Employee engagement: critique, theory, and model
Date
2023
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Abstract
Organizational behavior researchers fail to critically evaluate the congruence between their conceptualizations, definitions, and measures of employee engagement. Three manuscripts are presented to illuminate this unrecognized confusion in employee engagement research. The first manuscript explored the employee engagement, motivation, and performance literature, and presented a definition of employee engagement necessary for the three constructs to fall within the same nomological network. The definition was unique and counter to the most prevalent conceptualization of employee engagement. It was shown, for employee engagement to provide organizational value, it should be defined to include physical behaviors aligned with the goals of the organization. This positions employee engagement as a motivated state, contrary to the most prolific conceptualization, which describes employee engagement as a motivational state. The second manuscript explored the motivation and employee engagement literature to develop a Motivation Model of Engagement (MMOE). It was shown traditional motivation theories focus on 'why' someone is motivated. However, the MMOE elucidates 'how' someone becomes motivated. The MMOE described how employees become engaged and what influences the likelihood of engagement. The MMOE is unique and strengthens motivation theory by filling in common gaps in existing theories and showcases how existing motivation theories complement each other. The third manuscript illuminated the incongruence of current employee engagement research designs, and presented a heuristic model, which aligns conceptualization, definition, and measure. A measurement model was presented, which described influencers of employee engagement. A conceptual measurement instrument was presented, which captures the likelihood of employees engaging in behaviors beneficial to the organization and illuminates potential interventions to increase the likelihood of employees engaging. The manuscripts were presented such that each built on the one preceding. However, each was intended to be applicable to research and practice on its own. Implications for research and practice were discussed, as well as potential applications. Further, suggestions for future research were proposed to entice, strengthen, and grow organizational behavior research.
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Subject
model
performance
motivation
engagement