EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION: THE MEDIATING

ROLE OF CREATIVITY

INTRODUCTION

The concept of employee engagement was developed by Kahn (1990) through ethnographic
data collected in an architectural firm and summer camp. He defined the employee engagement
as ‘the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people
employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role
performances”. On the other hand, Macey and Schneider (2008) presented a comprehensive
analysis of all elements that have been employed to define engagement. Their conceptual
framework for understanding employee engagement includes: (1) trait engagement (e.g.,
individual personality traits); (2) work involvement (e.g., satisfaction, involvement,
empowerment); and (3) organisational citizenship (e.g., extra-role behavior, proactivity, role
expansion). Hence, they have presented all the critical concepts that have been associated with
engagement construct.

Researches on employee engagement have led to a growing understanding of the experience

of the phenomenon (Macey and Schneider 2008; Shuck and Reio 2013), and the expected
outcomes of highly engaged employees (Rich et al. 2010). The Gallop organisation, for
instance, conducted a study on employee engagement in the organisations, found that employee
engagement was significantly associated with performance in a variety of areas, including
increased satisfaction, profitability and productivity, and reduced employee turnover. Most
importantly, the employee engagement was substantial construct (Konard, 2006). In a broader
sense, job satisfaction refers to the attitudes and feelings that people have about the work and
their environment. The terms in literature ‘job satisfaction’, ‘motivation’ and ‘commitment’
are generally being replaced now in business by ‘engagement’ because it appears to have more
‘descriptive force’ and ‘face validity’ (Reilly and Brown, 2008). The employee engagement
that has the profound influence on employee job satisfaction is the satisfaction of the employee
towards the appreciation they receive from their seniors or the upper management, recognition
works as an intrinsic motivator which enhances not only employee’s involvement and
orientation towards the work but also gives the feel to be part of the organisation.
Gichohi (2014), in their recent study on employee engagement and their impact on the
creativity and innovation, found that employee engagement considered a critical antecedent
role to creativity and innovation at the workplace. In line, a study conducted by Harter, Schmidt
and Hayes (2002) also found that employee engagement was a construct that fosters positive
affect in individuals at work, which, in turn, related to creativity. To counteract, Ahmetoglu,
Harding, Akhtar, and Chamorro-Premuzic (2015) investigated the effect of perfectionism,
employee engagement, and entrepreneurial potential as predictors of creative achievement.
They found no significant association between employee engagement and creative outcomes.

Although employee engagement is a critically important concept for researchers and

practitioners, however, there is no notable study that directly links employee engagement to
creativity and other business outcomes (Gichohi, 2014). Nevertheless, earlier researchers also
have provided their insights on why employers fail to increase engagement and provided
possible opinions on what influences employees to engage. A survey of employees by the
University of Bath, UK found that only about one-third of employees said they are actively
engaged at work and two-third UK employees surveyed feel they have “more to offer” at work
(Galagan, 2015). The discussion on engagement described above is interesting but not
conclusive to make any inference, particularly around whether engagement will cause better
performance or better performance might lead to high engagement. Hence, this study makes an
attempt to investigate the relationships between employee engagement and job performance,
employee engagement and creativity and creativity and job performance.
LITERATURE REVIEW

Employee Engagment and Job Performance

Employee Engagment and Creativity

REFERENCES

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