Based on your readings from Week one and Week two, how would you define employee engagement,

and what would be some measurable? What role would stewardship play in achieving such
engagement?

Having read several articles and books, it is worth noting that employee engagement can be explained
from different points of view. Though in the below forum post, an attempt is made to discuss the
generalized view point.

What is Employee Engagement?

According to Mercer, employee engagement is a psychological state in which the employee feels
committed or motivated, and also feel directly involved in the success of the business and adhere to
high standards that may exceed the stated requirements of the position. Although Marciano, P. (2010)
viewpoint is partially different, as he stated that the concept of employee engagement relates to the
degree to which an individual is committed, dedicated and loyal to their organization, supervisor, work
and colleagues. He further added that when an employee is truly committed, motivation becomes far
less relevant.

Moreover, Markos et al. said that three general behaviors that are consistently exhibited by engaged
employees are-

1. Say – They consistently speak positive about the organization to peers, prospects
and clients.
2. Stay – They have strong desire to be part of the organization even though there are
opportunities to work elsewhere.;
3. Strive – They devote more time, effort and initiative in order to contribute to the success of
businesses (Baumruk and Gorman, 2006).

Furthermore, Markos et al. stated that when it comes to business, engagement is defined as a
combination of three existing concepts-

a) job satisfaction;
b) organizational commitment; and
c) discretionary effort to go beyond the job role description

What would be some measurable of employee engagement?

There has been various tools, scales and approaches introduced for measuring employee engagement in
the organizations. Some of them are listed below-
1. Gallup’s engagement questionnaire

According to Markos et al., Gallup's survey of the "strong workplaces" of more than 100,000 employees
got summarized in 1991. After that employees' perceptions of these workplaces were evaluated with a
measuring tool that composed of 12 questions that later were known as Q12,Gallup’s engagement
questionnaire.

2. Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)

Schaufeli stated that UWES includes three subscales that reflect the underlying dimensions of
engagement. They are Vigor, Dedication and Absorption.

3. Shuck’s Approach
There were four main approaches identified by Shuck’s that can be used for measuring engagement-
a. The Burnout-Antithesis Approach;
b. The Needs-Satisfying Approach;
c. The Satisfaction-Engagement Approach;
d. The Multidimensional Approach

What role would stewardship play in achieving such engagement?

In the context of employee engagement, stewardship refers to the actions taken by leaders to ensure
that employees feel valued, supported, and empowered in their work. The role of stewardship in
employee engagement is important because it can directly impact the level of commitment, motivation
and productivity of employees. Moreover, Gallup also stated that employees who feel strongly
motivated in the workplace are more committed and productive (Rath & Harter, 2010).

Stewardship can also help leaders identify and address issues that may be hindering employee
engagement. By actively listening to employees' concerns and feedback, leaders can better understand
their needs. Leaders can also provide opportunities for professional development and growth by training
them, which can help employees feel more connected to their work and the organization as a whole.
According to the study carried out by Society for Human Resource Management, it is been observed that
the employees those who gets benefitted from training and development opportunities are more
committed to their job and feel more valued by their organization (Society for Human Resource
Management, 2016).
 References

Baumruk R., and Gorman B. (2006). Why managers are crucial to increasing engagement.
Melcrum Publishing.

Marciano, P. (2010). Carrots and sticks don’t work. McGraw Hill. (ISBN: 978-0-07-171401-3)

Markos, S., & Sridevi, M. S. (2010). Employee engagement: The key to improving
performance. International journal of business and management, 5(12), 89.

Mercer, “Engaging Employees to Drive Global Business Success.” Pbworks.com, Mercer, 2011,
http://mgt2210.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/57707963/Mercer_Whats%20Working_final.pdf.

Rath, T., Harter, J. K., & Harter, J. (2010). Wellbeing: The five essential elements. Simon and
Schuster.

Schaufeli, W. B., Martinez, I. M., Pinto, A. M., Salanova, M., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). Burnout and
engagement in university students: A cross-national study. Journal of cross-cultural psychology,
33(5), 464-481.

Shuck, B. (2011). Integrative Literature Review: Four Emerging Perspectives of Employee

Engagement: An Integrative Literature Review. Human Resource Development Review, 10(3),
304–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484311410840

Society for Human Resource Management. (2016). The business case for employee
development.

Truss, C., Delbridge, R., Alfes, K., Shantz, A, Soane, E. (Eds.). (2014). Employee engagement in
theory and practice. Taylor & Francis Group. (ISBN: 978-0- 415-65742-6)