Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Employee engagement is defined as the involvement with and enthusiasm for work. Engaged employees are both cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace. Engaged employees use their discretionary effort to help their organization improve through higher productivity greater efficiency and innovation, and more meaningful customer impact, leading to higher profitability Disengaged employees withhold effort or withdraw from the organization, thus jeopardizing the organization's future through higher absenteeism, higher turnover rates, more theft or merchandise shrinkage, and more accidents on the job. The conditions that lead to employee engagement are most salient at a local level, influenced substantially by the employee's direct manager, coworkers, and their daily interactions and experiences. The emergence of the employee engagement concept can best be understood through the history and application of job attitude research. The study of job attitudes has pervaded management science for decades, resulting in thousands of research studies, articles, and publications. A large portion of research has centered on the relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, productivity, and turnover within organizations. Job satisfaction describes how an individual feels about his or her overall job or appraises various aspects of the job. Organizational ... log in or subscribe to read full text