Locus of Engagement: Understanding What Employees Connect with at Work - Essay Example

Locus of Engagement: Understanding What Employees Connect With At Work Introduction Engagement of employees is important as it affects their productivity and attitudes towards the organization. Research has shown that organizations with high levels of employee engagement have better performance, increased productivity, and less employee turnover (Corporate Executive Board 2004). Therefore, employee levels of engagement should be increased in organizations and should be done in an environment where there is effective leadership, efficient communication, clear policies and cooperation (Wellins and Concelman 2005). Purpose of Article The purpose of this article is to explore the issue of locus of engagement as one of the main factors that contribute to the performance of organizations. Getting to know the levels of employee engagement in the organization contributes towards the organization growth. Understanding employee engagement enables the organization to manage a number of things. Firstly, the organization is able to meet the different expectations of the employees. The organization is also able to adjust to different changes in technology and work processes. The organization is also able to manage the changes in workforce demands in order to incorporate practices that add value to the employees. The article reveals that employees could have different levels of engagement in aspects of their work like family, clients, their tasks, work mates, the organization, the managers or their profession. It is also possible for the employees to be engaged in more than one locus at the same time (Markos and Sridevi 2010). The article also aims to investigate on how other literature explains the issue of locus of engagement. It also seeks to find out how engagement in different loci affects the performance of the organization in the current setting where organizations are facing many challenges. The CIPD and the Kingston Engagement Consortium are trying to find out what exactly the employees are engaged with and how it affects their overall performance at the workplace. Paradigm Analysis The author’s perspective is objective as a functionalist paradigm is used in writing this article. This paradigm is a research orientation that assesses the organization from an outside perspective and tries to explain the meaning of certain data. It is an objective approach to organizational study and it seeks to understand the behaviour in an organization through testing of a hypothesis. There are other paradigms that can be used in representing the organizational reality. These include interpretive, radical structuralist, and radical humanist paradigms. These paradigms represent the differences in the authors’ research direction and approach to the context. In interpretive paradigm the members of an organization use symbolic interaction to build and uphold their social lives. This paradigm is subjective as it explains the behaviour from the viewpoint of an individual. A radical structuralist approach highlights the barriers to effect operations in organizations and proposes changes to the organizational structure. This approach is objective and seeks to identify the structural inconsistencies which cause change in organizations through economic and political crises. The radical humanist paradigm aims to reduce the employee opinion that each individual is mentally separated from the rest. This paradigm is subjective and justifies the need for new change and tries to eliminate the social barriers preventing people from exploiting their full potential (Mohan 1993) Data The data used in the article is from interviews and organizational surveys. During the surveys, employees were asked to state their degree of engagement with different loci. The results show that the employees are engaged in various loci at different levels and they affect the performance of the employees differently. The article also uses information from other sources like literature by other researchers. The author could also have used data collected through practical experimenting. They could have experimented by implementing certain strategies in the organizations, for instance, changes in the management style or organizational structure, and find out how that would affect the levels of engagement for the employees. Such data would clearly depict the levels of employee engagement and the factors that shape it. Key Human Resource Issues In this article, various human resource management issues have been identified. The article explores the issue of employee performance and how it is affected by various loci of engagement. The research reveals that there are different loci of engagement with varying intensity among the employees and these affect the performance of each individual (CIPD 2011). In the current world, there are various changes in the work environment that impact on the employee performance. These include increased competition, changes in technology, workforce diversity, among others (Robertson-Smith and Markwick 2009). Another human resource management issue is that of employee benefits. In the current work environment, employee benefits do not just include a salary but refer to other rewards that will be able to make the employees happy, motivated, and loyal. The management should be able to ensure that the employees are satisfied because they enable the organization to achieve its goals. If the employees are unhappy, they will not be motivated to work hard and this will lead to reduced productivity. Therefore, the organization should come up with ways to reward, recognize, and boost the morale of the employees (Sonnentag 2003). In trying to determine the level of employee engagement with the organization, the employees say that it depends on the rewards that the organization offers like a good salary, motivation, and a good working environment. The issue of leadership is also explored. According to the research findings, the employee locus of engagement with the management depends on whether the management offers support, clear expectations, fairness, and recognition. The employees are also more engaged with managers who give them some degree of autonomy to do things their way (Zinger 2011). In the contemporary work environment, leaders need to adopt flexible and engaging leadership styles in order to ensure employee satisfaction and consequently, outstanding organizational performance (Parker 1998). Conclusion Changes in the economy and work practices have led to the employees’ change in expectations at the workplace. This has necessitated the need to engage employees in various aspects of their work in order to enhance the performance of organizations. Research shows that employees who are engaged increase the performance and profitability of the organization (Bernthal 2004). The CIPD report on employee engagement indicates that the management needs to be aware of what the employees are engaged with in order to manage them effectively. Moreover, the report reveals that the employees can be engaged with different loci at the same time. The levels of engagement also vary. The locus of engagement is also dynamic and can change depending on other factors. The employees can either be engaged with their managers, organization, customers, and profession, among others. Therefore, management of employee engagement should be embraced by every organization because it increases the productivity, employee competency, employee retention, motivation and corporate pride. It also enables the employees to develop professionally, broaden their perspectives, and become motivated, and this translates to enhanced productivity. Reference List Bernthal, P. 2004. Measuring Employee Engagement. [Online] Available at: www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_MeasuringEmployeeEngagement_wp.pdf [Accessed 12 November 2011] CIPD. 2011. Locus Of Engagement: Understanding What Employees Connect With At Work. London, Chartered Institute of personnel and development. Corporate Executive Board. 2004. Driving Performance and Retention through Employee Engagement. [Online] Available at: www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com/Images/CLC/PDF/CLC12KADBP.pdf [Accessed 12 November 2011] Markos, S. and Sridevi, M.S. 2010. Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance. International Journal of Business and Management. Vol 5, No 12. Pp89–96. Mohan, M. L. 1993. Organizational Communication and Cultural Vision: Approaches for Analysis. USA, SUNY Press. Parker, S. K. 1998. Enhancing Role Breadth Self Efficacy: The Roles of Job Enrichment and Other Organizational Interventions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 835–852. Robertson-Smith, G. and Markwick, C. 2009. Employee Engagement: A review of current thinking. UK, Institute for Employment Studies. Sonnentag, S. 2003. Recovery, Work Engagement, And Proactive Behaviour: A New Look At The Interface Between Non-Work And Work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 518–528. Wellins, R. and Concelman, J. 2005. Creating a Culture for Engagement. Workforce Performance Solutions. [Online] Available at: www.ddiworld.com/pdf/wps_engagement_ar.pd [Accessed 12 November 2011] Zinger, D. 2011. Employee Engagement for Managers. [Online] Available at: http://www.davidzinger.com/the-10-things-managers-must-do-to-increase-employee-engagement-12462/ [Accessed 12 November 2011] Read More