Mutual Gains? Is There a Role for Employee Engagement in the Modern Workplace?

Alex Bryson

No 477, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers from National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Abstract: I examine the history of employee engagement and how it has been characterised by thinkers in sociology, psychology, management and economics. I suggest that, while employers may choose to invest in employee engagement, there are alternative management strategies that may be profit-maximising. I identify four elements of employee engagement – job ‘flow’, autonomous working, involvement in decision-making at workplace or firm level, and financial participation – and present empirical evidence on their incidence and employee perceptions of engagement, drawing primarily from evidence in Britain. I consider the evidence regarding the existence of mutual gains and present new evidence on the issue. I find a non-linear relationship between human resource management (HRM) intensity and various employee job attitudes. I also find the intensity of HRM use and employee engagement are independently associated with improvements in workplace performance. I consider the implications of the findings for policy and employment practice in the future.

Keywords: employee engagement; productivity; performance; human resource management; worker wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J28 L22 L23 M12 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Mutual Gains? Is There a Role for Employee Engagement in the Modern Workplace? (2017)
Working Paper: Mutual Gains? Is There a Role for Employee Engagement in the Modern Workplace? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nsr:niesrd:477

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