European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

A Study of Engagement at Work:

What drives Employee Engagement?
Sonal Pandey
Research Scholar, Institute of Management Studies

Shine David
Assistant Professor, Institute of Management Studies

Indore, India
sonalpandey2226@gmail.com

Indore, India
shinelavi77@gmail.com

Abstract - Employee engagement refers to a condition where the

employees are fully engrossed in their work and are emotionally
attached to their organization. An "engaged employee" is one who
is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will
act in a way that furthers his organization's interests, this study
investigated what job characteristics leads to high employee
engagement. Instrument contains fourteen items related with
different dimensions of employee engagement. Data was collected
thorough purposive sampling from 107 respondents on five point
likert scale through questionnaire. Cronbachs Alpha reliability of
questionnaire was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Science) version 16.0. Further Factor Analysis with varimax
rotation using Kaiser Normalization was applied to the data which
resulted in three factors. Findings of the study suggest that
satisfactory work environment, opportunities to grow and job
enrichment leads to higher engagement in employees belonging to
fast growing industries like IT and Pharma. All respondent belong
to age group of 20-40 and 90% of them are below 30. Which
further suggest importance of these factors in engaging Gen X
employees in these industries.
Index Terms Employee Engagement,
Performance, Sustainable Engagement

the current turnover rate may rise to 65%. With recruiting

costs running approximately 1.5 times annual salary, the
ability to engage and retain valuable employees has a
significant impact on an organizations bottom line. Engaging
employees is the fourth most important management
challenge, behind creating customer loyalty, managing
mergers and alliances, and reducing costs (Wah, 1999).
Contrary to those who suffer from burnout, engaged
employees have a sense of energetic an effective connection
with their work activities, and they see themselves as able to
deal well with the demands of their jobs.
Kahn (1990) defines employee engagement as the harnessing
of organization members selves to their work roles; in
engagement, people employ and express themselves
physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role
performances. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement
concerns employees beliefs about the organisation, its leaders
and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how
employees feel about each of those three factors and whether
they have positive or negative attitudes toward the
organisation and its leaders. The physical aspect of employee
engagement concerns the physical energies exerted by
individuals to accomplish their roles. Thus, according to Kahn
(1990), engagement means to be psychologically as well as
physically present when occupying and performing an
organisational role.

Commitment,

I. INTRODUCTION
What makes one company more successful than another?
Better products, services, strategies, technologies or, perhaps,
a better cost structure? Certainly, all of these contribute to
superior performance, but all of them can be copied over time.
The one thing that creates sustainable competitive advantage
and therefore ROI, company value and long-term strength is
the workforce, the people who are the company. And when it
comes to people, research has shown, time and again, that
employees who are engaged significantly outperform work
groups that are not engaged. In the fight for competitive
advantage where employees are the differentiator, engaged
employees are the ultimate goal. Today, employee
engagement and loyalty are more vital than ever before to an
organizations success and competitive advantage. Gone are
the days when a young person starting out in his or her career
joined a company and stayed until retirement in todays
business environment there are no guarantees. Experts predict

Most often employee engagement has been defined as

emotional and intellectual commitment to the organisation
(Baumruk 2004, Richman 2006 and Shaw 2005) or the
amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees in their
job (Frank et al 2004). Although it is acknowledged and
accepted that employee engagement is a multi-faceted
construct, as previously suggested by Kahn (1990),
Truss et al (2006) define employee engagement simply as
passion for work, a psychological state which is seen to
encompass the three dimensions of engagement discussed by
Kahn (1990), and captures the common theme running
through all these definitions.

155

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

Work engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling workrelated state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication,
and absorption (Schaufeli & Salanova, in press; Schaufeli,
Salanova, Gonzalez-Rom, & Bakker,2002) Rather than a
momentary and specific state, engagement refers to a more
persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state that is not
focused on any particular object, event, individual, or
behaviour. Vigor is characterized by high levels of energy and
mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest
effort in ones work, and persistence even in the face of
difficulties. Dedication refers to being strongly involved in
ones work and experiencing a sense of significance,
enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge. Finally,
absorption is characterized by being fully concentrated and
happily engrossed in ones work, whereby time passes quickly
and one has difficulties with detaching oneself from work.

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

Kahn (1990, 1992) is frequently credited as the first scholar to

apply the concept of engagement to work. Kahn found that
there were three psychological conditions related with
engagement or disengagement at work: meaningfulness,
safety, and availability. He argued that people asked
themselves three fundamental questions in each role situation:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

How meaningful is it for me to bring myself into this

performance?
How safe is it to do so?
How available am I to do so?

Meaningfulness refers to the intrinsic value employee attach to

performance in the work role. It is influenced by the task
employee performed and roles they fill (May et al., 2004).
Safety pertains to the sense of whether one perceives the
freedom to be authentic in the work role. Its primary
determinant is the perceived quality of interpersonal
interactions employees experience at work (May et al., 2004).
Finally, availability involves employees beliefs regarding
whether they possess the physical, cognitive, and emotional
resources needed to invest themselves fully in their work
roles. It is deter-mined largely by individuals perceptions of
the quantity and quality of available resources and the extent
of involvement in activities outside of work (May et al., 2004;
Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Collectively, these three
conditions determine whether employees are more engaged or
disengaged (Kahn, 1990).He found that workers were more
engaged at work in situations that offered them more
psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety, and
when they were more psychologically available.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Employee engagement is derived from studies of morale or a
group's willingness to accomplish organizational objectives
which began in the 1920s. The value of morale to
organizations was matured by US Army researchers during
WWII to predict unity of effort and attitudinal battle-readiness
before combat. In the post-war mass production society that
required unity of effort in execution, (group) morale scores
were used as predictors of speed, quality and militancy. With
the advent of the knowledge worker and emphasis on
individual talent management (stars), a term was needed to
describe an individual's emotional attachment to the
organization, fellow associates and the job. Thus the birth of
the term "employee engagement" which is an individual
emotional phenomenon whereas morale is a group emotional
phenomenon of similar characteristics. In other words,
employee engagement is the raw material of morale composed
of 15 intrinsic and extrinsic attitudinal drivers. (e.g. Scarlett
Surveys 2001).

An alternative model of engagement comes from the burnout

literature, which describes job engagement as the positive
antithesis of burnout, noting that burnout involves the erosion
of engagement with ones job (Maslach et al 2001). According
to Maslach et al, six areas of work-life lead to either burnout
or engagement: workload, control, rewards and recognition,
community and social support, perceived fairness and values.
They argue that job engagement is associated with a
sustainable workload, feelings of choice and control,
appropriate recognition and reward, a supportive work
community, fairness and justice, and meaningful and valued
work.

Employee engagement was described in the academic

literature by Schmidt et al. (1993). A modernised version of
job satisfaction, Schmidt et al.'s influential definition of
engagement was "an employee's involvement with,
commitment to, and satisfaction with work. Employee
engagement is a part of employee retention." This integrates
the classic constructs of job satisfaction (Smith et al., 1969),
and organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991) Kahn
undertook a qualitative study on the psychological conditions
of personal engagement and disengagement by interviewing
summer camp counsellors and staff at an architecture firm
about their moments of engagement and disengagement at
work. He defined disengagement as the decoupling of the self
within the role, involving the individual withdrawing and
defending themselves during role performances (May et al
2004). Disengaged employees displayed incomplete role
performances and were effortless, automatic or robotic

May et als (2004) findings support Maslach et als (2001)

notion of meaningful and valued work being associated with
engagement, and therefore it is important to consider the
concept of meaning. According to Holbeche and Springett
(2003), peoples perceptions of meaning with regard to the
workplace are clearly linked to their levels of engagement and,
ultimately, their performance. They argue that employees
actively seek meaning through their work and, unless
organisations try to provide a sense of meaning, employees are
likely to quit. The research findings suggest that many people
experience a greater search for meaning in the workplace (70

156

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

per cent) than in life in general. There are numerous possible

reasons for this, for example, it may be because people
generally spend longer at work than on other parts of their
lives. Holbeche and Springett (2003) argue that high levels of
engagement can only be achieved in workplaces where there
is a shared sense of destiny and purpose that connects people
at an emotional level and raises their personal aspirations.

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

group of highly engaged respondents, a slightly larger

disengaged group, with the majority in the moderately
engaged group Across industries, engagement is substantially
higher in the non-profit sector than in every other sector
looked at by Towers Perrin (2003). This would appear logical,
given that people tend to be drawn to this sector through a
sense of mission, rather than from any prospect of high pay or
wealth accumulation. The another study comparing the public
and private sectors, Truss et al(2006) found that group in the
public sector had a more negative experience of work, they
reported more bullying and harassment than those in the
private sector, and were less satisfied with the opportunities
they had to use their abilities. This reinforces the findings of
previous studies and underlines the scale of the challenge
facing public sector managers in particular, and the negative
impact that bullying and harassment have on employees and
their levels of engagement (Emmott 2006). It has also been
argued that employee engagement is related to emotional
experiences and wellbeing (May et al 2004). The Towers
Perrin (2003) study of engagement identified both emotions
and rationality as core components. They found that emotional
factors are linked to an individuals personal satisfaction and
the sense of inspiration and affirmation they get from their
work and from being a part of their organisation. For example,
a key element here is having a sense of personal
accomplishment from ones job. By contrast, the rational
factors generally relate to the relationship between the
individual and the broader corporation, for instance the extent
to which employees understand their role and their units role,
relative to company objectives.

Kahns (1990) and Maslach et als (2001) models indicate the

psychological conditions or antecedents that are necessary for
engagement. According to Saks (2006), a stronger theoretical
rationale for explaining employee engagement can be found in
social exchange theory (SET). SET argues that obligations are
generated through a series of interactions between parties who
are in a state of reciprocal interdependence. For example,
when individuals receive economic and socio-emotional
resources from their organisation, they feel obliged to respond
in kind and repay the organisation .This is consistent with
Robinson et als (2004) description of engagement as a twoway relationship between the employer and employee. Saks
(2006) argues that one way for individuals to repay their
organisation is through their level of engagement. In
summary, SET provides a theoretical foundation to explain
why employees choose to become more or less engaged in
their work and organisation.
In recent years, more studies have begun to look at the
antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. For
example, Saks (2006) found a distinction between two types
of engagement, job engagement and organisation engagement,
which he argues are related but distinct constructs.

According to Towers Perrin (2003), building engagement is a

process that never ends and it rests on the foundation of a
meaningful and emotionally enriching work experience.
Furthermore, it is not about making people happy, or even
paying them more money. As important as pay and benefits
are in attracting and retaining people, it was found they play a
less important role in engaging people in their work. The
elements found to be fundamental for engagement were strong
leadership, accountability, autonomy, a sense of control over
ones environment and opportunities for development; there
are no substitutes for these fundamentals. Gender differences
have also been found, such that men experience enrichment
from work to family, while women experience depletion from
work to family. While women experience enrichment from
family to work, men experience no links from family to work
(Rothbard1999). Furthermore, Gallups US research
concluded that women tend to find more fulfilment in their
jobs and are more engaged than men are (Johnson 2004).

Practitioners and academics tend to agree that the

consequences of employee engagement are positive (Saks
2006). There is a general belief that there is a connection
between employee engagement and business results; a metaanalysis conducted by Harter et al (2002:272) confirms this
connection. Kahn (1992) proposed that high levels of
engagement lead to both positive outcomes for individuals,
(e.g. quality of peoples work and their own experiences of
doing that work), as well as positive organisational-level
outcomes (e.g. the growth and productivity of organisations).
The Gallup Organisation (2004) found critical links between
employee engagement, customer loyalty, business growth and
profitability.
It is worth considering how employee engagement levels vary
across occupations, industries and globally. A useful
comparison between a range of demographic segments, from
job
level
(senior
executive,
director/manager,
supervisor/foreman, specialist/professional, non-management
salaried and non-management hourly) to industry category
(non-profit, high tech, heavy manufacturing, insurance,
pharmaceuticals, hospital and finance/banking) was carried
out by researchers at Towers Perrin (2003), who found a
pattern across the segments. Each group had only a small

Employee engagement also depends on the manager or

supervisor. Cufaude (2004) argues that when managers
employ a philosophy of servant-leadership, whereby a
managers primary role is in supporting and serving those
around them, the environment becomes highly engaged.
Soltis (2004) argues in order to create a highly engaged
environment managers must be engaged; if managers arent

157

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

engaged its unlikely employees will respond to any efforts to

engage them

The collected data was summarised and organised for further

analysis. Data analysis was performed on SPSS version 16.0
to derive relevant information from the data collected. Data
was collected and inferences were drawn.

More than 100 studies have affirmed the connection between

employee engagement and performance, but the Towers
Watson 2013 Global Workforce Study 32,000 employees
across 30 countries makes the most powerful, bottom line
case yet for the connection between how we feel at work and
how we perform. This new study concludes that the traditional
definition of engagement the willingness to invest
discretionary effort on the job is no longer sufficient to fuel
top performance in a world of relentlessly increasing demand.
The problem is that "willing" doesn't guarantee "able."

A. Respondents Details
72 among 107 respondents are from age group of 20-30 and
rest belongs to age group of 30-40.38 are Female and 69 are
Male. Respondents belong to Different parts of India.
B. Research Design

What's required now is something called "sustainable

engagement." The key factor, the study finds, is a work
environment that more fully energizes employees by
promoting their physical, emotional and social well-being.

III. OBJECTIVES

The employees must be engaged in productive and

challenging tasks so that they do not lose their focus and avoid
conflicts and unnecessary disputes. An employee must be
engaged in his work for maximum output. More recently
employee engagement has become an area of focus within
organizations for the purpose of retention as a means of
avoiding expensive employee replacement costs resulting
from staff who voluntarily quit their jobs. [ According to
SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) the cost of
replacing one $8 per hour employee can exceed $3,500, which
gives companies a strong financial incentive to maintain their
existing staff members through strong employee engagement
practices. Different dimensions, which a work place can offer,
are responsible in bringing employee engagement Prime
objective of this study is to explore following various
dimensions which lead to employee engagement:

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

Data collected was primary as it was collected from

means of questionnaire from employees of IT and
Pharma sector
A structured questionnaire consisting of close ended
questions was used for the purpose of this study
A Likert Scale a five point scale was used in the
questionnaire administered for the studies ranging
from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

C. Sampling Frame

Sampling Unit Employees of pharmaceutical and

IT sector
Sampling Size 107

D. Tools used for analysis

Data Analysis was conducted using (Statistical Package for
Social Science) Version 16.0 .The collected data is coded,
tabulated and analyzed with the help of SPSS version 16.0
using Kaiser Meyer Olkin sampling adequacy and factor
analysis with varimax rotation.

Growth opportunities within the organisation

Work life balance
Supervisor- subordinate relationship
Physical resources availability
Rewards and recognition
Clear policies and open communication
Fair compensation policies
Adequate training for skill up gradation
Role clarity
Pride in working for the company

V. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

Reliability test was first applied on the collected data.
Cronbachs Alpha coefficient on 14 items has been found as
.903, suggesting that the items have relatively high internal
consistency.
TABLE. 1 RELIABILITY STATISTICS

IV. METHODOLOGY
The Objectives of the study were set up and research
methodology was determined. Questionnaire containing
fourteen items were distributed to employees of different
organisations.

158

Cronbach's
Alpha

Cronbach's
Alpha Based on
Standardized
Number
Items
Items

.900

.903

14

of

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

Considerate
supervisor

Factor analysis was employed to confirm the major parameters

defining the whole questionnaire. It was used as a data
reduction technique to reduce the number of significant
parameters or in other words to remove redundant variables
from the data files.

and

sympathetic
.611

Open sharing of information and ideas

.529

2. Career Growth opportunities

4.228 of 10.618%

It was found that grand mean of all parameters was 3.16 which
shows that most of the response of the employees for all the
parameters are between neutral and agree. As the grand mean
of S.D is 1.05 it shows that there is a variation in response for
all the parameters.

Employees opinion and ideas count

.512

Opportunities to grow

.639

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure
of
Sampling
Adequacy is a statistic that indicates the proportion of
variance in variables that might be caused by underlying
factors.KMO measures sampling adequacy which should be
greater than 0.5 for a satisfactory analysis to proceed. High
values .881 indicate that a factor analysis is useful with data.

Open sharing of information and ideas

.639

Chances to
knowledge

.614

Bartlett's test of sphericity tests the null hypothesis that

correlation matrix is an identity matrix, which would indicate
that variables are unrelated and therefore unsuitable for
structure detection. Value less than .05 reject the null
hypothesis and suggest that all items are perfectly correlated
with each other.

Fair policies
advancement

Confirmatory factor analysis, out of the 14 factors selected for

measuring employee engagement, three were found to be
having Eigen values greater than 1. 63.28% data is represented
by these 3 factors.

Independence and responsibility

and

Fair compensation

.526

3. Job Enrichment

2.226 of 7.592%

Work life balance

.796

Physically comfortable place to work

.794

Fair compensation

.636

Presence of Employee engagement at IT and Pharma

sector
3 factors i.e. satisfactory work environment, career
growth opportunities, and Job enrichment is responsible
for bringing employee engagement at work places.
VII. LIMITATIONS OF THESTUDY

Employees opinion and ideas count

skill

.732

.566

TABLE.2 MAJOR FACTORS

Satisfactory
work
environment
4.694 of 45.073%

Respect and recognition

improve

and

Job role clarity

Factor loadings were identified using rotated component

matrix. 3 factors satisfactory Work environment, Growth
opportunities and job enrichment have emerged as major
factor driving employee engagement...

Motivating and fulfilling work

environment
Pride in working with organisation

promotion

VI. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The component matrix gives the factor loading .loadings

above 0.6 are considered high and below 0.5 are
considered low. Rotated component matrix suppresses all
loadings lesser than 0.5

1.

for

.742

Findings of the study cannot generalised to employees of

other industry as data was collected from employees of 2
industry i.e. IT and Pharma
Psychological factors such as self motivation, perception
of employee towards job, attitudes, and preferences have
not taken into consideration into the study.
All the respondents taken part in this research belongs to
age group of 20-40 so findings cannot be generalised to
employees of higher age group.

.735
VIII. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PRACTICES IN IT AND PHARMA
SECTOR IN INDIA

.712

India is a developing country and growing IT and Pharma

companies contribute most to Indias growth. Information
technology has played a key role in putting India at front
position in worlds economy. IT sector in India is known to

.704
.661

159

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

providing different services and outsourcing to the world and

its Indias biggest employment generating sector.

satisfied with engagement practices and attrition is also low

than industry average

The Pharmaceutical industry in India is the world's thirdlargest in terms of volume and stands 14th in terms of value.
Both the sectors provide jobs to millions of people in India. To
achieve the sustainable competitive advantage in terms of
employee retention and to fight with growing attrition different
companies have been adopting different employee engagement
practices.

Almost all organisations to which respondents belong have

now started connecting CSR activities with employee
engagement, giving day off to employee to do social work and
make a difference in society. Flexi work policies though a new
concept in India Inc. But many organisations have started pilot
projects to measure its success and it seems to have great
impact over employee engagement. Mentoring, effective
grievance redressal system, Talent mobility is among other
efforts made by organisations to engage employees. At
Accenture An hour that helps where employees can donate
their unused leaves to colleagues who need additional paid
leaves .It aims to bring coordination among colleagues.

In this Research majority of the respondents belong to Tata

Consultancy Services (TCS) Mumbai and Pune offices. TCS
has a comprehensive employee engagement program.
The average age of a TCS employee is in high twenties, and at
this age main motivation is the possibility of career evolution.
TCS focus a lot on training: when a fresh college graduate is
recruited, he can undergo up to 6 months of training depending
upon is discipline, to make sure the employee understands the
job and the industry. If he is already experienced, he goes
through an integration program. Besides that, client training,
project training and a regular development programs are also
there. In this way TCS identify the employees with the best
performance and try to do as many rotations of personnel, so
that they go up the value chain. This is one aspect: the learning
development career progression. Salaries are at par with
Industry-standard since employees spend a lot of time at work,
they make sure to provide them with the best facilities possible:
canteen, gym, yoga classes, dance classes They try to enable
their people to do part of their hobbies at the workplace. CSR
policy is to make employees participate in what they are doing
.They make sure that the managers are well trained and are
grooming their people. Encourage managers to give employees
opportunities and treat them fairly and always stay customer
oriented.

Another new employee engagement concept is tailored

engagement policies for female employees for e.g. Accenture
offers security escorts and dedicated medical cabs for
expecting mother, Run the mummier programme at SAP India
which provide cab facility, official buddy, maternity and child
care benefits. Women at accor generation program at Accor
to enable women employee to share and exchange their ideas.
IX. CONCLUSION
This study has concluded that most of the employees in
Pharma and IT sectors are engaged as most of the responses
were on the positive side with minor improvement needed to
done to increase employee engagement level. Satisfactory
work environment, Opportunities to grow and job enrichment
have emerged as prime factor behind employee engagement.
If corporations wish to motivate and engage their workforce, a
one-size fits all approach will not work. In this study All
respondent belongs to age group of 20-40 and out of which
more than 90% are below 30 or Gen X employees and as all
respondent belong to fast growing industries like IT and
Pharma where abundant job opportunities are available, it can
further be concluded that these employees give more value to
work culture or environment, growth opportunities and job
satisfaction and as plenty of job opportunities are available for
them, they do not hesitate to quit the job if they do not feel
engaged so to retain them or engage them it is imperative for
the organisations to adopt all measures to engage them.

In a bid to strengthen its communication processes, the

software major has introduced a new HR practice called
Proactive Employee Engagement Program (PEEP).Prior to
this, the company introduced yet another HR initiative titled
PROPEL a global associate engagement What exactly is
PEEP all about? These are individual employee meetings
across functions and grades. In this programme, associates get
to talk directly one-on-one with the senior management.

Engagement is a measure where inputs vary in the overall

engagement equation across organizations. One company
cannot necessarily imitate the engagement practices or use the
engagement variables of another to achieve success. The job
of managers and human resources professionals responsible
for engagement is to know that there are generational
differences, and that the engagement drivers for their company
will not always be the same as their leading competitor,
business partner, or parent company. By buying into this
notion, leaders should begin conversations in their own
organizations in pushing to learn which drivers they can adjust

After TCS majority of employees are from Infosys, another IT

giant. Since Infosys has been struggling with attrition for last
3-4 years now they have come up with new employee
engagement practices along with prevalent practices. Infosys
Social Edge Employee Engagement is one of the most popular
engagement initiatives.
Growth opportunities, remunerations, co ordination among
field colleagues, learning and development make Cipla one of
the best organisations to work with. Employees here are

160

European Journal of Commerce and Management Research (EJCMR)

www.ejcmr.org

[17] Scarlett, Ken (2010) "Quality Employee Engagement

Measurement" Pages 108-122 as featured in "The New HR
Analytics" by Dr. Jac Fitz-enz
[18] Shaw, K. (2005) An engagement strategy process for
communicators, Strategic Communication Management, Vol
9, No 3, pp26-29.
[19] Smith, Kendall, & Hulin (1969). The measurement of
satisfaction in work and retirement: A strategy for the study of
attitudes.
[20] The
Gallup
Organisation
[online]
Available
at:
www.gallup.com. Accessed 28th march 2013
[21] Truss, C., Soane, E., Edwards, C., Wisdom, K., Croll, A. and
Burnett, J. (2006) Working Life: Employee Attitudes and
Engagement 2006. London, CIPD.
[22] Wah, L. (1999). Engaging employees a big challenge.
Management Review, 88(9), 10
[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement Accessed
on 30th march 2013
[24] http://www.dalecarnegie.com/assets/1/7/driveengagement_101
612_wp.pdf Accessed on 30th march 2013
[25] http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2013/11/creating-sustainableemployee.html Accessed on 1st April 2013
[26] http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=113614 Accessed on 1st April
2013
[27] http://www.arnoldbakker.com/workengagement.php Accessed
on 1st April 2013
[28] http://mairec.org/ Accessed on 4th April 2013.

to increase engagement, and which drivers they must protect

to prevent decreases in engagement across generations. At
macro level organisations need to provide resources, tools and
over all work place environments that supports engagement
and at micro level, employees with managers help need to
establish a thriving personal connection with their work and
carve out a satisfying future in the organisation
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]

[10]
[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]
[15]

[16]

Vol-2, Issue 7
July 2013

Baumruk, R. (2004) the missing link: the role of employee

engagement in business success, Workspan, Vol. 47, pp48-52.
Ferguson, A. (2007) Employee engagement: Does it exist, and
if so, how does it relate to Performance, other constructs
andindividualdifferences?[Online]Athttp://www.lifethatworks.
com/EmployeeEngagement.prn.pdf[Accessed 20thMarch 2013]
Frank, F.D., Finnegan, R.P. and Taylor, C.R. (2004) the race
for talent: retaining and Engaging workers in the 21 st century,
Human Resource Planning, Vol 27, No 3, pp12-25.
Kahn, W.A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal
engagement and disengagement at Work. Academy of
Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724.
Harter, J.K., Schmidt, F.L. and Keyes, C.L. (2002) Well-being
in the workplace and its relationship to business outcomes: A
review of the Gallup studies, in Keyes, C.L. and Haidt, J.
(Eds) Flourishing: The Positive Person and the Good Life,
pp205-224. American Psychological Association, Washington
D.C.
Johnson, G. (2004) Otherwise engaged, Training, Vol 41, No
10, p4.
Johnson, M. (2004) Gallup study reveals workplace
disengagement
in
Thailand,
The
GallupManagementJournal,12thMay.[online]Availableat:http://
gmj.gallup.com/content/16306/3/Gallup-Study-RevealsWorkplace-Disengagementin.aspx. Accessed 27 th March 2013
Holbeche, L. and Springett, N. (2003) In Search of Meaning in
the Workplace. Horsham, Roffey Park.
Kahn, W.A. (1990) Psychological conditions of personal
engagement and disengagement at work, Academy of
Management Journal, Vol 33, pp692-724.
Maslach, C. Schaufelli, W.B. and Leiter, M.P. (2001) Job
burnout, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol 52, pp397-422.
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 Organisational Psychology, Vol
77, pp11-37.
Meyer & Allen (1991). A three component conceptualization of
organizational commitment. Human Resource Management
Review, 1, 61-89
Rothbard, N. (1999) Enriching or depleting? The dynamics of
engagement in work and family. Dissertation Abstracts
International US: University Microfilms International, 59 (10A)
Soltis, B. (2004) in Lanphear, S. (2004) Are your employees
highly engaged?Credit Union Executive Newsletter, 19
Schaufeli, W.B. and Bakker, A.B. (2004) Job demands, job
resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement:
a multi-sample study, Journal of Organisational Behaviour,
Vol 25, pp293-315.
Saks, A.M. (2006) Antecedents and consequences of employee
engagement, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol 21, No 6,
pp600-619

161