Discuss about the Effect of Employee Engagement.
Proper employee engagement is essential for achieving success in business. The term employee engagement refers to creating an environment, where the employees of the organization can work properly and perform better to achieve the organization’s aim. In the words of Huang et al., (2016), employee engagement is the art of engaging the employees or workforce in the operational activities of the organization. An organization can engage its employees in a better way by building a strong bonding with its employees (Eisenberger, Malone & Presson, 2016).
This proposal is going to state about the study that will focus on the employee engagement and try to identify the how the employee engagement affect the performance of an organization. During the research, the special focus will be made on the Woolworths Limited, which is one of the largest retailers in Australia. The study will concentrate on a particular organization so that the research can be done in a concise and easy manner. This proposal will state about the aim, objectives, questions, methodology, timeframe and expected outcome of the research.
In different studies, it has been identified that the performance of the company depends on the level of perfectness of the employee engagement (Anthony?McMann et al., 2016). This means, the large business organizations have adopted better employee engagement strategies, which provided them more success. However, in the current scenario, the business organizations are more focused on the end results and due to that, many organizations are becoming more casual regarding the employee engagement (Smith & Bititci, 2016). This indicates that the managements of the organizations are not properly aware of the effects of employee engagement on the performance level of the organization. However, the outcomes of this study will help the organizations understanding the relationship between the employee engagement and organization’s performance (Eldor & Harpaz, 2016).
The aim of the study will be identifying the impacts of employee engagement on the performance level of the organization. The objectives of the study will be as follows:
Identifying the concept and benefits of employee engagement
Employee engagement indicates the way of creating an emotional attachment with the employees and motivating them towards achieving the organizational goal by providing a comfortable working zone at the workplace. Cunningham (2016) noted that for better employee engagement, the management must understand the quality and needs of the employees. The management must provide the job role to the as per the quality and efficiency level of the employees, so that they can be comfortable with their job role (Potoski & Callery, 2016). For example, an IT expert must be engaged with the IT related work, otherwise, the employees’ skills and knowledge will not meet the required standard of work and the employee will not comfortable with the job role (Carter et al., 2016). At the same time, the management also requires creating a friendly working culture, so that the employees feel free to share their views and ideas at the workplace. Shuck, Adelson and Reio (2016) suggested for better employee engagement, the management must try to create a homely atmosphere within the organization to make the employees free. A free-minded employee can think about innovation and free minded are more creative than the others. Bakhshi and Gupta (2016) mentioned that the business organizations may gain several benefits through better employee engagement. The benefits of employee engagement are as follows:
Strong relationship – Better employee engagement facilitates stronger relationship between the management and employees (Nimon, Shuck & Zigarmi, 2016). If the organization provides better facilities and engages the employees as per their ability, then the employees feel happy with their job role and at the same time, they can work properly (Krishnaveni & Monica, 2016). As a result, the relationship between the employer and employees becomes stronger.
Performance improvement – Better employee engagement also helps to improve the performance standard of the employees in better way. The employees get the scope to enhance their knowledge through regular practice if they are engaged in proper job role (Thomas, 2016). This actually helps the employees improving their performance level.
Goal achievement – As the performance of the employees is improved through employee engagement, the organization becomes able to achieve its goal properly. This means, employee engagement facilitates better goal achievement (Gutermann et al., 2016).
Increased employee retention – The employee retention rate also increases due to the proper employee engagement. Proper employee engagement provides better job satisfaction to the employees and it ultimately increases the retention of the employees (Shah & Beh, 2016).
The above discussion has indicated that the employee engagement provides many advantages to the employees as well as organizations. However, Aryee et al., (2016) has stated that employee engagement also has some limits, which create challenges for the organizations. The limitations of the employee engagement are as follows:
Difficult to motivate all employees with same strategies – In order to implement proper employee engagement, the managements of the organizations require taking some specific strategies. However, Nimon, Shuck and Zigarmi (2016) noted that the needs and knowledge level of all employees are not same. One employee engagement strategy may be effective for one employee, but that may not be effective for the others. Therefore, taking proper employee engagement strategy is very difficult.
Security risk – Sometimes, employee engagement requires revealing certain secrets of the organization to the lower level employees (Potoski & Callery, 2016). This creates security risk for the organization because there are chances that the employees may reveal to company’s secret to the people outside the organization.
Difficult to provide regular updates – Proper employee engagement requires giving all updates to the employees. However, Shuck, Adelson and Reio (2016) mentioned that it is very difficult and hectic job to provide all the updates to the employees on regular basis. This is also much time consuming work and this may decrease the productivity.
Expensive procedure – The implementation of proper employee engagement strategy is very expensive for the companies. Employee engagement requires providing proper training to the employees and at the same time, this also requires regular updating, improvement and maintenance of the working environment, which are much costly (Carter et al., 2016).
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be said that there are several limitations, which limits the implementation and use of employee engagement strategies in the business organizations. However, Bakhshi and Gupta (2016) commented that nowadays, many organizations are implementing different strategies to avoid the limitations of employee engagement. For example, at Wesfarmers Limited, the management implements the employee engagement by providing different facilities, but they never reveal the top secrets of the company to the lower level employees. This helps the organization avoiding security risk of employee engagement.
One of the primary objectives of employee engagement is motivating the employees towards organization’s goal. This means, the employee engagement is based on the theory of motivation. MacGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y explain the employee engagement in a better way (Potoski & Callery, 2016). The Theory X and Theory Y explain the employee engagement from two different perspectives. The Theory X explains that the employees within the organization are unmotivated towards their job. This thinking of the employees influences the management taking effective strategies to motivate the employees (Gutermann et al., 2016). The X theory suggests adopting the authoritarian management style for better employee engagement. This means, the X theory suggests dominating the employees to engage them in a better way.
On the other side, Theory Y states about the de-centralized management style, which is known as the participative leadership. This theory also indicates that when the management adopts the participative leadership or management style, the employees get motivated towards the goal achievement (Potoski & Callery, 2016). Therefore, it can be said that the Theory X and Theory Y both suggest different ways for implementing proper employee engagement within the organization.
The research questions for this particular research project will be as follows:
The hypotheses of this research will be as follows:
H0: There is no relationship between the employee engagement and organization’s performance.
H1: There is direct relationship between the employee engagement and organization’s performance.
Every research needs a specific methodology to achieve its final aim successfully. The methodology of the research indicates the philosophy, approach and design that are followed during the study. This research project will also follow a particular methodology that will include suitable research philosophy, research approach and research design. A research can follow either of the three research philosophies – positivism philosophy, realism philosophy and interpretivism philosophy (Silverman, 2016). In comparison to the other two research philosophies, the positivism philosophy is easier and simple. Apart from that, the positivism philosophy allows conducting the quantitative research (Vaioleti, 2016). Due to these reasons, this study will follow the positivism philosophy during the research.
Along with the philosophy, the research will also require selecting and following the suitable approach and design of the research. Deductive and inductive are the two available research approaches. Deductive approach is very simple and less time consuming. At the same time, the deductive approach allows analyzing the research data logically (Holloway & Galvin, 2016). Apart from that, the deductive approach conducts the study after setting the research hypotheses at the initial stage (York & Barclay, 2016). Due to these reasons, this study will follow the deductive approach. On the other side, the study will follow the descriptive research design because the descriptive research design will help conducting the analysis of the study based on the existing theories and literature (Hammersley, 2016).
The Gantt chart of a project shows the timeline and plan of the research. The Gantt chart for this research study is shown below:
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Activities |
1st week |
2nd Week |
3rd week |
4th week |
5th week |
6th week |
7th week |
8th week |
9th week |
10th week |
11th week |
12th week |
13th week |
14th week |
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Topic selection for the study |
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Identifying and setting the aim, objectives, hypotheses and questions of the research |
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Existing literature review |
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Selecting the philosophy, approach and design for the research |
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Collecting the primary data through survey and interview |
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Analyzing the primary data of the research |
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Identifying and presenting the outcomes of the analysis |
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Concluding the study |
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Suggesting the appropriate recommendations |
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Preparing the final draft |
Table 1: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by author)
A systematic procedure is essential for a research project. The process of this particular research will include several steps. The research process will start with the selection of topic. Topic selection is most important part of the research because if the topic is not proper, then the study cannot be conducted successfully. The second step of the process will be setting the aim, objectives, hypotheses and questions of the research. The next step will be reviewing the existing literature. At this step, the study will identify the gap between the existing literature and current study.
After completion of literature review, the study will set the methodology of the research, in which the study will select the philosophy, design and approach. Data collection and analysis will be the next step after methodology selection. The data will be collected from the primary sources and will be analyzed by following the suitable data analysis techniques. Lastly, the study will derive at the conclusion, where the study will analyze, whether the research findings meet the research objectives or not and on the basis of those recommendations will be provided.
Data collection is another vital part of research. Before collecting the data, the research needs to select which type of data will be used in the study. This particular research will use primary as well as secondary data. The primary data for the research will be collected by using two methods or techniques – survey and interview. The survey will be conducted with the employees of Woolworths Limited. The survey will be done through social media like, Gmail. The sample for the survey will be selected by following probability sampling method. Probability sampling method will be followed because the number of employees will be more. The survey questionnaire will be sent to 100 employees and it is expected at least 70 employees will reply back. On the other side, the interview will be taken from managers of the Woolworths Limited. The sample for the interview will be selected by following the non-probability sampling method. The approach will be made to 7 managers of the company and at least 4 managers will be agreed for the interview.
The primary data of the study will be analyzed by following two data analysis methods – quantitative data analysis method and qualitative data analysis method. The data, which will be collected from the survey, will be analyzed by the quantitative data analysis method. As the quantity of the survey data will be high, the quantitative method will be more suitable for the analysis. On the other side, the qualitative method will be followed for analyzing the data, which will be collected through interview.
This particular research will aim to identify the relationship between the employee engagement and performance of the organization. It is expected that after analyzing the primary as well as secondary data, the research will able to identify the relationship between the two variables of the study. At the same time, it is also expected that the study will clearly identify the strategies that the Woolworths Limited has taken for better employee engagement. Apart from that, during this study, the challenges that the management of Woolworths Limited is facing currently in employee engagement will also be cleared out.
Conclusion
In this proposal, it has been identified that the study will identify and analyze the impact of employee engagement on the performance level of the organization. The study will focus on Woolworths Limited. The proposal has indicated that the study will follow a systematic research procedure. At the same time, the proposal has also stated that the research will follow the positivism philosophy, descriptive research design and deductive research approach. The proposal has also indicated that the study will be based on primary as well as secondary data and the data will be analyzed with the help of quantitative and qualitative methods. It is expected that the study will able to identify the actual impact of employee engagement on the performance of Woolworths Limited.
References
Anthony?McMann, P. E., Ellinger, A. D., Astakhova, M., & Halbesleben, J. R. (2016). Exploring Different Operationalizations of Employee Engagement and Their Relationships With Workplace Stress and Burnout. Human Resource Development Quarterly.
Aryee, S., Walumbwa, F. O., Gachunga, H., & Hartnell, C. A. (2016). Workplace Family Resources and Service Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement. Africa Journal of Management, 2(2), 138-165.
Bakhshi, A., & Gupta, R. (2016). Personal and Job Related Correlates of Employee Engagement at Work. Indian Journal of Community Psychology, 12(2), 312-317.
Carter, W. R., Nesbit, P. L., Badham, R. J., Parker, S. K., & Sung, L. K. (2016). The effects of employee engagement and self-efficacy on job performance: a longitudinal field study. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-20.
Cunningham, A. (2016). What are the Key Drivers Used to Promote Employee Motivation and Engagement in a Manufacturing Environment?.
Eisenberger, R., Malone, G. P., & Presson, W. D. (2016). Optimizing Perceived Organizational Support to Enhance Employee Engagement. Society for Human Resource Management and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Eldor, L., & Harpaz, I. (2016). A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate and its relationship with extra?role performance behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(2), 213-235.
Gutermann, D., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Voelpel, S. C., & Born, M. (2016, January). Unit-level Work Engagement as a Key to Organizational Performance. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 14778). Academy of Management.
Hammersley, M. (2016). Reading ethnographic research. Routledge.
Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2016). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.
Huang, Y. H., Lee, J., McFadden, A. C., Murphy, L. A., Robertson, M. M., Cheung, J. H., & Zohar, D. (2016). Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework. Applied ergonomics, 55, 248-257.
Krishnaveni, R., & Monica, R. (2016). Employee Engagement: A Key to Employee Well Being-A Conceptual Study. Dr. Nagaraj Shenoy.
Nimon, K., Shuck, B., & Zigarmi, D. (2016). Construct overlap between employee engagement and job satisfaction: a function of semantic equivalence?. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17(3), 1149-1171.
Potoski, M., & Callery, P. J. (2016, January). Peer Communication Improves Environmental Employee Engagement. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 14667). Academy of Management.
Shah, S. H. A., & Beh, L. S. (2016). Impact of Motivation Enhancing Practices and Mediating Role of Talent Engagement on Turnover Intentions: Evidence from Malaysia. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6(4).
Shuck, B., Adelson, J. L., & Reio, T. G. (2016). The Employee Engagement Scale: Initial Evidence for Construct Validity and Implications for Theory and Practice. Human Resource Management.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.
Smith, M., & Bititci, U. S. (2016). Interplay between performance measurement and management, employee engagement and performance. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 1-24.
Thomas, R. (2016). Supervisor’s Engagement And Organization Outcomes: The Mediating Role Of Employee Engagement On Task Performance And Organizational Citizenship Behavior.
Vaioleti, T. M. (2016). Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1).
York, K. M., & Barclay, L. A. (2016). Introducing Quantitative Research to HRM Majors: The Structured Survey Project. Journal of Human Resources Education, 10(2), 13-24.
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