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Employee
Employee engagement: engagement
a sceptical analysis
David Guest
Department of Management, King’s College London, London, UK
141
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the debates and evidence about employee
engagement to assess its prospects of becoming a mainstream part of management activity in the long
term. It sets out an agenda for policy and practice designed to increase its chances of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a review of the research and analytic
literature. It outlines the origins, reasons for growth of popularity, main forms and evidence about the
antecedents and impact of employee engagement. It draws a distinction between work engagement
and organizational engagement. For the former it outlines a research agenda; for the latter, it presents
an extensive critique and an agenda to address the issues raised.
Findings – A distinction is highlighted between work engagement with its concern to improve
employee well-being and organizational engagement with its focus on organizational performance.
It is shown that these two approaches operate in “different worlds” and that this reflects a neglect of an
evidence-based approach to management of employees since work engagement has much the stronger
evidence base.
Research limitations/implications – As a review and analysis, the paper is inevitably selective
and limited by space restrictions. However, it argues that while work engagement is now well-established
among the academic community as a valid and useful construct, the same cannot be said for organizational
engagement which lacks clear definition, measurement, high-quality evidence and clear policy implications.
The paper therefore sets out a policy agenda and outlines how some of the shortcomings might
be addressed.
Practical implications – The paper highlights the need for a viable and integrated “engagement
strategy” if organizational engagement is to thrive in the future and sets out the core elements of such
an approach.
Originality/value – The paper highlights the distinction between the two separate “engagement
worlds” of work and organizational engagement and also highlights their different core aims.
The problems with organizational engagement are analysed and a new agenda to improve its prospects of
impact is outlined.
Keywords Well-being, Organizational performance, Work engagement, Organizational engagement,
Edvidence-based management
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
From time to time new ideas or concepts emerge that capture the attention of policy
makers, managers and academics. Some have a sound theoretical and empirical base;
others rely more on effective marketing, often by consultancy organizations. Some can
best be described as short-lived management fads; others become established as a part
of management. Over the years, these concepts have included T-groups, the
managerial grid, in search of excellence, quality circles, process re-engineering and,
more recently, employee engagement. The prevalence of such fads and fashions has
Journal of Organizational
spawned its own sub-discipline that seeks to understand how and why these concepts Effectiveness: People and
emerge and what impact they have (see, e.g. Abrahamson, 1991; Gibson and Tesone, Performance
Vol. 1 No. 2, 2014
2001). It is too soon to tell whether employee engagement will eventually come to be pp. 141-156
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
viewed as a passing management fad or an established part of management practice. 2051-6614
However, the aim of this paper is to review its status and distinctive features with the DOI 10.1108/JOEPP-04-2014-0017
JOEPP aim of assessing its potential longevity. The title of the paper provides a clue to the core
1,2 stance of the central argument.
The structure of the paper is as follows. A first section briefly outlines the nature of
employee engagement, drawing a distinction between work and organizational
engagement and offering some explanations for its popularity. This is followed by
a brief review of the evidence about work engagement, highlighting areas that would
142 benefit from further research. The next section analyses organizational engagement,
highlighting a number of concerns. A final section sets out a brief operational agenda
listing policies and practices that might help to increase the likelihood that
organizational engagement has an impact.
Further reading
Bakker, A. and Leiter, M. (Eds) (2010), Work Engagement: A Handbook of Essential Theory and
Research, Psychology Press, New York, NY.
George, J. (2010), “More engagement is not necessarily better: the benefits of fluctuating levels
of engagement”, in Albrecht, S. (Ed.), Handbook of Employee Engagement, Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, pp. 253-263.
Corresponding author
Professor David Guest can be contacted at: david.guest@kcl.ac.uk