Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is defined by Robinson et al. (2004) as "a positive attitude held by the employee toward the organization and its value." An engaged employee understands the business context and collaborates with colleagues to improve job performance for the benefit of the organization. The organization must seek to foster and develop employee engagement, which necessitates a two-way interaction between employer and employee." .Brown (2006) defined engagement as a progressive combination of satisfaction, drive, commitment, and advocacy that results from employees moving up the engagement ladder. 

Furthermore, Employee engagement has also been connected to positive emotional experiences and overall well-being (May et al 2004). Given this, modern firms place a greater emphasis on emotional contracts with employees. Wilson (2004:99-100). International and multi-cultural firms, like as Huawei, are more focused on emotional contracts in order to retain employees for a longer period of time, and Huawei provides a safety day care facility for women who work for the organization. Also well regarded and respected as an individual.

                                Integrated Model of Employee Engagement


       (Source: Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences)


Leadership

According to Bedarkar and Pandita (2014), there are three distinct characteristics that are thought to lead to greater organizational performance through employee engagement. Positive leadership behaviors have a clear link with engagement characteristics such as motivation, work satisfaction, work engagement, proactive behaviors, and organizational citizenship behavior, according to leadership studies. Leaders must develop self-awareness, understand their own merits and demerits, demonstrate consistency between beliefs and actions, and become role models for communication in the organization because trust is the emotional glue that binds employees and leaders together and facilitates a sense of pride in their employees due to the employees' reliance on the leaders' professional competencies (Wang and Hsieh, 2013).

Huawei's leadership has defined and successfully implemented the organization's basic principles, and they have shown respect for each employee's qualities and contribution, regardless of employment level. Furthermore, leadership meets once a month to solicit employee ideas for new innovative business concepts. Huawei leadership has clarified roles and articulated visions that can be regarded as inspirational, visionary, decisive, and team focused. Line managers have been related with engagement because leadership has become more transformational, particularly those that boost follower performance and enable followers to relate to organizational goals. Line managers are more engaged than employees with   supervisors who participate in more relationship-related actions (as cited in Xu and Thomas Cooper).Specially for training and development on EQ techniques.

Communication

Employee engagement requires effective communication (Wiley et al., 2010). Employees, according to MacLeod and Clarke (2009), require clear communication from superiors to connect their job to the leadership objective. They also perceive inadequate communication as a barrier to engagement. Internal communication influences employee engagement. Internal communication is a business activity that effectively communicates organizational values to all employees to get their cooperation in attaining organizational goals. As a result, maintaining employee engagement requires effective internal communication (Bindle and Parker, 2010).

Effective communication is a critical aspect of Huawei's culture, and the leadership has used a variety of methods to connect with the organization's internal and external work forces. Huawei primarily uses a fully integrated system to connect, which connects to a global employee force. Huawei's leadership ensures that technological updates, organizational vision, and business-critical decisions are communicated.

Work life balance

Work-Life Balance is a significant driver of employee engagement, and the individual's ability to find time for both work and family was a critical component in the success of his performance at work (Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014). Organizations can implement different work-life balance initiatives that may assist employees in better work-life balance, such as flexible working hours, job sharing, part-time employment, compressed workweeks, parental leave, telecommuting, on-site childcare facility, and businesses may provide a range of perks connected to employees' health and well-being, such as extended health insurance for the employee and dependents, personal days, and access to programs or seminars (Ioan, Codruta & Patricia, 2010).

Work Life Balance, surprisingly, emerged as a significant driver of employee engagement as well as one of the respected aspects of Huawei's working culture. Employees struggle to find time for work and family in a fast-growing and multicultural firm. As a result, organizations should provide support for dependent care, flexible work choices, and family or personal leave (Estes & Michael, 2005). Huawei, for example, offers flexible work hours and the ability to work from home. Employees work four days and take the fifth off during a truncated work week. However, managing work-life balance will be a critical aspect in improving employee performance and retention, which will lead to organizational success.

References

Beauregard, T. and Henry, L. (2009). ). Making the Link between work-life Balance Practices and Organizational performance. Human. Human Resource Management Review, 19(1), pp.9–22.

Bedarkar, M. and Pandita, D. (2014). A Study on the Drivers of Employee Engagement Impacting Employee Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133(1), pp.106–115.

Bindl, U.K. and Parker, S.K. (2010). ‘Feeling good and performing well? Psychological engagement and positive behaviors at work’. in Albrecht, S.L. (Ed.). Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives Issues, Research and Practice. Cheltenham (Uk) ; Northampton (Ma): E. Elgar, pp.385–390.

Brown, R.B. (2006). Doing Your Dissertation in Business and Management : the Reality of Researching and Writing. 1st ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hallberg, U.E. and Schaufeli, W.B. (2006). ‘Same Same’ but Different?Can Work Engagement Be Discriminated from Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment?. European Psychologist, 11(2), pp.119–127.

 Ioan, A., C. and Patricia, R. (2010). The Role of Work-Life Balance Practices in Order to Improve Organizational Performance. European Research Studies, Volume XIII,(Issue (1)), pp.202–212.

 MacLeod, D. (2009). Engaging for success: Enhancing Performance Though Employee Engagement. 1st ed. Chemosphere, Crown , London: Department for Business Innovation and Skills, pp.7–34.

May, D.R., Gilson, R.L. and Harter, L.M. (2004). The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77(1), pp.11–37.

Muthike, C. (2016). The Impact of Employee Engagement on Organization Performance. pp.710–714.

Pandita, D. and Bedarkar, M. (2015). Factors Affecting Employee Performance: A Conceptual Study on the Drivers of Employee Engagement. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management, 8(7), p.29.

Robinson, D., Perryman, S. and Hayday, S. (n.d.). The Drivers of Employee Engagement Report. [online] (ISBN 1 85184 336 1), p.9. Available at: https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/408.pdf [Accessed 13 May 2022].

Robinson, D., Perryman, S. and Hayday, S. (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement Report. IES Research Networks, (1 85184 336 1), pp.5–17.Wang, D.-S. and Hsieh, C.-C. (2013). The Effect of Authentic Leadership on Employee Trust and Employee Engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, Vol 41(4), pp.613–624.

Wiley, J.W., Kowske, B.J. and Herman, A.E. (2010). Developing and Validating a Global Model of Employee engagement. in Albrecht, S.L. (Ed.). Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research and Practice. Cheltenham (Uk) ; Northampton (Ma): E. Elgar, pp.351–363.

Wilson, F.M. (2004). Organizational Behaviour and Work : a Critical Introduction. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, pp.244–248.

Comments

  1. Yohan Jayasena15 May 2022 at 10:24

    Hi Suresh, nice blog on employee engagement. Employee engagement has seen as more than just work happiness and loyalty to one's company. It is also a passion and dedication to one's job, a readiness to assist colleagues, and a willingness to make discretionary efforts to ensure the success of the business (Žitkienė & Blusytė, 2015)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh Wijewardene16 May 2022 at 02:55

      In addition to that current studies have demonstrated the positive effects that employee engagement has on the performance of organizations, including aspects such as retention rates, customer satisfaction, profitability, productivity, and overall successful organizational performance (Smith & Macko, 2014)

      Delete
  2. Suresh Wijewardene16 May 2022 at 02:54

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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