Employee Engagement - Research Paper Example

?“Employee Engagement” enter the Number or College 25th January Introduction Nowadays people cannot live their lives alone they need to interact with one another for maximizing profits. When people work in an organization, they put in efforts for the betterment of the organization. People come from different cultures and backgrounds to work together as a whole. The employees should have other things in mind than salary only so that their performance can be the best. For this purpose the relationships between people within an organization should work in a good environment. Employee engagement is the bondage an employee had with the organization which makes him put in efforts to work for the benefit of the company. Employee engagement involves the efforts of both the organization and the employees themselves. True commitment towards work is necessary by the employees. This can be attained by the organizations by encouraging the individuals to put in efforts for the benefit of the organization. Every person working in a team should be encouraged and added in the conversation. Feedback should also be taken by all the employees in an organization. When an employee feels that he is valued, motivated and encouraged then he works more hard, hence benefiting the organization. Employee engagement is hence an important factor for the businesses to run efficiently nowadays. Employee engagement can be improved by frequent communication, meetings and friendly conversations. For example, Stamm (2009) discussed that in a hospital there was a meeting arranged for improving employee engagement. The nurses felt that the doctor was not friendly towards them and never even smiled at them. On the other hand, the doctor was a concerned to do his surgeries with perfection. He found it shocking that the staff was not at ease with his attitude. According to him he was busy taking wise decisions for doing the best surgery for his patients and never paid attention to this fact. With the help of this discussion the nursing staff also got to know that the doctor was never intentionally rude with them. This made them work better with one another, helping each other more efficiently and focusing on their duties more than on the personal attitudes hence employee engagement was improved. World is getting more and more connected nowadays. People have better job opportunities and everyone wants to improve his income because he wants to get luxuries and comforts in his life. Employee should not work only for getting salary, he should own the company. Efforts are being made by companies to improve employee engagement as well. The personal goals of the employees are also important for improving employee engagement. In this assignment, the differences between individualism and collectivism are explored in detail. 2. Employee Engagement 2.1 What does Employee engagement mean? Employee engagement is the hot cake issue for organizations for the past several years. It is the amount of attachment or emotional bondage a person has with his organization and work. This bond makes the employee work at his best for benefitting the organization. It is all about to “own” an organization and work for it and to share the good and bad moments. According to Investopedia (2011), employee engagement is a management concept which is of great importance. It is the level of interest and devotion an employee has towards his job. For example, a person who works in a company and puts in efforts for the organization’s growth and profits and does not only works for money or salary and has devotion towards his job and company is an engaged employee. Organizational culture and its management contribute a lot in the employee engagement. According to Cook (2008), employee engagement is the amount of commitment an employee has towards his organization. It is the passion and energy the employee has towards putting in efforts for the betterment of his organization. For example the employee working in an organization should not go to the office just to earn money and complete the hours instead he should realize that the amount of work and quality of work he is doing for the organization is beneficial for the organization or not. Cook (2008) refers to employee engagement as the positive attitude of employee towards the organization and it can be understood by analyzing what the employee “sees”, “does” and “thinks” about his services done for the organization. 2.2 Organizational responsibility for employee engagement at work According to Stamm (2009), for the development of a fully engaged team it is necessary to make everyone feel as the leader. The responsibility of the organization is to encourage the employee to make judgments about the challenges they face every day. The organization should encourage individual participation. The organization should create such an environment for the employees that maximum can be achieved by their performance. The rules, policies and regulations are designed for an organization’s success. It is the responsibility of the human resources department of the organization to formulate such policies which are comfortable at individual level. For employee engagement, it is the responsibility of the organization to encourage communication, provide management development opportunities to the staff and ensure and measure commitment level of the employees. Human resource management is important for facilitating the employees and the departments within an organization. Employee engagement is necessary for businesses to run in profit. It is when the employee feels himself as a part of the organization. Management plays a major role in establishing good employee engagement preferences. The human resource department helps management and employees to work together in better environment. According to Barker (2008), recent research showed that sixty percent of the senior managers find HR as an “administrative department” instead of “strategic” department. Provided that the expenditure done on an employee by an organization is the highest expenditure done by it therefore the HR department has a duty to appoint people who are the most competent ones. It is all about aligning organizations objective with employee efficiency and engaging them well. Hence, EVP or Employee Value Proposition is created by the human resources department for ensuring employee management. There is a lot of management responsibility involved in getting employee engagement, they should understand the skills and the talents of the individual employees and should engage them. 2.3 Employee Responsibility for employee engagement at work When it comes to organization’s success and employee engagement then the employees are responsible too for engagement. They goal of the employee doing job is to get paid for the services given by him. Some employees do not have any attachment with the organization and keep on doing work for getting salary while some work enthusiastically by owing the company. There is a need to understand why they do so. This type of emotional attachment or bondage of the employee with the organization can be attained if the employee is provided with the best possible work environment where respect, communication and encouragement is present and upheld. According to the Employee Engagement Report (2011), every employee is accountable and answerable for his or her engagement. The most important factor which is responsible for generating high level of employee engagement is the individual clarity which means that the employee should know what he wants and what is he giving to the organization. He should put in efforts which are beneficial for the organization. It is the responsibility of the employee to respond to the communication and management well. It means that if the management is putting in efforts to give employees tasks according to their talent and skills then it should be appreciated by the employees. They should not feel insecure or offended if the management makes them work in other departments. They should realize that all what is being done is done for the betterment of the organization. If the organizations interest is the priority for the employees then they will understand it and work efficiently. 2.4 Challenges which face the organization Employee engagement can become a challenge if there is poor management. Organizations have to keep their employees motivated and encourage them in order to get them engaged in their job and to benefit the organization. The organization needs to have good communication with their employees and understand that the employees come from different cultures and have different skills therefore they should be motivated accordingly. According to Johann (2008), mergers of different companies fail due to the differences in the “culture and management styles”. An example to it is the “Chrysler and Daimler” merger whose goal was to merge two styles of auto making as Chrysler being an American company and Daimler being a German company. There are different theories on the cultural differences. One of them is the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension. It is discussed by Johann (2008) and Walker (2010); both of them regard it as helpful for understanding and improving the employee engagement. Hofstede analyzed questionnaires to identify “five major dimensions” on which cultural differences can be understood (Walker, 2010). These five dimensions include power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, long term VS short term orientation and uncertainty evasion. 2.5 Advantage of employee engagement It is important for the managers to promote healthy relationships to maintain a good work environment. With the help of employee engagement it is possible for the organization to have competent people in it working for the benefit of the organization. If a good and healthy work environment is given to the employees and the employees who are appointed by the HR management are benefiting for the objectives of the organization then they should work in long run with the organization. It benefits both the organization and the employee. As the employee gets job satisfaction as well as salary from the organization and the organization gets people who work enthusiastically for their benefit. Moreover, due to globalization and a lot of job opportunities nowadays, it is important for the organization to grow with the staff which has been serving it for long. For this purpose they need to make sure that the employee is getting good salary and benefits and that his mind is free of monetary thinking so that he can focus well on his work. The organizations who have had the long term staff are the most efficient ones. 2.6 Difference between individualistic and collective cultures Out of all these dimensions, individualism and collectivism are the ones which are studied the most. According to Walker (2010), individualistic culture is the one in which “I” is present along with competition and individual achievement are appreciated whereas collectivist culture is the one in which cooperating with one another is give importance over competition and the individual goals are given up for collective good. I will focus on the individualistic and collectivism cultures differences in detail in this assignment. According to Walker (2010), the individualistic culture has individual freedom, independence, competition, direct speech (telling truth, do not care for emotions) whereas the collective cultures have group dependency, dependence, cooperation and indirect speech (taking care of feelings and emotions). Johann (2008) states some differences in the individualistic and collective cultures. They are listed below 1. People in the individualistic culture view themselves as “individuals” or “single people” while in the collectivism, people view themselves as one “whole” or “group”. 2. In individualistic culture people have to take care of “themselves” and “autonomy” or self sufficiency is given importance whereas in collectivism people or employees take care of each other and the devotion is promised. Johann (2008) also discussed cultural mapping, Hofstede “mapped” the countries which make one understand the cultural similarities and difference. Three cultural maps were made by Hofstede. According to Johann (2008) and Nelson and Quick (2010) , America, UK and Netherlands are individualistic cultures as they appreciate individual achievements and Egypt has individualistic approach as well other than that most Arab countries have a collectivism approach examples include Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia etc. According to Walker (2010), Edward T. Hall saw the individualism and collectivism as high context and low context cultures. According to Walker (2010) Hall had an opinion that individualistic and collective cultures have different modes of communication. Walker (2010) gives example of Arab countries, China, Korea, Japan and Latin American countries which “pay attention to the context of communication, relationship building and getting acquainted”. The American management style and the Saudi Arabia management style differ as the Americans have individualistic approach and Arabs have collective approach. However, in management style the Saudi Arabia organizations do not engage their employees in work strategy or as a team like the American organizations. The employee engagement is given importance in both the countries as every organization wants to get the best out of their employees. In my opinion, collectivism is better than individualistic approach but there is a need to motivate each and every individual present in the team. Hence, communication, idea sharing and feedback should be taken from every employee working in the team. The American organizations have a good amount of employee engagement as they involve and boost each and every individual working, this benefits the organization as a whole as the employees add in the vision and mission. Human beings posses’ feelings and they respond to things. They cannot act like robots. Robots tend to work upon the task assigned and finish but human beings cannot complete tasks if they are not emotionally stable. Therefore, when at work even their emotions drive the quality of their work. Complexity in the businesses and workplaces is getting common now due to globalization and increased demand and supply of products. The ways to manage complexity should be learnt by the managers and they should be implemented in the organizational set ups. For this reason holistic thinking can be helpful for dealing with the sources of complexity. 2.7 Holistic approach Hurlimann (2009) states that holism or holistic thinking is system thinking. It is the ability to see things as a whole. It helps to see interconnections and complexities. System thinking is very important to understand complexity and change. It involves dynamic thinking, operational thinking and closed loop thinking. Dynamic thinking is to realize that world is not static and is changing rapidly and we need to walk with the pace of time. Operational thinking is to understand the operations and how the things work. Closed loop thinking is to understand cause and effect or feedback. Management in Kuwait needs to understand and implement management complexity due to highly dynamic environment which came into existence due to globalization. Managers should know how to manage complexity. The ability to see things as a whole can help the managers to manage the organizations better. Employee engagement can be improved if individual people are encouraged and motivated to work together as a team and to add in the growth of the company. 3. Conclusion Hence, I conclude that it is very important for the success of any organization nowadays to have good management skills. There is a need to realize that planning and communication are very important in the success of any project. The manner communication and employee relationships are carried out differ from culture to culture. It is important to maintain good relations. Managers should try to generate friendly environment for the other employees in order to make them deliver work in an effectual and competent manner. Management necessitates skills and better understanding of the organization’s requirements. There is a need to understand complexity in the dynamic world today and the holistic approach to solve problems. The managers recognize how to control the changing emotions of the employees for the betterment of their organization. They should be able to covenant with them in the correct way. According to Macey, Schneider, Barbera and Young (2011), getting “involved”, “excited” and investing time into ones job with full zeal and enthusiasm is employee engagement; it is something special within the normal activities. The authors tell that Tamara Erickson declared in the US Congress that employee engagement is the best lever for “improving productivity. There are different approaches towards employee engagement which make one understand and act well. The individualism and collectivism have their own importance. In my opinion individuals works together as a group to benefit the organization and hence it should be appreciated. Individual’s worldviews and mental models can affect the quality of his relationships with others and his performance in the workplace. According to Donnell, Reeve, and Smith (2011), relationships are the soil in which the social development of human being grows. Relationships are the means by which any human being develops competence towards society. Mental modes are the beliefs and expectations about what one likes and what others like. The relationship is dependant to the contribution the both parties make. Hence the relationships at work should be friendly in nature. Managers should try to create a friendly environment for the other workers in order to make them work in an effective and efficient manner. Sigelman and Rider (2011, pp.476-479) say that relationships get stronger when you start giving time to one another. Be it parents, friends or lovers, devotion of time and patience in tolerating the other is the key to successful relationship. In my opinion, the most important thing in management is communication. It is very important for the success of any project and for successful management to have good communication between the team. Time and communication play an important role in higher ratios of employee engagement. Communication, idea sharing and encouraging individual efforts helps in accomplishing the goals and finishing the project in time as a team. It helps not to waste budget, time and energy. The spirit of the employees should be boosted up so that they work with full zeal and enthusiasm. There should be access to the whole team. Everyone should be in contact with one another. All the team should work together and should not separate each other. The division of duties should be there but communication of the executed tasks should never be neglected between the teams. All this cannot be done without proper communication. Communication one on one and organization wide is equally important for successful management and better employee engagement ratio. Schermerhorn (2011) stated that the emotions and moods influence behaviors in organizations. Emotional contagion is the mood spill of a person over the other. Emotional labor is the situation where a person displays emotions which are positive for the organization. Emotional dissonance creates a distance between the true feelings and organizationally desired emotions. Therefore it is necessary to create a balance between emotions while working. The quality of relationships with others and performance in the workplace have a great connection with the way you take things. Hence, positivity should be included in the environment one way or the other for improved employee engagement. Schermerhorn (2011) states that belonging and performing are the two things people do to make decisions about their work. If a person is happy at work he will have a stable family and social life as well and if he is unhappy with his work, it is not possible for him to live contentedly. The person working in an organization should feel for the organization. It should feel himself as a part of it and not a mere employee who is just working for salary. This helps in making the relationship and work spirit better. Employee engagement is hence an important factor for the organizations performance and should be given importance as well. The employee should be encouraged at individual level so that every employee puts in the best efforts so that the results as the team are huge. 4. References Barker, G., (2008).Employee Engagement: trade secrets, personnel today. Available at http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/10/17/47938/employee-engagement-trade-secrets.html. Retrieved: Feb, 1. Cook, S., (2008). The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement: Better Business Performance Through Staff Satisfaction, Kogan Page Publishers, pp. 3-5. Employee Engagement Report (2011), Blessing White. Available at http://www.blessingwhite.com/EEE__report.asp. Retrieved: Feb, 1 Hurlimann, M., (2009). Dealing with Real-World Complexity: Limits, Enhancements and New Approaches for Policy Makers, Gabler Verlag. Vol:1, pp.75-78. Investopedia, (2011). Employee Engagement, Investopedia.Inc. Available at http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/employee-engagement.asp#axzz1kehoKP00. Retrieved: Jan, 27 Johann, R., (2008). Cross-Cultural Management: The Case of the DaimlerChrysler Merger. GRIN Verlag. Vol: 1, pp. 3-10. Macey, W., H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K., M., Young,S., A., (2011). Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice, and Competitive Advantage, John Wiley & Sons. Vol: 31, pp. 13-15. Nelson, D., L., Quick, J., C., (2010). Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You, Cengage Learning. Vol: 7(1), pp. 36- 48. Stamm, S., (2009). 42 Rules of Employee Engagement, Happy About, pp. 4-6. Sigelman, C., K., Rider, E., A., 2011. Life-Span Human Development, Cengage Learning. Vol:1, pp. 111-114. Schermerhorn, J., R., 2011. Organizational Behavior, John Wiley and Sons, pp.67-69. Walker, R., (2010). Strategic Management Communication for Leaders, Cengage Learning. Vol: 2, pp. 65- 73. Read More