5ENG Assignment Example
Introduction
Employee engagement is a HR practice that has gained the attention of scholars in the recent past, thus the development of various scholarly articles to explain the different dimensions of employee engagement organisations should be keen on identifying with the employee engagements HR practices with the aim of ensuring that they take into consideration the important issues reviewed by different researchers on the same issue. This report will provide a review of different research articles focusing on employee engagement. The information obtained from the review will be used as reference to help the CEO and the senior management in the organisations to improve on how they can enhance engagement of the employees.
Conceptualising and measuring employee engagement by Joubert and Roodt (2019)
Joubert and Roodt (2019) in conceptualising the issue of employee engagement wanted to explain how employees, through the pull and push factors identify with the individual, team, and organisational performances. These are the factors that relate to the demands and the resources needed by the employees while carrying out their different roles and responsibilities in the organisation. The authors aimed at explaining how the employees, performances are determined with the levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. From this perspective, the authors explain the need for the employees to go beyond the demands and the resources to promote higher levels of engagement.
Further explanations by the authors relate with the evaluation of the role theory as well as the role identity theory. The theory suggest that employees working in an organisation carry out different roles and each of those roles have different push and pull factors, which are unique to the responsibilities that should be achieved. Although not much research has on the same with regard to employee engagement, the authors get to evaluate how to promote the demands and resources to enhance team and management engagements.
Joubert and Roodt (2019) used cross sectional survey to conduct the research, and thus quantitative data research method was used. The authors developed different variables that the research participants would be part of when answering the research questions. The variables are then analysed quantitatively. The research participants were among the employees who carry out different roles in the organisation, and more specifically, the researchers gave more attention to the management executives, senior managers, and supervisors. The different roles that the participants would e involved in are related to the participant working as an individual, the participant working as a member of a team in the organisation, and the same participant working in in a supervisory, managerial, or executive level.
The results from the research confirmed that individual engagement is influenced by the full factors related to the individual social support, autonomy and feedback. The team engagement is influenced by the aspects of teamwork promotion, group efficacy, burnout at the team level, as well as team conflict. The aspects of self-efficacy, support of the organisation, management workload, and lack of the advanced opportunities are the factors that influence managerial engagement. From the results in the study, the aspect of employee engagement operates from the multi-level model perspective. Clearly, the individual, team, and managerial types of engagements are related to each other, meaning that they cannot be independent on their own.
The research is significant in helping the CEO and the senior management within the organisation to evaluate the push and pull factors that associate with the demands and resources that enhance improved levels of engagements. This means that the CEO has to consider how to effectively integrate the individual employees who also work as team members and managers in the organisation. This makes it easier for such employees, though working in different organisational roles, to actively become part of the process to which they get satisfied as they work, and they also become engaged. Thus, the pull and push factors identified to create individual engagement, team engagement, and management engagement should all be considered by the HR to ensure that they motivate the employees to become engaged in the workplace.
Effect of high performance HR practices on knowledge sharing behaviour: the mediating role of employee engagement by Karim and Majid (2017)
In determining the relationships between the knowledge sharing behaviours in higher education institutions and the practices in HR, Karim and Majid (2017) introduced the concept of employee engagement as one that improves that specific relationship. The authors define employee engagement as the aspect that requires an individual to be part of the process to which they get to connect with other people as well as with the work that they perform. This is an aspect that contributes to higher performance of the individuals, thus impacting positive organisational performances as well. In promoting employee engagement, the HR has to focus on making sure that all the employees are dedicated to what they do and how they interact with the others. The aspect of dedication reflects on the willingness of the employees to become engaged, the energy put in by the employees to enhance achievement of the goals and objectives within the organisation, and the mental resilience seen among the engaged persons. The employees also have to be absorbed, meaning that they have to be fully engrossed with the work and put their concentration of making ends meet with all the possible efforts they can make.
With the main purpose of the research being to find out how knowledge sharing can be enhanced within organisations, Karim and Majid (2017) argue that the HR has a big role in influencing the attitudes and perceptions of the people they work with. This associates with the development of positive relationships among the people, which then enhances effectiveness in knowledge sharing. Engaged employees become committed to the organisational roles and responsibilities. The HR has to specifically make an effort to become committed to the committed and engaged personnel, with the aim of ensuring that they positively impact their involvement in the work place. The possibility of having the engaged employees get highly involved in knowledge sharing is very high. This is in reference to the idea of Karim and Majid (2017) who argue that the engaged employees are dedicated employees, and they are also enthusiastic thus can easily share their expertise with their colleagues. This is an aspect that promotes knowledge sharing among the employees,
The researchers in carrying out the study focused on reviewing literature or review of secondary sources to explain the role of the HR in influencing positive forms of knowledge sharing behaviours. The conclusions made by the authors with regard to answering the research questions is that the HR in promoting employee engagement promotes greatly the relationships of the HR practices and the aspects of knowledge sharing. This means that through the promotion of employee engagement concept among the employees, the individuals get to associate with positive relationships that become part of the process to which they can easily share ideas and enhance growth of the high education institutions.
Although the research is focused on enhancing growth of the higher education institutions, the management in any other institution may involve the HR in developing alternatives that are part of the process to which the employees become more engaged. Therefore, the HR has to play a big part in ensuring that the employees become dedicated to the work they do, and this will not only promote knowledge sharing, but also promote interactions in all work dimensions in the organisations. In this perspective, the CEO of the organisation should identify the means through which the HR would support the employees and ensure that their attitudes and perceptions are changed, and in turn relate to improved natures of employee engagements.
Factors affecting employee engagement by Chandani et al. (2016)
In a review paper to explain the factors that affect employee engagement, Chandani et al. (2016) seeks to explain why organisations should consider implementing the employee engagement drivers. These drivers should be considered priorities by the organisation leaders, more especially because the engagement has been found to have positive influences and impacts to other issues among the employees. The authors define employee engagement in terms of enthusiasm that the employees use to focus on promoting organisational success.
From the literature review, the authors identified the main factors that affect employee engagement. One of the factors identified is related to employee career development. Learning to improve skills, knowledge, and capabilities is more common among the engaged employees. Organisations that focus on learning and development to improve the skills of the employees and promote their careers are likely to relate with the aspect of employee engagement and employee retention as well. Another important factor is the management of talent, which the authors identify to be part of the process to which an engagement culture is developed within the organisation. Talent management associate with the achievement of the future vision, and this requires the HR to get involved in proper planning to ensure that all variations are well dealt with.
The leaders play a big role in determining the nature of employee engagement. Leaders who give appraisals to their employees and whose attention is focused on supporting the employees often support engaged employees. Engaged employees often require the support of people who can mentor them and help them achieve their vision. Leaders who are also committed often have their subordinates become committed to the organisation they work for as well. These are the leadership aspects that influence the levels of engagements within the organisations. Another factor is related to the organisation commitment to the company values and policies. The organisations that are committed to these have higher levels of engagements among their employees, who are the support needed in meeting the organisational objectives.
Another important factor that was determined to have an influence on employee engagement is the treatment of the employees. Employees who are treated with respect relate with high levels of engagements. Thus, the attitude of the management or the HR towards the employees determines how willing the employees would become committed to working with the managers and for the organisation. The standards that determine the ethical behaviours of the employees are another factor that influences the aspect of employee engagement. The manners in which the employees relate with other stakeholders determine significantly how the employee engagement aspects would be enhanced. Thus, it becomes important for organisations to relate with the development of positive citizenship behaviours to enhance high levels of engagements. Empowerment is also a factor that the authors identified would have an influence on employee engagement. When employees are given the opportunity to express their views and get involved in the decision making process, they become engaged to the organisation.
Performance appraisal is another factor that has an influence on employee engagement. The management has to be careful in determining how they appraise their employees for the work that they perform. Failure to give appraisals may result to low levels of engagements. This goes hand in hand with the pay and benefits factor. With good and improves payment systems, employees would feel satisfied with what they have been compensated with. This in turn influences the engagement levels, as well as development of strong relationships between the employees and the employers. Ensuring that the employees work in healthy and safe conditions is also an identified factor that influences employee engagement. The extent to which the employee feel satisfied while working improves the nature of self-efficacy and improves the focus of the employees on the job thus promoting employee engagement. Another important factor is the support given to the families of the employees. Organisations that give support to employee families have more engaged employees. The nature of the job that the employees work in determines how engaged they would become.
Emotional factors also determine how the employees would become engaged to the organisation they work for. This relates with the psychological interventions that influence the emotions. The issue of productivity also determines employee engagements, especially because the tasks have to be in line with the organisational objectives to enhance productivity. Personality factors also determine the influences of employee engagements. These associate with the perception of the employees on the job, on the relationships that they have with their seniors and subordinates, and their commitment to the job.
The CEO should relate with all the identified factors so as to come up with the best engagement drivers that support the employees. Clearly, giving support to the employees from all angles of employment improves their commitment to the organisation, and this improves the levels of engagements.
Stages of the research process
The research process starts with the identification of a research problem, to which a research area is consider for study. This step involves formulating research objectives for the study and determining the significance of the research. The second step is the review of literature to evaluate what other researches relate to in addressing the research problem. This helps the researcher clarify what the problem is. The third step is the carrying out of the research methodology. This involves designing the research and identifying the population for the study. The instruments used to collect data from the respondents are also identified in this step. The fourth step in the research process is the collection of data and development of the research data findings. The data is analysed and this leads to the final step where conclusions are made and recommendations developed to help identify with the possible solutions to solve the research problem.
Comparing survey research and focus groups
Survey research method involves having the researcher develop questionnaires that are given to the respondents to answer. The questions may be open-ended or closed ended. Focus group discussions on the other hand involve having the researcher engage in discussions with respondents on evaluation of certain research topics. Advantage of survey research is that the researcher gets responses from high number of respondents who represent that population. It does not require the researcher to observe the research participants as they answer the questions, and it is more convenient. The disadvantage of survey research is that it is expensive compared to focus group research. Advantage of focus group discussion is that the researcher saves time and money in the research process compared to survey research. The researcher gets a wide range of information from the respondents, and when need be; the researcher may seek for clarification from the respondents.
Conclusion
Improving the employee practice in the business is an important aspect that promotes interactions and connections among all the organisational stakeholders. This also impact the performance and productivity of the firm. Organisational managers should consider identifying with the right factors that promote engagement, and consider implementing those factors to improve levels of engagements. The management should realise that failure to consider implementing the right drivers to engagement may result to employees experiencing instances of dissatisfaction. This also prevents the employees from being committed to the organisational work, making it difficult for the organisational objectives to be achieved. Having the CEO improve on the employee engagement HR practice would result to development of changes that would have positive impact to the overall functions and operations in the organisation.
References:
Chandani, A., Mehta, M., Mall, A., & Khokhar, V. (2016). Employee engagement: A review paper on factors affecting employee engagement. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(15), 1-7.
Joubert, M., & Roodt, G. (2019). Conceptualising and measuring employee engagement as a role-related, multi-level construct. Acta Commercii, 19(1), 1-17.
Karim, D. N., & Majid, A. H. A. (2017). The effect of high performance HR practices on knowledge sharing behavior: the mediating role of employee engagement. International Postgraduate Business Journal, 9(2), 74-88.
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