Influence of Organizational Culture on Employee Engagement free essay sample

Review of literature The literature on employee engagement builds on earlier research and discussion on issues of commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), but means more than what these terms encapsulate. The defining distinction is that employee engagement is a two-way interaction between the employee and the employer, whereas the earlier focus tended to view the issues from only the employee’s point of view. Definitions of engagement ,or characteristics of an engaged workforce, focus on motivation, satisfaction ,commitment , finding meaning at work, pride and advocacy of the organization (in terms of advocating/recommending either the products or services of the organization, or as a place to work ). additionally , having some connection to the organization’s overall strategy and objectives and both wanting and being able to work to achieve them, are key elements of engagement. A recurring theme in the literature is the idea that engagement involves workers ‘going the extra mile’ , and exerting discretionary effort over what is normally expected. We will write a custom essay sample on Influence of Organizational Culture on Employee Engagement or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page An organization’s productivity is measured not in terms of employee satisfaction but in terms of employee engagement . employees are said to be engaged when they show a positive attitude towards the engagement and express a commitment to remain with the organization. It is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards the organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of the business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. Employee engagement 1. csikszentmihalyi (1975) studied the effect of engagement in organizational behavior is the notion of flow. He defines ‘flow’ as the holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement. Flow ii the state in which there is little distinction between the self and environment . when individuals are in flow state little conscious control is necessary for their actions. Employee engagement is thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its value. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement which requires a two way relationship between employer and employee. Thus employee engagement is a barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization. 2. khan (1990) studied the effect of Engagement at work where as the engagement people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances. He described employee engagement in his psychological literature as different from other employee role constructs such as job involvement , commitment or intrinsic motivation, asserting that it focused on how psychological experiences of work shape the process of people presenting and absenting themselves during task performances. Khan argued that engagement was a multidimensional construct in that employees could be emotionally, cognitively or physically engaged. For psychological engagement and organizational behaviors, the two major dimensions were emotional and cognitive engagement . mployees could be engaged on one dimension and not the other. The more engaged an employee was on each dimension, the higher his/her overall personal engagement. Khan asserted that employees experienced dimensions of personal engagement or disengagement during daily tasks. Engagement occurred when one was cognitively vigilant and/or emotionally connected to others. Disengaged employees uncoupled them selves from roles and withdrew cognitively and emotionally. They displayed incomplete role performances and were effortless, automatic or robotic. 3. Gallup (1999) study consist on more than 30 years of in-depth behavioral economic research involving more than 17 million employees. This research has appeared in prestigious business and scientific publications, including the journal of Applied Psychology and Harvard Business Review; first, break all the rules and 12: The Elements of Great Managing. Through rigorous research, they have identified 12 core elements – the Q12 – that link powerfully to key business outcomes. These 12 statement emerged as those that best predict employee and workgroup performance. Gallup’s latest meta-analysis (an analysis of data from more than 152 organizations) shows dramatic differences between top- and bottom –quartile workgroups on key business outcomes. Beyond the significant differences engaged workgroups show in productivity, profitability, safety incidents , and absenteeism versus disengaged workgroups we have proven that engaged organizations have 3. 9 times the earnings per share (EPS) growth rate compared to organizations with lower engagement in their same industry. The Gallup great workplace Awards was create to recognize companies with an extraordinary ability to create a engaged workplace culture . organizations can apply each year for this award based on the criteria such as organization size , minimum response rate and minimum results. 4. Aaron Sorensen in Perspectives (2007) examined the prediction of engagement, describe a methodology for measured it and share an approach for using engagement data to make workforce investments that ultimately increased productivity and derived business results. It draws on information collected as part of Sibsons 2006 Rewards of WorkSM (ROW) Study of over 1,200 American workers1, and provides important insights into the drivers of engagement and how organizations might improve engagement levels in ways that bring a significant return on investment. 5. Medlin, W Green (2009) investigated the relationships among goal setting, employee engagement, workplace optimism, and individual performance constructs. Goal setting is hypothesized as positively impacting employee engagement, employee engagement as positively impacting workplace optimism, and workplace optimism as positively impacting individual performance. Design/methodology/approach Data collected from a sample of 426 full- and part-time employees are analyzed following a structural equation modeling methodology. Findings The measurement and structural models fit the data relatively well. Goal setting positively impacts employee engagement, employee engagement positively optimism . Youssef Luthans (2007) examined the effects of hope, optimism, and resilience had in the workplace on 40 employees’ job performance, job satisfaction, work happiness, and organizational commitment. Hope and resilience had a more direct affect on organizational commitment whereas hope had a greater impact on performance. Hope allows employees to be better at created more realistic plans for completed task so as not to focus on the failure that accompanies an incomplete task. Optimism strengthens the employee’s resilience to break through barriers and causes the employee to build social support and other strengths to overcome obstacle he or she may encounter. 2. Arakawa and Greenberg(2007) investigated whether teams are more engaged and productive when led by an optimistic manager. Furthermore, they hypothesised that optimistic managers embody positive leadership-employing a strengths-based approach, maintaining a positive perspective, and frequently providing recognition and encouragement-which increases the engagement and productivity of their employees. The study used a cross-sectional survey design at two time points. The researchers developed a survey to measure this concept of positive leadership. In addition, two measures were used: the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) to measure optimism and the Gallup Organizations Q? to measure engagement. In a cross-sectional study of 86 employees and 17 managers in an Information Technology (IT) organization, positive leadership correlated with employee optimism, engagement, and project performance. When we looked at a subset of this data prospectively, with 39 employees and 14 managers, manager optimism predicted project performance. Our data support the claim that positive leadership is correlated with employee engagement and performance, and further extends the importance of optimism in the workplace. Coaching implications are also discussed, in terms of exploring how coaching psychologists can work with executives to develop their managerial style. 3. Medlin, Green (2009) investigated the relationships among goal setting, employee engagement, workplace optimism, and individual performance constructs. Goal setting is hypothesized as positively impacting employee engagement, employee engagement as positively impacting workplace optimism, and workplace optimism as positively impacting individual performance. Data collected from a sample of 426 full- and part-time employees are analyzed following a structural equation modeling methodology. The measurement and structural models fit the data relatively well. Goal setting positively impacts employee engagement, employee engagement positively impacts optimism, and optimism positively impacts individual performance, as hypothesized. Research limitations/implications Although data are collected from a relatively diverse group of respondents, the ability to generalize the findings is limited because the results are derived from a non-random sample. All measures are based on the perceptions of the respondents. Job performance is reported by each respondent may not reflect the supervisors performance rating and is not necessarily consistent with objective performance indicators such as sales generated by a marketing employee. Practical implications Results indicate that formal, structured goal setting processes lead to higher levels of employee engagement, that higher levels of engagement lead to improved workplace optimism, and that improved optimism in turn leads to higher levels of individual performance. Originality/value The paper provides empirical support for the implementation of management programs that foster goal setting, employee engagement, and workplace optimism for the purpose of enhancing the performance levels of individual employees. 4. Geers , Lassiter and Wellman (2009) this study is to investigated the circumstances under which a personality variable, namely dispositional optimism, is associated with successful goal engagement and attainment. Dispositional optimism refers to a generalized positive outcome expectancy (Scheier Carver, 1985). A great deal of research on dispositional optimism stems from the behavioral self-regulation model (Carver Scheier , 1981, 1998), which proposes that goal-directed action is guided by a series of negative feedback loops.