Professional Documents
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www.emeraldinsight.com/2051-6614.htm
Employee engagement:
a sceptical analysis
Employee
engagement
David Guest
Department of Management, Kings College London, London, UK
141
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the debates and evidence about employee
engagement to assess its prospects of becoming a mainstream part of management activity in the long
term. It sets out an agenda for policy and practice designed to increase its chances of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a review of the research and analytic
literature. It outlines the origins, reasons for growth of popularity, main forms and evidence about the
antecedents and impact of employee engagement. It draws a distinction between work engagement
and organizational engagement. For the former it outlines a research agenda; for the latter, it presents
an extensive critique and an agenda to address the issues raised.
Findings A distinction is highlighted between work engagement with its concern to improve
employee well-being and organizational engagement with its focus on organizational performance.
It is shown that these two approaches operate in different worlds and that this reflects a neglect of an
evidence-based approach to management of employees since work engagement has much the stronger
evidence base.
Research limitations/implications As a review and analysis, the paper is inevitably selective
and limited by space restrictions. However, it argues that while work engagement is now well-established
among the academic community as a valid and useful construct, the same cannot be said for organizational
engagement which lacks clear definition, measurement, high-quality evidence and clear policy implications.
The paper therefore sets out a policy agenda and outlines how some of the shortcomings might
be addressed.
Practical implications The paper highlights the need for a viable and integrated engagement
strategy if organizational engagement is to thrive in the future and sets out the core elements of such
an approach.
Originality/value The paper highlights the distinction between the two separate engagement
worlds of work and organizational engagement and also highlights their different core aims.
The problems with organizational engagement are analysed and a new agenda to improve its prospects of
impact is outlined.
Keywords Well-being, Organizational performance, Work engagement, Organizational engagement,
Edvidence-based management
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
From time to time new ideas or concepts emerge that capture the attention of policy
makers, managers and academics. Some have a sound theoretical and empirical base;
others rely more on effective marketing, often by consultancy organizations. Some can
best be described as short-lived management fads; others become established as a part
of management. Over the years, these concepts have included T-groups, the
managerial grid, in search of excellence, quality circles, process re-engineering and,
more recently, employee engagement. The prevalence of such fads and fashions has
spawned its own sub-discipline that seeks to understand how and why these concepts
emerge and what impact they have (see, e.g. Abrahamson, 1991; Gibson and Tesone,
2001). It is too soon to tell whether employee engagement will eventually come to be
viewed as a passing management fad or an established part of management practice.
However, the aim of this paper is to review its status and distinctive features with the
Journal of Organizational
Effectiveness: People and
Performance
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2014
pp. 141-156
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2051-6614
DOI 10.1108/JOEPP-04-2014-0017
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aim of assessing its potential longevity. The title of the paper provides a clue to the core
stance of the central argument.
The structure of the paper is as follows. A first section briefly outlines the nature of
employee engagement, drawing a distinction between work and organizational
engagement and offering some explanations for its popularity. This is followed by
a brief review of the evidence about work engagement, highlighting areas that would
benefit from further research. The next section analyses organizational engagement,
highlighting a number of concerns. A final section sets out a brief operational agenda
listing policies and practices that might help to increase the likelihood that
organizational engagement has an impact.
The origins and growth of interest in employee engagement
It is generally acknowledged that Kahn (1990) presented the first academic paper about
employee engagement. It offered employee engagement as a new approach to employee
motivation, outlining what Kahn described as a behavioural perspective based on three
dimensions of physical, emotional and cognitive engagement. It did not initially attract
a great deal of attention. From a different perspective, some experts on workplace
stress and in particular burnout began to consider the opposite end of the continuum,
which they described as employee engagement (Maslach et al., 2001). They viewed this
as an attitudinal state comprising three sub-dimensions of vigour, dedication and
absorption. The concept was further developed and, importantly, a measure of
attitudinal engagement was designed and validated by a team at Utrecht University
(Schaufeli et al., 2002). The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) measure has been
extensively used in many countries as the concept of employee engagement, aided by
the presence of this measure, has attracted increasing academic attention.
In parallel with the growth of academic interest in employee engagement,
consultants also began to market the concept, together with their own engagement
measures. The Gallup Organization was at the forefront of this activity. Their
engagement survey, the Gallup Q12 (Harter et al., 2002), was statistically rather than
conceptually derived leading to a problem in defining this version of organizational
engagement. However, by providing evidence to show an association between a higher
score on this measure and indicators of higher organizational performance, it had an
immediate attraction for organizations. Several other consultancies that used standard
survey instruments rapidly developed and marketed their own engagement measures.
In the UK, interest in employee engagement was given a boost in 2008 when
a government minister, Lord Mandelson, set up the MacLeod Review to explore the
potential of employee engagement to improve UK productivity and competitiveness.
The MacLeod Report, published in 2009, strongly supported the concept. The report
was subsequently endorsed by Prime Minister Cameron and by a sizeable group
of leading industrialists and a Task Force was set up to promote an engagement
movement under the banner of Engage for Success.
There is no doubt that employee engagement has attracted a great deal of attention
in academic circles and in work organizations, suggesting that the development
and application of engagement over more than a decade has been a success. However,
a distinctive feature of employee engagement is that work engagement and
organizational engagement seem to exist in two parallel and rather separate worlds,
those of academia and industry. In a context where evidence-based management is
increasingly advocated (Rousseau, 2012) the apparent failure of the large body of
academic work to influence organizational thinking and practice is puzzling. One aim
of this paper will be to explore why this has occurred and what its implications are for
academic research and management practice.
The rapid growth of interest in engagement in both academic and organizational
circles raises questions about why it has risen to prominence. Schaufeli (2014) explains
the popularity of work engagement by drawing on two influences. One is the
individualization of work, reflecting also a decline in collective activity. The second
is the growth of interest among psychologists in general, including work and
organizational psychologists and also wider western society in positive psychology.
One manifestation of this is the expansion of research on happiness which has now
also become a focus of a regular national survey in the UK following an initiative
by the Prime Minister. Engagement fits into this stream of positive psychology,
particularly where it focuses on the association between work engagement and
employee well-being.
A further influence that Schaufeli identifies, and one that begins to explain its
popularity in organizations, is the emphasis in business strategy on resource-based
views of the organization (Barney, 1991) where human resources are increasingly seen
as the key resources to leverage competitive advantage. To achieve this, organizations
are encouraged to pursue strategic human resource management (HRM) to leverage
their human capital; and employee engagement fits comfortably within this
perspective. Consultants can claim considerable credit for the effective marketing of
engagement. First, they have presented evidence of a strong association between
engagement and organizational performance. Second, they have drawn attention to an
engagement deficit which serves both to create anxiety and to hold out that promise
that if it can be addressed, then employee performance should improve.
The analysis of the reasons for the interest in engagement highlights an important
distinction, highlighted previously by Saks (2006) among others, between the focus
of work engagement and organizational engagement. Work engagement has, as its
main outcome, a concern for employee well-being. It is a psychological theory reflecting
what Schaufeli describes as the individualizing tendency in societies, and it operates at
the individual level of analysis. In contrast, organizational engagement is primarily
concerned with improving organizational performance. This is reflected in the UK
governments interest and in the argument that higher engagement is associated
with higher profits. With a focus on improving well-being, it is easy to understand why
employees might be interested in work engagement. But why should they have any
interest in organizational engagement? This is one of the issues, that is explored in the
following pages.
An assessment of work engagement
As noted above, the first paper on employee engagement was written by Kahn in 1990
and focused on what he termed behavioural engagement reflecting his interest in
developing more operational concepts and ways of measuring motivation at work.
He continued to write about the concept and defined employee engagement as the
employment and expression of a persons preferred self in task behaviors that
promote connections to work and to others, personal presence (physical, cognitive
and emotional) and active full performance (Kahn, 1990, p. 700). Although quite
extensively cited, Kahns ideas did not initially generate significant research. However,
a number of researchers have developed scales based on his concept of engagement
(see, e.g. May et al., 2004; Saks, 2006). A more recent study by Rich et al. (2010) adopted
Kahns conceptual framework and developed a scale to test its validity, maintaining
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Kahns distinction between physical, emotional and cognitive engagement. They found
that the three dimensions were empirically distinct but could be combined into a single
measure. In their study among fire crew they found that value congruence, perceived
organizational support and a positive core self-evaluation served as significant
antecedents. Higher engagement was associated with higher supervisor-rated job
performance and organizational citizenship behaviour. An important claim was that
this measure of engagement was a more powerful mediator than other established
concepts such as involvement, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction. Unfortunately,
there has not yet been much further published work using the new scale and an initial
review by Peccei (2013) suggests problems with scale and in particular the measure of
the emotional dimension.
Whereas Kahn proposed what he described as a behavioural model of employee
engagement, in Europe, a team led by Schaufeli at Utrecht University developed an
attitudinal construct of work engagement based on the job demands resources model
(Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). They defined work engagement as A positive, fulfilling
work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and aborption
(Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). Vigour is defined as high levels of energy and mental
resilience [y] willingness to invest effort in ones work and persistence even in the face
of difficulties; dedication is a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride
and challenge; and absorption is described as being fully concentrated and deeply
engrossed in ones work (Schaufeli et al., 2002, pp. 74-75). It can be noted that there is
some considerable overlap with Kahns definition, more particularly with respect
to the definition of resilience. Because the UWES, developed by this group, has been
widely used to measure attitudinal employee engagement, most of the research and
the reviews of evidence about employee engagement reported by academics
are predominantly based on this measure. Reflecting this, we will use the term
work engagement.
In evaluating the status of the concept of work engagement, a number of concerns
have been discussed in the literature. A first issue concerns the antecedents and
consequences of work engagement. These can be considered by reviewing the outcome
of the various meta-analyses and systematic reviews of the research. There have been
several relevant reviews of the evidence about the antecedents and consequences of
employee engagement. In the meta-analyses by Christian et al. (2011), Crawford et al.
(2010) and Halbesleben (2010) both antecedents and consequences of engagement are
considered. A number of subsequent reviews have also considered the evidence
alongside a range of additional issues (see, e.g. Albrecht, 2010; Bakker et al., 2011;
Peccei, 2013; Truss et al., 2014). From a somewhat different perspective, Macey and
Schneider (2008) analysed the meanings of engagement, differentiating between what
they termed trait, state and behavioural engagement, a key implication of trait
perspectives being that not everyone will be equally enthusiastic about being engaged.
The review by Peccei (2013) is particularly useful in drawing together the findings
of the meta-analyses. He found that they cover a wide range of antecedents and a
narrower set of outcomes. Utilizing the job demands resources model, he divides the
antecedents into resources, demands and individual factors. This provides 29
antecedents that have been explored and this almost certainly under-estimates the full
range of factors that have been considered. However much the most frequently
explored antecedents are job control/autonomy and social/perceived organizational
support. Given the popularity of these resources it is interesting to note that his
review of the meta-analyses reveals that other factors are more strongly associated
with engagement. The strongest associations, with corrected correlations above 0.50,
are with job variety, work-role fit and task significance and, highest of all, self-efficacy.
These are followed, with corrected correlations above 0.40, by opportunities for
development, a proactive personality, optimism, trait positive affectivity and
conscientiousness. Only then, with a corrected correlation of 0.39, do we see job
control/autonomy enter the list. The demands generally have a much weaker, albeit
predictably negative association with engagement. This analysis reinforces the
importance of features of work roles and in particular the influence of what Macey
and Schneider referred to as trait engagement, suggesting that some employees have
personal characteristics that pre-dispose them to be more likely to report higher levels
of engagement. This has potentially important policy implications since it suggests
that a focus on selection may be just as important as a focus on job design. And while
it does not lead us to reject the job demands resources model, it places a question
mark over its primacy as an explanation for variations in levels of engagement.
Pecceis analysis of the outcomes of engagement considered task performance,
contextual performance, health and intention to quit. His analysis shows a strong
association between engagement and task performance (0.43), a modest association
with contextual performance (0.33) and weak associations with health (0.20) and
intention to quit ( 0.26). The great majority of studies are cross-sectional raising the
usual issues of causality; nevertheless, the results from the meta-analyses confirm
an association between employee engagement and task performance that lies at the
heart of much of the organizational interest in engagement.
Several further issues arise from the reviews of the research on work engagement.
These include the stability of engagement, factors influencing changes in engagement
and the relevant weight of different background factors and antecedents when
considered in isolation or in combination. There are also issues concerning the
appropriate level of engagement and whether there may be a curvilinear relationship
whereby too much engagement may become damaging, notably with respect to its
impact on health and work-life balance. All these issues are beginning to be considered.
The stability of engagement is a relevant concern because the definitions, with their
focus on vigour and absorption suggest potentially considerable demands on energy.
Kahn (see Kahn and Heaphy, 2014) has questioned the assumption that engagement
should be viewed as a persistent high-energy activity. This issue has been explored
through the use of diary studies (see, e.g. Xanthopoulou et al., 2009) which confirm
that the levels of engagement do vary over the working day. Further research is
needed to determine whether this is equally valid for both attitudinal and behavioural
engagement.
As noted, most of the reported studies of employee engagement are cross-sectional.
This leaves open the question of causality. Apart from short-term diary studies, and
a small number of reported studies with two- or three-wave collections of data (see, e.g.
Halbesleben et al., 2009) there have been few longitudinal studies that help to address
this issue, and in particular, an absence of theory-based intervention studies that seek
to alter engagement levels and test the effects. This is an area where further research is
urgently needed.
The question of which antecedents are most likely to enhance engagement is
relevant for determining the best way to intervene in any change programme.
We noted that the most widely studied antecedents are job control/autonomy and
social/organizational support. These are typically viewed as the key resources present
to varying degrees in organizations. Yet variety, task significance, job-role fit and
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on the same basis as Gallup, namely the association between higher scores on
the measure and higher organizational performance, and the need to address the
engagement deficit.
The marketing of the concept of organizational engagement, in the UK in particular,
has been greatly boosted by government interest. Both by setting up the review and by
endorsing its findings as well as supporting further action to develop organizational
engagement, the UK government has helped to promote senior management interest in
employee engagement. By 2012, surveys showed that it was at the top of the agendas
of HR managers (Clinton and Woollard, 2012). However, it remained uncertain
what engagement was and, partly as a consequence, what organizations had to do to
enhance engagement. For example, the MacLeod Review received over 50 definitions of
engagement, reflecting the uncertainties and ambiguities surrounding the concept.
In the MacLeod Report, four levers for enhancing engagement were identified.
These were leadership from the top to promote engagement, engaging managers
to apply engagement, integrity, which reflects the values of consistent application of
engagement and voice, which is a mechanism to involve and communicate with
employees. The follow-up Engage for Success movement in the UK, led by David
MacLeod and Nita Clarke, the joint authors of the initial report, has energetically
promoted engagement. They have done this through conferences, setting up networks,
setting up and populating a web page and supporting research. A large number of
case studies of organizations that claim to have successfully applied engagement have
been presented and publicized. As Sparrow (2014) has argued, they are involved in
presenting what he describes as a strategic narrative with the main aim of marketing
engagement to important stakeholders.
Despite the apparent success of organizational employee engagement in attracting
considerable attention and despite the enthusiastic marketing by both the Engage for
Success team and the consultancies who offer to undertake engagement surveys, there
are a range of fundamental problems with this approach to engagement that need to be
addressed if it is to have the impact that its advocates hope to see. Below we outline
some of these as a basis for a policy agenda designed to take the topic forward.
A first problem for organizational engagement is establishing what it is.
The Gallup-based definition offered by Harter et al (2002) is an extension of job satisfaction.
The many definitions offered to the MacLeod Review range widely but are often highly
subjective and lack any basis for measurement or action. One of the most common
was, in effect a non-definition: you know it when you see it (MacLeod and Clarke,
2009, p. 7). One of the more interesting definitions has been provided by the UK
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the professional body for
HR managers. They suggested that employee engagement is a combination of
commitment to the organisation and its values and a willingness to help out colleagues
(organisational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply
motivation. Engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be required
as part of the employment contract (CIPD 2012). This is distinctly different from
many other definitions in that it implies that engagement is a combination of two
established and widely researched topics on which there is extensive evidence about
antecedents and consequences. It also emphasizes the importance of exchange.
One note of caution is that it combines what Macey and Schneider describe as a state
concept (commitment) and a behaviour (organizational citizenship). This is largely
avoided in the definition the MacLeod Review eventually agreed upon which defines
engagement as a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are
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A sixth problem with organizational engagement is that it is unclear what you need
to do to enhance engagement. For many organizations, one suspects that doing
engagement means employing a consultant to conduct an attitude survey and then
considering the implications of some form of benchmarking of the results. The
MacLeod Report offered four main approaches to leveraging engagement, the implicit
assumption being that all four needed to be addressed. These were briefly outlined
above and they address leadership, management, values and voice. Leadership and
values should be closely integrated to create a climate for engagement while line
managers have to practice engagement and voice provides an opportunity for
employees to comment on and get involved in engagement processes. There is
a general coherence to this approach but it is presented, perhaps inevitably, at a level of
generality where it omits most of the specifics of what the policies and practices
to promote engagement look like. It therefore provides no operational guidance.
Furthermore, closer inspection suggests that these areas of activity might be viewed
rather superficially in organizations. For example the Engage for Success Task Force
supported two studies exploring the role of voice (IPA/Tomorrows Company, 2012a, b).
These revealed that the predominant form of voice was downward communication
and there was generally very limited scope for any form of upward influence (see
Guest, 2014, for a fuller account). In summary, it is not clear what organizations need to
do to promote engagement.
A final concern about organizational employee engagement is its almost total neglect
of the research on work engagement. Although work engagement research is typically
conducted at the individual level and therefore cannot convincingly be linked to financial
outcomes, the evidence cited previously shows consistent associations with task
and contextual performance which are likely to be antecedents of employee-based
performance improvement at the organizational level. Unlike organizational
engagement, there are clear definitions, established measures, strong underlying
theory, clear evidence about antecedents and consequences and a strong evidence base
that demonstrates mutual gains for the organization and its employees. In the context
of the increasing advocacy of an evidence-based approach to policy (Rousseau, 2102),
it is both puzzling and disappointing that this strong evidence is largely ignored by
organizations. Possible explanations include the failure of the academic voice to be heard
above the voices of consultants, the lack of interest in individual-level issues, the absence
of any attempt to link work engagement to financial outcomes and a disinterest in
evidence. Whatever the reasons, a central argument of this paper has been that employee
engagement lives in two very different worlds, with different discourses and these
separate existences are a loss to both engagement communities but more particularly to
those who would wish to promote organizational employee engagement.
Towards an agenda for more effective organizational employee engagement
Given all the problems with organizational engagement, one recommendation might
be to give up on it. But the interest in the general topic and the anxieties about an
engagement deficit and the need to improve productivity and competitiveness
in economies such as the UK suggest that it may be better to create an agenda to
promote a more effective form of organizational engagement. The final main section
of this paper therefore presents the outline of a policy agenda for the promotion of
engagement. Any such agenda will need to adopt a multi-level approach. It can also
build on some of the antecedents of work engagement since Saks (2006) among others
has suggested there is an overlaps between antecedents of work and organizational
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Select staff with a propensity for engagement. If we accept that there are likely
to be individual differences in the propensity to become engaged, then it is
sensible to use engagement propensity as a selection criterion. This
might mean the use of personality measures such a conscientiousness,
proactivity and optimism. These have all been associated with work
engagement and this is likely to be an important conduit to organizational
engagement, so it is sensible to give some weight to these variables.
(2)
Train staff for engagement. The values of the organization, if they genuinely
support engagement, should be promoted in a variety of ways. They should be
communicated as part of realistic job previews for potential staff and reinforced
in the socialization of newly appointed staff. Efforts should also be made to
promote self-efficacy through careful feedback, guidance and coaching since
this has been demonstrated to be a strong antecedent of work engagement.
(3)
Invest in human capital and employability. Training will also need to ensure
that employees possess the competence to display engaged behaviour. This
will require an investment in human capital and skill enhancement. This also
gives confidence to employees by helping to ensure that they have marketable
skills and will enhance the sense of reciprocity encouraging employees to give
something back to the organization.
(4)
than that implied by the job demands resources theory. Particular emphasis
needs to be placed on skill utilization and opportunities for learning. This will
again bring benefits to employees, providing for an element of exchange.
It will be important to avoid work overload, given the risk that successful
work engagement results in the kind of absorption that reflects a form of
over-commitment, and this may extend to organizational engagement.
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(6)
Reward and promote managers using their ability to engage employees as a key
criterion. A key challenge in ensuring engagement is the active enactment
of engagement activities by line managers. In effect this means that they
need to be at least as much employee-centred as task-centred. One way of
ensuring this is to ensure that evidence of active support for engagement,
is a criterion for promotion and, as part of a balanced scorecard, when
rewarding managers.
(7)
(8)
(9)
Create a context that reinforces job security and flexible working. Employees are
more likely to display attitudes and behaviour associated with engagement if
they can do so within a safe environment with respect to their future
employment and in a context where there is a positive management approach to
providing the kind of flexibility with respect to issues such as part-time working
that attract a positive reciprocal response from employees.
(10)
It is no accident that the list above bears considerable similarities to high commitment
or high involvement models of HRM (Boxall and Macky, 2009). This is because the core
features of engagement and the outcomes sought overlap to a considerable extent with
this approach to HRM. There is, of course, a considerable body of evidence showing an
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