The Role of Employee Engagement in the Facilitation of Business Purposes - Coursework Example

? Employee Engagement Table of Contents Introduction 3 2. Employee engagement, role in the facilitation of business purposes 3 3. Empirical and philosophical connections between employee engagement, managerial leadership, strategic aspirations and HR strategies focused on infrastructure maintenance and the development of HRM competitive differentiators 7 4. Presentation of the critical contribution of employee engagement as a route to strategic, reputational and competitive excellence within a high-performance working environment. 9 5. Analysis of the relationships, causal or correlational, between levels of employee engagement and organisational performance, measured by both process efficiencies and corporate outcomes. 10 6. Conclusion 12 References 1. Introduction The involvement of the specific organization in a New Global HR programme should be checked by referring primarily to the relevant evidence, meaning the literature related to this issue but also the findings of the empirical research. At the next level, the potentials of the firm to perform well in such project would be evaluated by reviewing the results of similar business projects, i.e. other projects of similar characteristics in which the firm participated, directly or indirectly. The experience of the firm’s managers in HR management plans will be also taken into consideration. It should be noted that the development of secure assumptions regarding the potential performance of the firm in such project would be rather impossible. Only estimations can be made regarding the potentials of the firm for further growth through the specific project. On the other hand, the fact that the firm has successfully entered the global market, through its subsidiaries in India and Taiwan cannot be ignored. The needs of the firm for stabilization in the international marketplace have to be taken into account for deciding whether the engagement in such plan could result to benefits or to losses for the organization. The various implications of the particular plan will be presented and evaluated using the relevant literature. Assumptions are made based on the evidence gathered on the issues under discussion. 2. Employee engagement, role in the facilitation of business purposes In order to understand the role of employee engagement within the organization, especially regarding the facilitation of the business purposes, it would be necessary to refer primarily to the context of employee engagement, i.e. its elements and its mission. The potential forms of employee engagement are presented below; based on the form of employee engagement chosen, a relevant assumption can be produced regarding the role of employee engagement in the facilitation of business purposes. Furthermore, this view will be used in order to decide whether the suggested business plan is expected to perform well – based on its alignment with the needs of the organization but also of the employees, as reflected in their engagement to the organization. In accordance with the literature published on the specific subject, employee engagement is a rather complex concept, which is quite important for the success of business projects. However, in many cases, it is ignored being considered as having just a secondary role in daily business operations. In accordance with Federman (2009) there are four levels of employee engagement: a) at the first level, no attention is given to employee engagement; the needs of the employee are ignored. A high percentage of modern organizations belong to the specific category, about 27%, as Federman (2009, p.2) notes, b) at the second level, employee engagement is considered as just an event. In the context of this thought, the following assumption is developed regarding the employee engagement: employee engagement can be included in the context of an organizational restructuring, as the result of an important change in the organization, for example ‘the change of its president’ (Federman 2009, p.2); however it could not be fully implemented. This means that, in this phase, the introduction of certain measures in order to support employee engagement is possible. However, these measures are expected to be limited, in terms of the changes they implement and of non particular importance, meaning that not only the number of the changes is limited but also their context, for example, the increase of employees’ rewarding for a particular, limited, period of time aiming to increase their motivation. Such plan could be effectively temporary but would not result to permanent and important benefits for the organization. The level of employee engagement in the firm would not be improved; c) at the next, the third level, employee engagement is considered to be a process; in the context of this concept, in accordance with Federman (2009, p.4) emphasis is given on the importance of people who have the key role in the successful completion of the business plans. The above thought on employee engagement can be characterized as well justified being responding to the needs of most employees. It is perhaps for this reason that this view on employee engagement has been adopted by many organizations, about 40%(Federman 2009, p.4); d) there is also another view on employee engagement: the view that employee engagement is a strategy. In the above case, employee engagement is treated completely differently: the measures on employee engagement are not discussed between the employee and the supervisor but rather at executive level. Moreover, employee engagement is considered to be included among the organizational strategies, for instance, finance and marketing (Federman 2009, p.5). This means that specific organizational resources will be used for promoting employee engagement. Another implication of this view is that executives are expected to be directly involved in the implementation and monitoring of employee engagement plans (Federman 2009, p.5). The specific view on employee engagement is the most appropriate for firms operating in modern market – taking into consideration the increased competition and the increase of market demands internationally. However, this view on employee engagement is difficult to be promoted in practice since it requires the re-structuring of organizational processes by adding another one key organizational department that will focus specifically on the promotion of employee engagement. Apart from the technical difficulties of this view, as explained above, the incorporation of employee engagement within the key organizational strategies would have another implication: operational costs would be significantly increased, leading to inter-organizational conflicts. Furthermore, even if employee engagement would be considered as a strategy, the ability of the firm’s employees to respond to the needs of this strategy would have to be reviewed. Because the rest of the organizational sectors, for instance marketing or finance, have been already extensively studied in the literature and the empirical research they are easier to be monitored and managed. In case of employee engagement, the presence of which in the literature is limited, there is no such support. Thus, the firm’s employees who will work on the promotion of employee engagement as a strategy will have to face many difficulties and challenges with no clear perspectives for successful handing of the potential crises. In the particular organization, employee engagement is not developed as a strategy, at least not yet. So there is no need for extensive organizational initiatives on employee engagement. However, in this organization, employee engagement is developed at the level of a process, as described above. In this context, employee engagement could facilitate the business purposes in the following ways: a) each employee would contribute to the realization of the global HR plan at the level of his/ her experiences and background, suggesting plans and initiatives that are feasible and necessary in accordance with his/ her personal experience and knowledge, b) employees of each particular branch would cooperate and develop collective projects for the promotion of the firm’s plan in the specific branch. 3. Empirical and philosophical connections between employee engagement, managerial leadership, strategic aspirations and HR strategies focused on infrastructure maintenance and the development of HRM competitive differentiators Employee engagement is a key part of the organizational strategy. In accordance with the position of employee engagement within the organization, as explained above, different perceptions can be developed regarding the connection of employee engagement with other elements of the organization, such as the managerial leadership, the strategic aspirations and the HR strategies focused on infrastructure maintenance. As for the managerial leadership, employee engagement is related in the following way: the development of employee engagement across the organization is designed, promoted and monitored by the leader (Macey et al. 2009, p.14). Strategic aspirations can be also related to the employee engagement at the following point: employees, who have aspirations of improving their position within the organization, are most likely to be highly engaged to the organization. However, there is also another perspective on the above phenomenon: employees who have aspirations that cannot be met by their organization will not be engaged to their organization. They may choose to keep their position in the organization, under the pressure of the job marketplace turbulences, but they will not be engaged to the organization. Managers could face this problem as follows: measures should be introduced for the increase of motivation of firm’s employees in all organizational departments. In this way, equality will be promoted while, at the same time, incentives will be given to the employees in order to improve their position in their organization (Martin et al. 2006). Furthermore, employee engagement could be related to the HR strategies focused on infrastructure maintenance and the development of HRM competitive differentiators (Johnson 2004). The above relationship could be developed in the following context, as highlighted in the relevant literature: when HR strategies focusing on infrastructure maintenance need to be implemented, then it is necessary that the following terms are met: the employees participated in the relevant initiatives would be highly motivated; these employees should be also appropriately skilled (Heska 2007). On the other hand, employees who are engaged to the organization are expected to use all their skills for the achievement of the organizational plans. Moreover, these employees are likely to try to improve their skills – aiming to support more effectively the projects of their organization. From this point of view, employees who are engaged to the organization would perform more effectively to the HR strategies focusing on infrastructure maintenance. On the other hand, when HRM competitive differentiators are to be introduced, then employee engagement should be taken into consideration in the following context: the increase of competitiveness of an organization would require the increase of its employees’ performance (Armstrong et al 2006). Employee engagement should be addressed before the development of competitiveness of the organization is attempted (Albrecht 2010). In any case, if the employee engagement within the organization is low, then there are few chances for the success of organizational initiatives. Therefore, the development of the firm’s performance above its rivals would not be achieved. In the specific organization, the relationship between employee engagement and the specific organizational elements, as described above, would have the following implications: the leader of the organization should be informed on the level of employee engagement in the organization, in order to decide whether efforts have to be made for supporting employee engagement within one or more organizational department. Furthermore, the firm’s Global HR programme should be reviewed aiming to ensure that it addresses employee engagement as a factor influencing the organization’s competitiveness. 4. Presentation of the critical contribution of employee engagement as a route to strategic, reputational and competitive excellence within a high-performance working environment. The role of employee engagement within the organization is continuously improved. This fact is highlighted in the study of Cook (2008). The above researcher focuses on the importance of employee engagement as a concept revealing not just the level of commitment of the employee to the organization but, also, the level at which employee is satisfied within the particular organization. It is for this reason that in many organizations, ‘the term employee satisfaction has been replaced by the term employee engagement’ (Cook 2008, p.24). In order to understand the potential use of employee engagement as a route to strategic, reputational and competitive excellence, it is necessary to present the aspects of employee engagement within an organization, as presented in the literature. In a research developed by Gallup Consulting it was proved that employee engagement is linked with a series of organizational elements, such as: ‘a) the leadership, b) the engagement of customers and c) the real profit increase’ (Martin et al. 2006, p.148). On the other hand, in accordance with the ‘4 As model of human capital development’ (Reilly et al. 2006, p.66), employee engagement is one of the four key elements of a successful human capital development plan – along with skills, succession and job design (Reilly et al. 2006 p.66). Moreover, Turner (2003) noted that the employee engagement can be the ‘key differentiator for success’ (Turner 2003, p.135) for a particular organization, meaning that employee engagement would be one of the key requirements for the increase of a firm’s competitiveness in the local or the global market. Armstrong et al. (2006) also emphasized on the importance of employee engagement for the increase of the firm’s reputation within its market. This target, in accordance with Armstrong et al. (2006, p.65) is achieved through the following strategy: employee motivation and employee engagement is highly promoted within a particular organization; then, employee satisfaction is also expected to be increased, contributing to the increase of the firm’s reputation in its market, as a firm supporting the personal development of its employees. 5. Analysis of the relationships, causal or correlational, between levels of employee engagement and organisational performance, measured by both process efficiencies and corporate outcomes. As explained above, employee engagement can be involved in all phases of organizational projects. Moreover, it has been made clear that employee engagement has a key role in the improvement of organizational performance, even at different levels. In the context of process efficiencies and corporate outcomes, a particular relationship could be developed between the employee engagement and the organizational performance. This relationship would be based on the theoretical context of employee engagement developed by Federman (2009, in section 2 above) and could be described as follows: a) in organizations where no attention is given to employee engagement, its contribution to the improvement of organizational performance is equal to zero; indeed, in these organizations, there can be no relationship between organizational performance and employee engagement since the latter does not exist in any of the organizational processes, b) if the view that employee engagement is an event is accepted, then the relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance could be differentiated – compared to the previous case; however, this differentiation would be limited, since the influence of employee engagement on organizational processes would be limited; this view would be similar with that of Lencioni (2011) who notes that the influence of employee engagement on organizational performance could be made clear only if the level at which employee engagement is involved in organizational plans is high, c) a different perspective on the relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance could be developed in case that employee engagement would be regarded as a process or as a strategy, in these two cases, the power of employee engagement to influence strategic plans would be significant (especially if employee engagement was considered as a strategy). Therefore, the role of employee engagement in the increase of organizational profits would be critical. 6. Conclusion Through the issues discussed above it has been made clear that employee engagement can have a critical role in the achievement of organizational plans. For the specific firm, employee engagement could also play such role under the following terms: a) that any relevant plan will be closely monitored, in all its phased, b) that employee engagement is regarded not just as part of the organization’s operations but rather as a critical organizational process (if possible, as a strategy) and c) that employees will given the chance to state their views on the attempted changes (Dotlich et al. 2010); this initiative would be also part of the efforts for the increase of employee engagement within the organization. The potentials of employee engagement to contribute in the success of important organizational plans has been verified through the literature presented above; in the specific organization, employee engagement would be also involved in the success of the Global HR programme, in the context described above. Moreover, its involvement in key organizational initiatives should be promoted on a long-term basis, i.e. even after the successful implementation of the above plan. References Albrecht, S. (2010) Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Armstrong, M., Brown, D. (2006) Strategic reward: making it happen. London: Kogan Page Publishers Cook, S. (2008) The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement: Better Business Performance Through Staff Satisfaction. London: Kogan Page Publishers Dotlich, D., Cairo, P. (2010) The 2010 Pfeiffer Annual: Leadership Development. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Federman, B. (2009) Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance, and Increasing Loyalty. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Heska, L. (2007) Organizational practices that create highly engaged workforces. Ottawa: ProQuest Johnson, M. (2004) The new rules of engagement: life-work balance and employee commitment. Norfolk: CIPD Publishing Lencioni, P. (2011) Managing for Employee Engagement Participant Workbook. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Macey, W., Schneider, B., Barbera, K. (2009) Employee engagement: tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons Reilly, P., Williams, T. (2006) Strategic HR: building the capability to deliver. Hampshire: Gower Publishing Turner, P. (2003) Organisational communication: the role of the HR professional. Norfolk: CIPD Publishing Read More