotional capital are important, internal and external drivers are needed to provoke, and stimulate employee engagement. The next section briefly reviews different types of employees and the role of the leadership in increasing employee engagement. 2.2. Types of engaged employees Employee engagement is not uniform, but has different levels, defined by the contribution that employees make to their work, and their level of job satisfaction (Shuck & Rose, 2013, p. 235. The different levels are the engaged, almost engaged, honeymooner & hamsters, crash & burners, and the disengaged (Soumendu & Bhatnagar, 2013, p. 30). The engaged employees are highly motivated; they contribute fully to the organisations success, and they are satisfied with their work. The almost engaged workers are high performers, who are reasonably satisfied. However, the motivation and engagement levels are inconsistent, but the leadership can invest their energy in them (Goel, et al. 2013. p. 6). The honeymooners and hamsters are new recruits, and trainees, who are glad to be a part of the organisation. However, they are not skilled, and contribute less to the organisation. They have the potential to turn into the engaged group (Alfes, 2013, p. 331). Crash and burners are high contributors, who have not achieved personal success. They may turn into sceptics and exert a negative effect on the other staff, and the leadership must address their problems. The disengaged are for the free ride, they neither contribute, nor are they satisfied with their work, and their exit can help the organisation (Sparrow, 2013, p. 101). 2.3. Leadership responsibility Organisation leadership is not restricted to the chief executive and the managing director, but it includes all roles such as supervisors, line managers, managers, and departmental heads. The leadership implements, and enforces organisation policies so that the organisation objectives are met. The difference between an engaged, and a disengaged workforce depends in the manner in which the polices are framed and implemented (Mokaya & Kipyegon, 2014, p. 190). From the review in section 2.2, it becomes clear that the leadership is responsible to drive various employee groups, and increase their engagement. A different approach is needed for each employee, and while it is not feasible to create different policies for each employee, the leadership is provided with tools such as appraisals, where the hopes, aspirations, and requirements of each employee are captured (p. 191). The senior management cannot micromanage the requirements of each employee, and it looks at the leaders to intercede on their behalf and interact with the staff. The main issue that now arises is what exactly leads to increased employee engagement. Do increased wages, promotion, better work opportunities, and other perquisites, alone lead to increased employee engagement, or are there other factors that need consideration? All policies must be directed at the employees and the five Ws and one h, who, what, when, where, why and how, need to focus on the employee (Breevaart, 2014, p. 148). The leadership must therefore consider policies where the who is about the workers, the what deals with employee concerns, and the when starts before the employee joins up. The next important elements are the where that includes engagement through formal and informal organisation channels, and the why where employees need to learn about the mutual benefits of engagement (Batista-Taran, et al. 2013, p. 16-17). The last element how defines the actions and responsibility of the leadership, and it indicates the activities taken up to increase employee engagement (Bal, et al. 2013, p. 246). The responsibility of the leadership is in making employee aware of the importance of a positive engagement, and increasing productivity levels. To an extent, the leadership acts as transformational forces, and is responsible for motivating the employee engagement, and not to work as per the rulebook. Innovation, creative thinking, and effective problem solving, emerge from highly engaged employees (Lalin, 2013, p. e75512). Given below are drivers to increase employee engagement. 2.4. Drivers to increase employee engagement and capital Employee engagement is not single dimensioned but it has several facets that cover personal and work aspects of employees. While more salary helps to obtain short-term commitment, other factors must be considered. These are organised into three categories namely, career opportunities, organisational reputation, and innovation, and they help to increase the intellectual, social, and emotional capital (Wang & Chia-Chun, 2013, p. 614). Career opportunities means that the employees are given various options for career development, and they are assured that they can aspire for promotion, changed work profile, and new responsibilities (Lu, 2014, p. 145). The how element is implemented by providing formal coaching and mentoring programmes, allowing the employees to spend time with the senior leaders, establish clear communication paths with a critical talent management strategy, and encouraging managers to highlight the contributions of employees (Jenkins & Delbridge, 2013, p. 2672). Organisational reputation is enabled by clear communication and the employee value proposition, developing corporate social responsibility programmes, developing people and the local community and understanding the reasons for employee attrition (Slack & Morris, 2014, p. 3). The last category is that of innovation, and this is brought by developing an innovation culture, recognising and rewarding contributions through a fair and transparent appraisal method and empowering individuals to take decisions (Strom & Sears,2014, p. 73). Policies for devising the above categories are the responsibility of the senior management. However, implementing them at the lowest level is the responsibility of the junior management staff. However, the junior management staffs must be trained in changing their mindset and in implementing the various policies in a fair and transparent manner (Crawford, 2014, p. 58). Another important aspect is that the junior and mid management staff have to show high levels of engagement; else, the whole exercise of increasing employee engagement becomes ineffective (Purcell, 2014, p. 22). 2.7. Examples of employee engagement practices While the discussions in the previous sections have examined various aspects of employee engagement, the fact remains that employee engagement of all employees remains elusive. As explained in section 2.2, the crash and burners and the disengaged form a significant percent of employees. A report suggests that about 33 percent of staff fall in this category. Many of the employees in this category would have put in more than 15 years of service, often at the same job, and they were not offered training opportunities, or some did not make an effort to get motivated. Such workers perform their duties, follow all the rules, but they do not show any initiative (Slack & Morris, 2014, p. 6). Certain organisations such as Apple, Google, Toyota, and Samsung have implemented methods to increase the employee engagement. Other than Toyota, the other firms were started a few years back, and the average employee age is 28 years. These firms have implemented a number of activities such as employee feedback, 360-degree feedback, suggestion schemes, appraisals, non-monetary reward systems, and the results have been very encouraging (Strom et al. 2014, p. 79). On the other hand, other firms such as Wal-Mart, Ford, Omnicare, initiated similar employee engagement schemes, but met with negative response and hostility from the staff (Wang & Chia-Chun, 2013, p. 621). One obvious reason was the lack of trust and confidence in the senior management. These organisations were impacted by wage cuts, layoffs, factory shutdowns, and they suffered a poor image in the market. The senior management evoked very little confidence and trust, and the various programmes to increase employee engagement were unfortunately seen as attempts by the management to target people for layoffs. However, such negative outcomes should not act as a deterrent for the leadership in implementing employee engagement practices (Wang and Chia-Chun, 2013, p. 622). 3. Conclusions and Recommendations The previous sections have examined the practice of employee engagement, and the responsibility of the organisation leadership to achieve the organisational objectives. It becomes clear that employee engagement has several positive impacts, since it increases their motivation, and their will to contribute more than what their job specification demands. Organisations with high employee engagement have increased productivity, have infusion of new ideas, provide enhanced customer service, and this increases the reputation of the firm. Important contexts such as intellectual, social, and emotional capital become predictors of an engaged workforce. This means that the organisation leadership recognises and accepts that the workforce is a capital asset, which must be nurtured and cultivated. Social capital emerges from formal and informal networks in the organisation, which help employees to interact. Social networks are again a form of capital since they help to meet the organisations objectives. The last context is the emotional capital, derived through a motivated workforce, which enhances the quality of customer interactions, and increases customer satisfaction. The paper also examined three categories and their elements that help to increase employee engagement. These include career opportunities, organisational reputation, and innovation. 3.1. Recommendations Based on the discussions from the previous sections, some recommendations are made to help increase employee engagement. Personal involvement of the senior management is vital for the exercise. The first task is to create awareness among the junior and mid level management, about the need for employee engagement, and the results expected from them. Training sessions must be conducted for all levels of the management, and various methods and steps for implementation of the practice, must be explained. If there is a trust deficit with the senior management, a series of meetings with all employee levels is needed, where the expectations from the exercise, benefits to the staff and the organisation must be explained. The next step is to provide training for the front line staff, along with their immediate supervisor and manager, and explain the process, and the manner in which the staff can contribute. If the organisation is large, or spread across different locations, then the process must be implemented at one or two locations as pilot studies, the impacts examined, and then the practice implemented in phases across the organisation. Feedback from the employees, along with involvement of the senior management is crucial for the success. References Alfes, K., 2013. 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Valuing Intellectual Capital, Multinationals and Taxhavens; Management for Professionals. Springer Verla, NY. Read More