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The Art of
Engaging Unionised
Employees
Jan Hendrick Nel

Bennie Linde
The Art of Engaging Unionised Employees
Jan Hendrick Nel • Bennie Linde
The Art of Engaging

Unionised Employees
Jan Hendrick Nel Bennie Linde
People and Business Solutions Economic and Management Faculty
BDO South Africa North-West University
Johannesburg, South Africa Potchefstroom, South Africa
ISBN 978-981-13-2196-2 ISBN 978-981-13-2197-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2197-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953989
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore
189721, Singapore
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Emergence of the Employee Engagement Concept 11
3 Antecedents and Outcomes Associated with High Levels

of Engagement 35
4 Circumstances That Influence Engagement in a Unionised

Environment 45
5 Engaging Unionised Employees 61
6 Framework for Engaging Unionised Employees 81
7 Discussion and Conclusion 101
References 109
Index 119
v
About the Authors
Jan Hendrick Nel is the HR director for BDO South Africa and the
head of BDO People and Business Solutions. Nel holds a master’s degree
in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations and is cur-
rently working on his PhD. He has many years of international experience,
representing BDO Sub Sahara Africa on the BDO International HR and
Development Committee. Nel is a member of the South African Board of
Professional Practitioners as a Master Practitioner.
Bennie Linde is an associate professor at the North-West University in
South Africa. He is a member of the Faculty of Economic and Management
Sciences of the School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource
Management where he teaches under- and postgraduate modules in
employment relations management and supervises masters and PhD stu-
dents. Linde is the chairperson of the Economic and Management Sciences
Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University. He has been an
active employment relations practitioner for more than two decades.
vii
Acronyms
ASTD The American Society for Training and Development

CIMO Context, Interventions, Mechanisms and Outcomes
EOR Employee-Organisation Relationship
HPWO High-Performance Work Organisations and Environments
HRM Human Resource Management
JD-R Job Demands-Resource Model
LME Leader Member Exchange
OCB Organisational Citizenship Behaviours
ROA Return on Assets
SET Social Exchange Theory
SHRM Society for Human Resources
UWES Utrecht Work Engagement Scale
ix
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 PRISMA-style flow of information through stages 1–4 of the

evidence synthesis 8
Fig. 6.1 Framework of engagement in a unionised environment 94
xi
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Seminal works of employee engagement 17

Table 2.2 Engagement scales 31
Table 3.1 Antecedents associated with high levels of engagement 38
Table 3.2 Positive outcomes associated with engagement 41
Table 4.1 External factors that influence engagement levels in a
unionised environment 57
Table 5.1 Antecedents associated with high levels of engagement in a
Table 6.1 Prevailing antecedents and additional antecedents discovered
associated with high levels of engagement in a unionised
environment88
Table 6.2 Outcomes associated with high levels of engagement in a
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract This chapter is an overview of the systematic review and narra-

tive evidence synthesis from the literature on engagement to develop a
new framework to increase the low levels of engagement in a unionised
environment. Although much has been written on engagement, no
research has been done to understand employee engagement in a union-
ised environment. Various propositions emerged from the systematic
review and the evidence synthesis of the literature to create a conceptual
framework on how to increase the engagement levels in a unionised envi-
ronment. Findings show that employee engagement can be fostered in
organisations with a unionised presence by focusing on job design factors,
trust and integrity, individual characteristics, collaborative partnerships,
employee voice, human resources management practices and leadership
and line managers’ behaviour as antecedents to engagement.
Keywords Conceptual framework • Employee engagement • Narrative

evidence synthesis • Systematic review
Organisations are increasingly challenged to develop strategies to manage

their human resources in difficult times, and one of the strategies proposed
is embracing employee engagement (CIPD 2012). Employee engagement
has become one of the most popular topics in management and the past
decade has seen an explosion of research and heightened interest in the
© The Author(s) 2019 1

J. H. Nel, B. Linde, The Art of Engaging Unionised Employees,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2197-9_1
2 J. H. NEL AND B. LINDE
concept (Saks and Gruman 2014). Employee engagement proposes a

reciprocal employment relationship between employers and employees,
creating a mutually beneficial relationship that is a key factor for an organ-
isation’s success, sustained competitive advantage and profitability (Saks
and Gruman 2014).
The meaning of engagement might be easy to recognise in practice, but
difficult to define and no widely accepted definition of engagement is cur-
rently in use (Saks and Gruman 2014; Schaufeli 2013). Engagement has
been plagued by disagreement about its nature, since it was conceptualised
by Kahn (1990), due to its overlap with other traditional concepts
(Schaufeli 2013). The most evident overlap is with job-related attitudes,
job behaviour and behavioural intentions, health and well-being, and per-
sonality traits (Schaufeli 2013).
Whittington et al. (2017) mention that researchers have described
engagement as the conditions that lead to engagement, while others sug-
gest that engagement is a personality trait and some view engagement as a
state of motivation. The state approach to engagement, according to
Whittington et al. (2017), reflects Kahn’s (1990) conceptualisation of
engagement as “the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their
work roles: in engagement, people employ and express themselves physi-
cally, cognitively, emotionally and mentally during role performance”
(p. 694).
Kahn’s (1990) conceptual work was the first to provide a foundation
for the theoretical development of employee engagement. His further
quests for understanding of the self-in-role process and the roles people
occupy at work led to Kahn (1990) creating the term “engagement”.
Kahn (1990) defined personal engagement as “the harnessing of organisa-
tion members’ selves to their work roles: in engagement, people employ
and express themselves physically, cognitively, emotionally and mentally
during role performance” (Kahn 1990, p. 694).
It seems that organisations believe that by managing a range of vari-
ables, known as antecedents of engagement, they can effectively manage
the consequences of engagement and increase the engagement levels of its
employees (Saks and Gruman 2014). Crawford et al. (2014) are of the
opinion that the majority of the antecedents reflects the three psychologi-
cal conditions identified by Kahn (1990) in his foundational theory,
namely meaningfulness, safety and availability. The theme underlying
Kahn’s (1990) research is that the individuals’ perception of the organisa-
tion, job and personal characteristics affects the experience of the three
INTRODUCTION 3
psychological conditions, which in turn guide the individuals’ decisions to

engage more completely in their work roles (Crawford et al. 2014).
The consequences of high engagement levels are promoted to be what
most organisations are pursuing (Bailey et al. 2015). High levels of
engagement can lead to enhanced employee performance, and in turn
higher profitability, revenue generation and organisational growth
(Christian et al. 2011; Rich et al. 2010; Macey and Schneider 2008;
Holbeche and Springett 2003; Harter et al. 2002; Wollard and Shuck
2011). Engagement and employee retention have emerged as a leading
concern for organisations and those that actively enhance employee
engagement will accomplish something that their competitors will find
difficult to replicate (Kumar and Swetha 2011). Employee engagement
has the potential to enhance both individual well-being and organisational
performance, circumventing the traditional trade-offs and tension that
exists between employer and employees within the human resource and
industrial relations domains (Truss et al. 2013).
Although engagement has become increasingly mainstream in manage-
ment over the past decade, it has been reported that engagement is on the
decline worldwide and that there is a deepening disengagement among
employees (Saks 2006). According to Gallup (2014), as cited in Bersin
(2015), disengagement is a worldwide trend and that only 13% of employ-
ees were “highly” engaged and that 26% were “actively” disengaged. This
trend validates concerns about the levels of disengagement, as disengaged
employees display counterproductive workplace behaviour that impacts
negatively on business outcomes (Whittington et al. 2017).
Research of Donais (2010) and Tyler (2009) suggests that unionised
employees are less engaged than their non-union counterparts are.
According to Crabtree (2006), a study that was published in the Gallup
Management Journal shows that 26% of union employees and 35% of
non-union employees engaged, that 50% of union employees and 50% of
union employees are disengaged and that 23% of union employees and
15% on non-union employees are actively disengaged. Gallup, according
to Crabtreee (2006, p. 3), defines engaged employees as “employees
who work with a passion and feel a profound connection to their com-
pany, that they drive innovation and move the organisation forward”.
Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are essentially “checked out,
they sleepwalk through their workday, putting time, but not energy or
passion into their work”. Actively disengaged employees aren’t just
unhappy at work; they are busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day,
these workers undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish.
Employees often join unions in an attempt to increase satisfaction, but
never achieve the same satisfaction levels as their non-unionised peers
(Sheridan and Anderson 2013). Guest and Conway (2002) postulate that
their dissatisfaction may have something to do with being a union m ember.
While workers join trade unions to benefit from their collective member-
ship, there are very limited returns by way of specific outcomes or greater
voice (Guest and Conway 2002). According to Donais (2010), the rea-
son for the higher disengagement levels amongst unionised employees is
the relationship the union has with its employer. The impact of disen-
gagement in companies with a union presence is often more significant,
since union members’ dissatisfaction can spread to their co-workers and
lead to overall negative sentiments towards the organisation as a whole
(Sheridan and Anderson 2013). Furthermore, union members are more
likely to remain with one organisation throughout their careers and their
dissatisfaction will impact on the engagement levels of the entire work-
force and have an adverse impact on any engagement efforts (Sheridan
and Anderson 2013).
Research on engagement has exclusively focused on non-union employ-
ees, which is questionable, because there is an increasing understanding
that the development of employee potential cannot exclusively be focused
on non-union employees (Donais 2010). Understanding engagement in a
unionised environment is just as important as engagement in a non-
unionised environment, due to the correlation between engagement and
positive individual and organisational outcomes (Sheridan and Anderson
2013).
The differences between unionised and non-unionised employees,
however, make engaging unionised employees more challenging (Donais
2010). Employers see the value of engaging all employees, but fail to suc-
cessfully implement engagement strategies in unionised environments,
leading to resentment as they realise that unions can directly influence the
outcomes of engagement efforts (Donais 2010).
The problem is that unionised employees are less engaged than non-
unionised employees, and although a wide range of frameworks have been
developed to explain engagement, no framework has been developed to
explain how engagement levels of unionised employees can be increased.
The purpose of this book is to develop an engagement framework that will
address the low levels of engagement in a unionised environment.
INTRODUCTION 5
The claim that unionised employees are less engaged than non-
unionised employees has not previously been tested through a systematic
review. We will present the findings of a narrative evidence synthesis that
focusses on the following five questions:
1. How has engagement been defined and conceptualised within aca-

demic and practitioner literature?
2. What do academics and practitioners recognise as conditions for
high levels of engagement?
3. What reported circumstances influence engagement levels in a
unionised environment?
4. What approaches and interventions have the greatest potential to
create and embed high levels of engagement in a unionised
environment?
5. What could a framework for engagement in a unionised environ-
ment look like in order to increase engagement levels?
The identification of relevant literature streams was based on these five

questions.
Kahn’s (1990, 1992) model of engagement and disengagement was
adopted and extended on to create a framework to employee engagement
in a unionised environment. Following Kahn’s (1990, 1992) and Rich
et al.’s (2010) conceptualisation of engagement, the framework will view
engagement as the investment of an individual’s complete self, physically,
cognitively and emotionally during role performance.
Literature Review Method

To address these issues a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the
evidence on employee engagement literature was conducted.
This narrative evidence synthesis adopted the guidelines establish by
Briner and Denyer (2012) to determine the quality, relevance, transpar-
ency, replicability and credibility of research. We followed the five steps
outlined by Briner and Denyer (2012), namely planning, structured
search, evaluating material against agreed eligibility criteria, analysis and
thematic coding, and reporting.
The search strategy adopted a dual approach. As the focus of the review
was academic in nature, the review of literature was primarily focused
only on academic works, including seminal publications, frameworks
and models that informed the academic conceptualisation of employee

engagement; and the second focused on a review of practitioners’ litera-
ture. The data was collected through a structured search of literature on
engagement using an exact phrase search approach across a number of
databases and different disciplines in the field of psychology, business
management, economics, sociology, philosophy and industrial relations.
The search was confined to literature which was published after 1990,
when Kahn (1990) published his seminal work on engagement. The
search strategy was further improved by citation tracking, scanning refer-
ence lists, endnotes and footnotes for additional material not identified by
the databases.
The structured search yielded 382 sources form the various fields which
were extracted and considered for data analysis using the context, inter-
ventions, mechanisms and outcomes (CIMO) method to map the issues,
focus the question and test their logic (Denyer and Transfield 2009).
Using the CIMO framework led to the exclusion of 194 records,
because it did not meet the inclusion criteria. The net result was that only
188 literature sources were eligible for further assessment. The 188
sources were critically evaluated against inclusion criteria and data was
extracted from the included material as the basis of the synthesis. A further
58 sources were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria.
Complete versions of the 130 sources were shortlisted in order to evaluate
and data extract from them.
The purpose of including practitioner’s literature review was to include
any relevant materials in this evidence synthesis to enhance rigour and,
specifically to address question five, to consider what materials and tools
from this wider resource might be of relevance to practitioners in the
unionised context. In the end, only 13 sources of relevant, good-quality
evidence were identified, from which 14 items describing various tools and
resources were obtained. Analysis of these materials identified a number of
important themes linked to engagement, including meaningfulness, lead-
ership, line manager’s behaviour, performance reviews, trust and employee
voice. Although there were broad similarities between the overall themes
in the academic and the practitioners’ literature concerning engagement,
the review of the practitioners’ material focuses more on wider managerial
and human resources issues rather than on the psychological factors of
engagement.
The shortlisted sources were organised according to their specific rele-
vance to the questions. After the systematic review of all the studies r elating
INTRODUCTION 7
to the review questions, a narrative synthesis of the evidence was per-

formed to synthesise the evidence as proposed by (Briner and Denyer
2012). The topic of engagement has reached a sufficient stage of maturity
to warrant a narrative review in order to synthesise the current evidence-
base and provide a foundation for advancing the knowledge in engage-
ment in a unionised environment.
The purpose of this was to identify emerging themes from the literature
to narrate the findings from the various studies together to develop new
insights into engagement in general, and within the context of a unionised
environment. The approach to synthesising the data mirrors that sug-
gested by Popay et al. (2006, pp. 11–16), who argued that a narrative
synthesis should seek to explore the relationships in the extracted data
within and between studies. Emerging themes in the data were identified
and clustered together.
A synthesis of the emerging themes was done by analysing the relation-
ship between data and its contents and a framework was constructed from
the new themes. The evidence was presented in the final framework, which
provides a comprehensive, logically derived conceptual framework of the
antecedents and consequences of engagement in a unionised environment
that can be used in empirical studies on this topic.
The robustness of the study was ensured by the amount of studies that
was included and the quality of the studies. The application of quality and
relevance criteria led to the inclusion of 70 empirical journal articles, 7
research papers and 3 dissertations and 38 books published by leaders in
their field in the final data extraction exercise.
The flow of information through the stages of the evidence synthesis is
depicted in Fig. 1.1, the PRISMA-style flow chart of reporting the inclu-
sion and exclusion of sources. The flow diagram depicts the flow of infor-
mation through the different phases of a systematic review. It maps out the
number of records identified, included and excluded.
In Chap. 2 an overview of the employee engagement concept is pro-
vided. We explore the origins of engagement that led to the existing con-
ceptualisation of engagement in the literature. The current
conceptualisation of engagement develops a better understanding of the
engagement construct to adopt the most appropriate framework to
increase the engagement levels of employees in a unionised environment.
Various researched and validated antecedents and outcomes associated
with high levels of engagement are identified in Chap. 3. Analysing the
Identification Sources identified through exact Additional sources identified

phrase searching through other sources
(n=212) (n=170)
Sources excluded because they

Screening
Sources screened using CIMO

did not meet inclusion criteria
(n=382)
(n=194)
Sources assessed for eligibility based Sources excluded because they

Eligibility
on research questions did not meet eligibility criteria

(n=188) (n=58)
Sources included in
Included
qualitative synthesis
(n=130)
Fig. 1.1 PRISMA-style flow of information through stages 1–4 of the evidence
synthesis
data on the antecedents and outcomes enabled us to identify additional

antecedents which have the greatest potential to increase the engagement
levels in a u
nionised environment. Engaging unionised employees requires
a different approach due to the nature of the employment relationship
and the environmental context in which the relationship takes place; this
is discussed in Chap. 4. In Chap. 5 we identify the possible reasons for
union member dissatisfaction and identify factors associated with health-
ier union and employer relationships. Chapter 6 provides the findings of
the narrative synthesis focusing on 11 propositions to develop the con-
ceptual engagement framework. The framework explains how the indi-
vidual and organisational antecedent factors can be linked to engagement,
INTRODUCTION 9
which in turn leads to positive individual and organisational outcomes.

Our review of the literature is concluded in Chap. 7 with a discussion on
the findings of our narrative evidence synthesis and our contribution to
the development of the theory on engagement.
References
Bailey, C., Madden, A., Alfes, K., & Fletcher, L. (2015). The meaning, anteced-
ents and outcomes of employee engagement: A narrative synthesis. International
Journal of Management Reviews, 00, 1–23. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/
ijmr.12077
Bersin, J. (2015). Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement.
Deloitte.
Briner, R., & Denyer, D. (2012). Systematic review and evidence synthesis as a
practice and scholarship tool. In D. Rousseau (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of
Evidence-Based Management (pp. 112–119). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A
qualitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance.
Personnel Psychology, 64, 89–136.
CIPD. (2012). Managing employee relations in difficult times. London: Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development.
Crabtree, S. (2006, May). Can Managers Engage Unionized Employees? The
Gallup Management Journal. Retrieved from http://www.gmj.gallup.com
Crawford, E. R., Rich, B. L., Buckman, B., & Bergeron, J. (2014). The anteced-
ents and drivers of employee engagement. In C. Truss, R. Delbridge, K. Alfes,
A. Shantz, & E. Soane, Employee engagement in theory and practice
(pp. 57–81). New York: Routledge.
Denyer, D., & Transfield, D. (2009). Producing a systematic review (D. Buchanan,
& A. Bryman, Eds.). London: Sage.
Donais, Blaine. (2010). Engaging unionised employees: Employee morale and
productivity. Ontario, Canada: Thomson Reuters.
Guest, D. E., & Conway, N. (2002). Pressure at work and the psychological con-
tract. London: CIPD.
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relation-
ship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business out-
comes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 268–279.
Holbeche, L., & Springett, N. (2003). In Search of Meaning in the Workplace.
Horsham: Roffey Park.
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disen-
gagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.
Kahn, W. A. (1992). To Be Fully There: Psychological Presence at Work. Human
Relations 45(4), 321–349.
Kumar, P., & Swetha, G. (2011). A prognostic examination of employee engage-

ment from its historical roots. International Journal of Trade, Economics and
Finance, 2(3), 232.
Macey, W., & Schneider, B. (2008). The Meaning of Employee Engagement.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3–30.
Popay, J., Roberts, H., Sowden, A., Petticrew, M., Arai, L., Rodgers, M., … Duffy,
S. (2006). Guidance on the Conduct of Narrative Synthesis in Systematic
Reviews: Final Report. Swindon: ESRC Research Methods Programme.
Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents
and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3),
614–635.
Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600–619.
Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2014). What do we really know about employee
engagement. Human Resources Development Quarterly, 25(2), 155–182.
Schaufeli, W. (2013). Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice (C. Truss,
K. Alfes, R. Delbridge, A. Shantz, & E. Soane, Eds.). London: Routledge.
Sheridan, K., & Anderson, K. (2013, July 24). HR Solutions eNews. Retrieved
July 24, 2013, from http://avatarsolutions.com/resources/enews-0311/
Unionized-0311.html
Truss, C., Shantz, A., Soane, E., Alfes, K., & Delbridge, R. (2013). Employee
engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being: Exploring
the evidence, developing the theory. The International Journal of Human
Resources Management, 24(14), 2657–2669.
Tyler, J. (2009). Employee Engagement and Labour Relations. Retrieved May 31,
2013, from businessjournal.gallup.com: http://businessjournal.gallup.com
Whittington, J., Meskelis, S., Asare, E., & Beldona, S. (2017). Enhancing
Employee Engagement: An Evidence-Based Approach. Cham, Switzerland:
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CHAPTER 2
The Emergence of the Employee

Engagement Concept
Abstract This chapter explores the development of engagement

through a historical lens using a systematic review of the literature to
gain a better understanding of the concepts and frameworks on engage-
ment to develop a foundation for a new framework to address the low
levels of engagement in a unionised environment. Literature indicates
that there are several definitions of employee engagement in existence
and yet there is a lack of consensus regarding the meaning and distinc-
tiveness of employee engagement from other constructs (Saks and
Gruman, Hum Resour Dev Q 25(2): 155–182, 2014). Just as there are
several definitions of employee engagement, several theories of engage-
ment exist. There are four major theoretical approaches to define the
existing state of engagement, namely the need-satisfying approach, the
burnout-antithesis approach, the satisfaction- engagement approach,
and the multidimensional approach (Shuck, Hum Resour Dev Rev
10(3): 304–328, 2011).
Keywords Conceptualisation of engagement • Definitions of employee

engagement • Low levels of engagement • Theoretical approaches •
Unionised environment
The purpose to this chapter is to explore the origins and development of

engagement, which led to the existing perspective of engagement to
© The Author(s) 2019 11

J. H. Nel, B. Linde, The Art of Engaging Unionised Employees,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2197-9_2
develop a better understanding of the concepts and frameworks that might

inform the most appropriate framework to increase engagement levels in a
unionised environment.
Employee engagement has become one of the most popular topics in
management and academia, because there is a strong body of research
that indicates that engagement is a key factor for an organisation’s suc-
cess, sustained competitive advantage and profitability (Saks and Gruman
2014).
This trend is consistent with claims that there is a general decrease in
the overall levels of employee engagement (Bersin 2015). In addition to
the overall low levels of engagement observed, engagement levels of
unionised employees are even lower than those of their non-unionised
counterparts (Crabtree 2006). Concerns about the level of employee
engagement are well founded, as it is estimated that the financial costs of
disengagement are globally on the increase (Whittington et al. 2017). Not
only does disengagement have negative financial implications, but disen-
gaged employees often engage in counterproductive workplace behaviour
(Whittington et al. 2017). To sustain business success and counteract low
levels of engagement, organisations are shifting their focus from material-
istic capital to intellectual capital and employee engagement is viewed as
one of the vehicles to achieve this shift (Bhuvanaiah and Raya 2014).
Schaufeli (2013) is of the view that the changes in the nature of work
during the past four decades, and a renewed interest in the psychological
contract, have created the background for the emergence of engagement
in business. The major changes that took place in the world of work were
due to the ongoing transition from traditional to modern organisations.
This transition forced organisations to review, not only their business mod-
els, but also the capabilities of the people they employ. This left unionised
employees vulnerable as unions struggle to respond to these changes.
Schaufeli (2013) mentioned that David Ulrich stated that human capi-
tal becomes increasingly important, since fewer people are required to do
more. Organisations also require employees who are willing to invest in
their jobs psychologically. These changes resulted in the “psychologisation
of the workplace”, which requires a substantial psychological adaption and
involvement from employees (Schaufeli 2013, p. 16). Schaufeli (2013,
p. 16) elaborated that employees need “…psychological capabilities as
modern organisations need employees that are able and willing to invest in
their work psychologically”. Engagement has been proposed as the vehicle
to achieve this.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONCEPT 13
The History of Employee Engagement

The first mention of employee engagement to appear in management lit-
erature was a 1990 Academy of Management Journal article, “Psychological
Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work” (Kahn
1990). Kahn’s (1990) conceptual work was the first to provide a founda-
tion for the theoretical development of employee engagement. Although
much of today’s research refers to Kahn’s work as the theoretical under-
pinning of employee engagement, it took another decade before the theo-
retical ideas received significant support from other academics (Welbourne
and Schlachter 2014). Schaufeli (2013) suggests that the reason for the
delay is due to the gradual changes in the world of work and the emer-
gence of the positive psychology movement that has gained significate
momentum since the 1990s.
Conceptually, Kahn began with the work of Goffman (1959), The
Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, who suggested that people’s attach-
ment and detachment to their role varies depending on a person’s interac-
tions during brief, face-to-face encounters. This attachment and
detachment was the starting point for Kahn’s (1990) work towards defin-
ing the self-in-role of people. Although Kahn (1990) agreed with Goffman
(1959), he suggested that a new perspective was needed to understand
engagement in an organisational context. Kahn (1990, p. 694) believed
that “employees act out momentary attachment and detachment in role
performance at work”, a direct reference to Goffman’s (1959) interaction-
ist theory, but specific to the workplace (Shuck and Wollard 2009).
To gain further understanding of the varying levels of attachment indi-
viduals expressed towards their roles, Kahn (1990) examined several disci-
plines and found that individuals feel hesitant to belong to an ongoing
group or system and thereby naturally tend to pull away from and move
towards its membership. As a result, individuals seek to protect themselves
from both isolation and engulfment by alternatively pulling away from and
moving towards their membership. Kahn (1990) stated that the attach-
ment and detachment of people are people’s calibration of self-in-role.
Kahn (1990) termed these calibrations of self-in-role as “personal engage-
ment” and “personal disengagement”. This means behaviour by which
people bring in or leave out their personal selves during work role
performance. Kahn’s (1990) quest of understanding of the self-in-role
process and the roles people occupy at work led to Kahn (1990) creating
the term “engagement”.
Kahn (1990) undertook a qualitative study on the psychological condi-

tions of personal engagement and disengagement and postulated that
there were three psychological conditions related to engagement and dis-
engagement at work. These psychological conditions are meaningfulness,
safety and availability. Kahn (1990) found that people are more engaged
at work in situations that offered them more psychological meaningfulness
and psychological safety, and when they were more psychologically avail-
able. According to Rich et al. (2010), Kahn’s (1990) definition of engage-
ment is a multidimensional motivational construct that involves the
simultaneous investment of an individual’s physical, cognitive and emo-
tional energy in work performance.
Kahn’s conceptualisation of personal engagement would be the only lit-
erature on engagement until early 2001, when Maslach et al. (2001) began
understanding why employees developed job burnout. The burnout-
antithesis approach is the second significant definition of engagement and
defines engagement as the opposite or positive antithesis of burnout (Saks
and Gruman 2014). According to Maslach and Leiter (2008, p. 498),
engagement is the direct opposite of burnout and engagement is defined as
“an energetic state of involvement with personally fulfilling activities that
enhance one’s sense of professional efficacy”. Schaufeli et al. (2002, p. 47)
argued that burnout and engagement are independent states, while main-
taining that engagement is the opposite of burnout and defined engagement
as a “positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by
vigor, dedication and absorption”. Kahn (1990) and Maslach et al. (2001)
provided the earliest theoretical frameworks for understanding employee
engagement and many of the contemporary conceptualisations of engage-
ment are created from their original works (Shuck and Wollard 2009).
The only study to empirically test Kahn’s model, May et al. (2004)
found that all three of Kahn’s (1990) original domains—meaningfulness,
safety and availability—were significantly related to engagement. This
finding suggests “that the framework Kahn (1990) used in his conceptu-
alization is foundational for the scaffolding of the construct” (Shuck and
Wollard 2009, p. 99).
Harter et al. (2002) published one of the earliest consulting articles on
employee engagement. Harter et al. (2002) drew data from a meta-analysis
of business units across multiple fields of industry and was the first to study
employee engagement at a business unit level (Shuck and Wollard 2009).
Harter et al. (2002, p. 417) defined employee engagement as an “indi-
vidual’s involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work”.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONCEPT 15
This definition added the expectation of an individual’s satisfaction level

and altered the way engagement had been previously viewed (Shuck and
Wollard 2010). The satisfaction-engagement approach was primarily
designed as a management tool to improve job performance, but also had
a significant impact in academia as it established meaningful links between
employee engagement and business unit outcomes (Schaufeli 2013). This
article was the trigger for the rapid expansion of interest in the concept of
employee engagement, as it was the first publication that suggested an
employee engagement-profit link (Shuck and Wollard 2009).
The first academic research to conceptualise and test antecedents and
consequences of employee engagement was conducted in 2006 by Saks
(2006). According to Saks (2006) as cited in (Shuck and Wollard 2009), a
stronger theoretical rationale for explaining employee engagement can be
found in social exchange theory (SET). Saks (2006) was the first to sepa-
rate job engagement and organisational engagement into separate types of
employee engagement. As a result, Saks (2006) defined employee engage-
ment as a “distinct and unique construct that consists of cognitive, emo-
tional, and behavioural components that are associated with individual
role performance” (Saks 2006, p. 602). This definition is similar to that of
Kahn (1990) as it also focused on role performance at work. This litera-
ture, according to Shuck and Wollard (2009), encompassed previous
notions that employee engagement was developed from cognitive (Kahn
1990; Maslach et al. 2001), emotional (Harter et al. 2002; Kahn 1990)
and behavioural (Harter et al. 2002; Maslach et al. 2001) components.
Saks (2006) provided an important bridge between early theories of
employee engagement, practitioner literature, and the academic commu-
nity and was the first to propose an empirical model (Shuck & Wollard
2009).
The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) commis-
sioned a publication on employee engagement in 2006 with the aim of
making the concept of employee engagement more accessible to SHRM
members (Shuck and Wollard 2009). Shuck and Wollard (2009) in their
critique of the publication stated that although the publication touched
on key engagement concepts it was not clear and concise and lacked a
single definition of employee engagement. Shuck and Wollard (2009),
however, view the publication as notable as it marked the arrival of profes-
sional bodies into the employee engagement conversation.
Two years after the SHRM study, the American Society for Training
and Development (ASTD) commissioned a study in association with Dale
Carnegie Training to explore employee engagement further (Shuck and

Wollard 2009). This study focused on the role of learning in the employee
engagement construct, marking the first major research into the construct
from a training perspective (Shuck and Wollard 2009). ASTD defined
engagement as “employees who are mentally and emotionally invested in
their work and in contributing to their employer’s success” (Shuck and
Wollard 2009). The results of the study showed a nexus with the “founda-
tional work of Kahn (1990) and Maslach et al. (2001) by creating mean-
ingful work environments, providing opportunities for learning, and
focusing on the experience of the employee” (Shuck and Wollard 2009,
p. 136).
Building on the work of multiple researchers, Macey and Schneider
(2008) pioneered conceptual research in employee engagement. Macey
and Schneider (2008) theorise that employee engagement develops from
trait engagement, psychological state engagement, and behavioural
engagement. Macey and Schneider (2008) drew from previous research
and defined each as a separate engagement construct. From Macey and
Schneider’s (2008, p. 25) perspective, employee engagement is defined by
suggesting that “job design attributes would directly affect trait engage-
ment, the presence of a transformational leader would directly affect state
engagement, and the presence of a transformational leader would directly
affect trust levels and thus, indirectly affect behavioural engagement”. In
this theoretical model, the preceding state of engagement would build on
the next, each developing a piece of the overall employee engagement
construct (Shuck and Wollard 2009). This contribution, which built on
the work of Saks (2006), helped to clear the vague conceptual state of
employee engagement by breaking the engagement construct into distinct
parts, namely job engagement and organisation engagement (Shuck and
Wollard 2009). In a seminal review of the foundations of engagement,
Shuck and Wollard (2009) identified the major contributors to the overall
development of the employee engagement concept of which an adapted
summary appears in Table 2.1.
The Psychology of Employee Engagement

Positive psychology helps us to understand why engaged employees flour-
ish and thrive as research supports the view that engagement is a distinc-
tive positive concept (Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny 2014). Positive
psychology was born out of Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi’s (2000)
Table 2.1 Seminal works of employee engagement
Article citation/ Year Contribution Definition of engagement Research type Key concepts
author
Kahn 1990 Published early theoretical Kahn (1990, p. 694) “Personal Empirical: Physical, cognitive
The needs satisfying framework of personal engagement as the harnessing of Ethnographic and emotional
approach engagement and organisation members’ selves to research presence during
disengagement their work roles; in engagement, role performance
Defined engagement as people employ and express
separate concept themselves physically, cognitively
Accredited with first and emotionally during role
application and use of performance”
engagement theory to the
workplace
Conceptualised that
psychological conditions of
meaningfulness, safety and
availability were important to
understand the development
of engagement
Maslach et al. 2001 The first major work on Maslach and Leiter (2008, p. 498) Conceptual Maslach Energy,
The burnout- employee engagement after defined employee engagement as an involvement and
antithesis approach Kahn (1990) “energetic states of involvement efficacy Schaufeli
It is, besides the needs with personally fulfilling activities Vigor, dedication
satisfying approach, the other that enhance one’s sense of and absorption
early developmental theory professional efficacy”
on employee engagement Schaufeli et al. (2002, p. 47)
Maslach et al. (2001) defined engagement as a “positive,
conceptualised engagement fulfilling, work-related state of mind
THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONCEPT
as the positive antithesis to that is characterised by vigor,

burnout dedication and absorption”
17
(continued)
Table 2.1 (continued)
18
author
Harter et al. 2002 Published first study linking Harter et al. (2002, p. 269) defined Empirical: Business outcomes
The satisfaction- between employee work engagement “as the meta-analysis associated with
engagement engagement-satisfaction and individual’s involvement and employee
approach business unit outcomes satisfaction with as well as engagement
(profit) enthusiasm for work”
One of the first to mention a
J. H. NEL AND B. LINDE
profit linkage to employee

engagement
May et al. 2004 First published empirical May et al. (2004, p. 12). Empirical: Physical, cognitive
research testing Kahn’s Engagement is never explicitly survey and emotional
(1990) conceptualisation of defined, though Kahn (1990) expression
employee engagement referred to
Saks 2006 First explicit research to test Saks (2006, p. 602) defined Empirical: Cognitive,
Multidimensional antecedents and engagement as “a distinct and survey emotional and
approach consequences to employee unique construct that consists of behavioural
engagement cognitive, emotional, and components
Prior to Saks (2006), behavioural components that are
practitioner research was the associated with individual role
only body of work performance”
connecting employee
engagement drivers to
employee engagement
consequences
(continued)
Table 2.1 (continued)
author
Vance 2006 Contribution to the HRD SHRM Conceptual Commitment

Multidimensional field at the Society for Never defined engagement
approach Human Resources
Management’s (SHRM)
First major publication on
employee engagement and
commitment
Czarnowsky 2008 American Society for Czarnowsky (2008, p. 6) defined Empirical: Connection to
Multidimensional Training and Development’s engagement as “Employees who are survey Kahn’s (1990)
approach (ASTD) first major mentally and emotionally invested foundational work
publication on employee in their work and in contributing to
engagement their employer’s success”
Macey and 2008 The first to conceptualise Macey and Schneider (2008) Conceptual Trait, state and
Schneider trait, state and behavioural Trait engagement the “inclination behavioural
Multidimensional engagement as separate but or orientation to experience the engagement
approach related constructs world from a particular vantage
Presented organisational point” (p. 5)
concepts that might nourish Psychological state engagement is
the development of defined as an “antecedent to
engagement within behavioural engagement
organisations (encompassing the constructs of
satisfaction, involvement,
commitment, and empowerment”;
(pp. 5–6)
Behavioural engagement is
THE EMERGENCE OF THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONCEPT
“define[d] in terms of discretionary

effort” (p. 6)
19
Adapted from Shuck and Wollard (2010, pp. 96–97)

research on learned optimism. According to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi

(2000), the aim of positive psychology is to focus on the strengths and
positive aspects of flourishing individuals rather than on weaknesses.
Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny (2014) argue that engagement must be
understood within a positive paradigm, rather than an extension of nega-
tively orientated models designed for treating pathologies. Engagement
measures and their design remain, strongly influenced by positive psychol-
ogy (Purcell 2014a).
The changing nature of the modern workplace has put the traditional
psychological contract under pressure and when the contract is breached,
it results in employee cynicism (Cartwright and Holmes 2006). Employee
cynicism is characterised by mistrust in the organisation, its management,
and objectives (Cartwright and Holmes 2006). Andersson and Bateman
(1997) have established a link between cynicism and reduction in organ-
isational citizenship behaviours (OCB), which is a clear indicator of disen-
gagement amongst employees.
Individual employees vary significantly in their level of engagement due
to the changing nature of work and excessive demands put on them by
organisations to increase profitability (Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny
2014). Varying levels of engagement encourage increased interest in
organisations to create an environment that can facilitate employee
engagement as the positive impact of engagement on productivity and
financial outcomes is well established (Harter et al. 2002). It is in this
context that positivity can help enhance employee engagement and facili-
tate positive business outcomes at various levels of the organisation
(Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny 2014).
Kahn (1990) provides the strongest theoretical rationale for under-
standing the psychology of engagement than any other model, because
Kahn (1990) is clear about the psychological conditions that are necessary
for engagement as well as the antecedents that are the most important.
Kahn’s (1990) conceptualisation of engagement is consistent with the
increased demands being put on employees to be more physically,
emotionally and cognitively available as the nature of work continuously
become more demanding.
According to Youssef-Morgan and Bockorny (2014), positivity is not
new to psychology or management, as traditional theories and practices
have recognised the importance of positivity. Youssef-Morgan and
Bockorny (2014) are of the view that to understand positivity and what it
has to offer to enhance engagement levels the traditional roots of positivity
Another random document with
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The B. Virgin and Isaias, from Cemetery of St. Priscilla.
Our Blessed Lady appears principally in the scene of the

Adoration of the Magi. Two, three, or four of these men (according to
the arrangement of the group and the space at the artist’s disposal)
stand in their Oriental dress, presenting their gifts to Christ who sits
on Mary’s knee. Once or twice also the Holy Child appears in His
Mother’s arms, or before her breast, without reference apparently to
any particular event in their lives, but either absolutely alone, or
standing opposite to Isaias, as though presenting in themselves the
fulfilment of his prophecies. One of these paintings in the Catacomb
on the Via Nomentana belongs to the fourth century; but for another
of far higher artistic merit, to be seen in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla,
the most competent judges do not hesitate to claim almost apostolic
antiquity; and the claim is supported by many and weighty
arguments. We cannot, however, discuss them here, for we have
already exceeded the limits we had proposed to ourselves.
The B. Virgin and Magi.
The B. Virgin, from the Cemetery on Via Nomentana.
In conclusion, we will give a slight sketch of the successive phases

in the development of Christian art within the limits of the first three
centuries; for, thanks to De Rossi’s almost microscopic examination
of every accessible corner of subterranean Rome, even this is now
possible. As each of these phases was derived from its predecessor
by a natural sequence of ideas, it is not pretended that they are
separated from one another by strict chronological boundaries which
are never transgressed; yet the characteristics of the several periods
are, in the main, sufficiently distinct to allow of their being followed as
safe guides in determining, at least approximately, the age of any
particular class, or even individual specimen of ornamentation.
We have already seen that primitive Christian art sprung out of an
alliance of ancient forms with new ideas; in its outward physiognomy
it proceeded directly, in point of style and method of execution, from
the school of Pagan decorative art, but it was animated by a new life;
and therefore it began at once to create a pictorial cycle for itself,
taken partly from historical and partly from allegorical materials. At
first the allegorical element greatly predominated. The fish and the
anchor, the lamb and the dove, the shepherd and the fisherman,
may be named as the most prominent examples; and all these
during the first, or, as it has been styled, the hieroglyphic or
ideographic period of Christian art, were characterised by the utmost
simplicity. The principal figure usually stood alone; the fisherman is
catching a fish, or the shepherd is carrying a sheep upon his
shoulders, and nothing more.
In the second period—i.e., from the middle of the second to the
middle of the third century—the Good Shepherd occurs less
frequently, and is represented less simply; he carries a goat, or he
plays his pipe; he stands amid trees in a garden, or in the midst of
his flock, and the several members of his flock stand in different
attitudes towards him, marking a difference of internal disposition.
Other figures also undergo similar changes; different emblems or
different typical histories are blended together, and the result is more
artistic; a more brilliant translation, so to speak, is thus given of the
same thoughts and ideas with which we have been familiar in a more
elementary form from the beginning. This change, or rather this
growth, was in truth only the natural result of time and of the pious
meditation of successive generations of Christians exercised upon
the history of their faith and upon the outward representations of its
mysteries, in which their forefathers had always delighted. The bud
had expanded, and the full-blown flower displayed new beauties—
beauties which had been there indeed before, but unseen. Thus we
meet again with the apostolic fisherman, but the river in which he
fishes is now a mystical river, formed by the waters which have
flowed from the rock struck by Moses. More Bible histories are made
use of; or, if not now introduced for the first time, are used more
frequently—the history of Daniel and of Jonas, the sacrifice of
Abraham, the resurrection of Lazarus, the healing of the paralytic at
Bethsaida, and others. And as all these histories have been
illustrated in the writings of cotemporary Fathers, the monuments
which represent them are of the highest value as an historical
expression of what Christians in those days believed and taught.
Both the writings and the paintings are evidently the faithful echo of
the same doctrinal teaching and tradition.
Glass from the Catacombs, now in Vatican Library.

Then follows a third period in the history of Christian art, which, if
the first two have been justly compared to its spring and summer,
may itself be certainly called its autumn. It extends from the middle
of the third century to the age of Constantine; and during this period
there is a certain falling off of leaves, accompanied by a further
development of the flower, without, however, any addition to its
beauty. The symbolical element is sensibly diminished; what we
have ventured to call Christian hieroglyphics are almost or quite
abandoned; the parables also are less used, and even the historical
types are represented in a more hard and literal form. If Moses is still
seen striking the mystical rock, the literal or historical Moses is at his
side, taking off his shoes before drawing near to the burning bush; or
the Jews are there, in their low round caps, drinking of the waters; or
if it is desired to keep the mystical sense of the history before the
people, it is deemed necessary to inscribe the name of Petrus over
the head of Moses, as we see in two or three specimens of the
gilded glasses found in the Catacombs, and belonging probably to
the fourth century. Christ no longer appears as the Good Shepherd,
but sits or stands in the midst of His Apostles, or, still more
frequently, miraculously multiplies the loaves and fishes. The fish is
no longer the mystical monogram, “containing a multitude of
mysteries,” but appears only as a necessary feature in the
representation of this same miracle. Lazarus appears swathed like a
mummy, in accordance, as we know, with the fact; but earlier artists
had idealised him, and made him rise from the tomb young, free, and
active. The three children refusing to adore the image set up by
Nabuchodonosor are brought forward, and placed in juxtaposition
with the three wise men adoring the Infant Jesus, suggesting a
comparison, or rather a contrast, very suitable to the altered
circumstances of the times.
This last remark, however, must not be allowed to mislead us. We
must not imagine that the chronological sketch which has been here
attempted of the development of Christian art has been in any way
suggested by a consideration of what was likely to have been its
course in consequence of the history of the Christian society. The
sketch is really the result of a very careful induction from the
laborious researches which De Rossi has made into the chronology
of the several parts of the Catacombs; and if there proves to be a
correspondence between the successive variations of character in
the works of art that are found there, and the natural progress of the
Christian mind or the outward condition of the Christian Church,
these are purely “undesigned coincidences,” which may justly be
urged in confirmation of our conclusion, though they formed no part
of the premisses. We may venture also to add, that the conclusions
were as contrary to the preconceived opinion of their discoverer as
of the Christian world in general. Nothing but the overwhelming
evidence of facts has forced their acceptance; but from these there
is no escape. When it was found that the oldest areæ in the
cemeteries are precisely those that are richest in paintings, and
those in the best style, whereas in the more modern areæ the
paintings are less in number, poorer in conception, and inferior in
point of execution, it was impossible not to suspect the justice of the
popular belief, that the infant Church, engaged in deadly conflict with
idolatry, had rejected all use of the fine arts, and that it was only in a
later and less prudent age that they had crept, as it were,
unobservedly into her service; and as fresh and fresh evidence of
the same kind has been multiplied in the course of the excavations,
a complete revolution has at length been effected in public opinion
on this matter. Even Protestant writers no longer deny that, from the
very first, Christians ornamented their subterranean cemeteries with
painting; only they insist that this was done, “not because it was
congenial to the mind of Christianity so to illustrate the faith, but
because it was the heathen custom so to honour the dead.” If by this
it is only meant that Christians, though renewed interiorly by the
grace of baptism, yet continued, in everything where conscience was
not directly engaged, to live conformably to the usages of their
former life, and that to ornament the tombs of the dead had been
one of those usages—it is, of course, quite true. Nevertheless it is
plain from the history that has here been given, that the earliest
essays of Christian art were much more concerned with illustrating
the mysteries of the faith than with doing honour to the dead.
Our space will not allow, neither is it necessary, that we should
enter at any length into the history of Christian sculpture, since the
same general laws of growth presided over this as over painting. It
must be remembered, however, that sculpture was used much more
sparingly, and did not attain its full Christian development nearly so
soon as the sister art. There was no room for it in the Catacombs
except on the faces and sides of the sarcophagi, which were
sometimes used there for the burial of the dead; neither was it
possible to execute it with the same freedom as painting. The
painter, buried in the bowels of the earth, prosecuted his labours in
secret, and, therefore, in comparative security, without fear of any
intrusion from the profane; but the work of the sculptor was
necessarily more public; it could not even be conveyed from the city
to the cemetery without the help of many hands, and it must always
have run the risk of attracting a dangerous degree of general
attention. We are not surprised, therefore, at hearing that some of
those sarcophagi which are found in the most ancient parts of the
Catacombs seem rather to have been purchased from Pagan
workshops than executed by Christians; those, for instance, on
which are figured scenes of pastoral life, of farming, of the vintage,
or of the chase, genii, dolphins, or other subjects equally harmless.
Sometimes it might almost seem as though the subjects had been
suggested by a Christian, but their Christian character blurred in the
execution by some Pagan hand, which added a doubtful or
unmeaning accessory,—e.g., a dog at the side of the shepherd. On
some others there are real Pagan subjects, but these were either
carefully defaced by the chisel, or covered up with plaster, or hidden
from sight by being turned towards the wall.
Sarcophagus still to be seen in the Cemetery of San Callisto.

Very ancient Sarcophagus, found in Crypt of St. Lucina.
When, however, in progress of time, all fear of danger was past,

the same series of sacred subjects as are seen in the fresco-
paintings of the second and third centuries is reproduced in the
marble monuments of the fourth and fifth; only they appear, of
course, in their later, and not in their earlier form; often even in a still
more developed and literally historical form than in any of the
subterranean paintings. Thus Adam and Eve no longer stand alone,
one on either side of the fatal tree, but the Three Persons of the Holy
Trinity are introduced in the work of creation and the promise of
redemption. Adam receives a wheat sheaf, in token that as a
punishment for his sin he shall till the ground, and to Eve a lamb is
presented, the spinning of whose wool is to be part of her labour.
Daniel does not stand alone in the lions’ den, but Habacuc is there
also, bearing in his hand bread, and sometimes fish, for the
prophet’s sustenance. To the resurrection of Lazarus the figure of
one of his sisters is added, kneeling at our Lord’s feet, as though
petitioning for the miracle. Our Lord stands between St. Peter and
St. Paul, and He gives to one of them a volume, roll, or tablet,
representing the new law of the Gospel. On the gilded glasses which
belong to the same period the legend is added, Lex Domini, or
Dominus legem dat. The Apostles are distinguished, the one as the
Apostle of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles; and even two small
temples or churches are added, out of which sheep are coming forth;
and over one is written Jerusalem, and over the other Bethlehem.
This is a scene with which we are familiar in the grand old mosaics
of the Roman Basilicas, a further development of Christian art, to
which, as far as the choice of subjects is concerned and the mode of
executing them, the sculpture may be considered a sort of
intermediate step after the decline of painting.
Glass in the Vatican Library.
Representing Christ between SS. Peter and Paul; also Christ as the Lamb, and the
faithful as Lambs—Jews and Gentiles coming from Jerusalem and Bethlehem
(Becle) to Mount Sion, whence flow the four Evangelical Streams, united in the
Mystical Jordan.
We may still further add, that the cycle of scriptural subjects was
somewhat enlarged by the sculptors; at least, we do not know of any
paintings in the Catacombs which represent our Lord giving sight to
the blind, or raising the dead child to life, or healing the woman who
touched the hem of His garment; or His nativity, His triumphant entry
into Jerusalem, or certain scenes of His Passion; yet all these, and
some others besides, may be seen carved on the old Christian
monuments collected in the Lateran Museum at Rome and
elsewhere. The sarcophagus which has the representation of the
Nativity, and with the traditional ox and ass by the manger, has its
own date upon it, a.d. 343; but, as we are not here writing a
complete history of Christian art, it must suffice to have given this
general idea of its earliest efforts both in painting and sculpture.
CHAPTER VI.
THEIR INSCRIPTIONS.
What student of antiquity, or what merely intelligent observer of

men and manners, is content to leave an old church or churchyard
without first casting his eye over its monumental inscriptions? In like
manner, we think our readers would justly complain if we bade them
take leave of the Catacombs without saying a word about their
epitaphs. And if the study of any considerable number of epitaphs
anywhere is pretty sure to be rewarded by the discovery of
something more or less interesting, how much more have we not a
right to expect from the monuments of Roman Christianity during a
period of three or four hundred years!
And truly, if all these monuments had been preserved and
gathered together into one place, or, better still, had all been left in
their original places, they would have formed an invaluable and
inexhaustible library for the Christian archæologist. This, however,
has not been their lot. Hundreds and thousands of them have been
destroyed by those who have broken into the Catacombs from time
to time during the last thousand years, and drawn from them
materials for building. Others, again, and amongst them some of the
most valuable, have been given to learned antiquarians or devout
ecclesiastics, who coveted them for their own private possession,
and carried them off to their own distant homes, without reflecting
upon the grievous injury which they were thus inflicting upon those
that should come after them. A much larger number have been most
injudiciously placed, even by persons who knew their value, and
were anxious for their preservation, in the pavements of Roman
churches, where they have been either gradually effaced by the
constant tread of worshippers, or thoughtlessly removed and lost
sight of on occasion of some subsequent restoration of this portion of
the church. A few have been more securely placed in the museums
of the Capitol and of the Roman College, in the porticoes of some of
the Roman churches, or in the cloisters of convents. Lastly, twelve or
thirteen hundred were brought together, some eighty or ninety years
ago, in the Library and Lapidarian Gallery at the Vatican—a number
sufficiently great to enable us to appreciate their value, and to
increase our regret that so many more should have been dispersed
and lost.
It is to the sovereign Pontiffs that we are principally indebted for
whatever fragments have been preserved from the general wreck.
As early as the middle of the fifteenth century, Pope Nicholas V.
seems to have entertained the idea of collecting all the lapidarian
monuments of early Christianity which had at that time been
discovered; and both Eugenius IV., his immediate predecessor, and
Calixtus III. who succeeded him, forbade, under heavy penalties, the
alienation or destruction of anything belonging to this class of
monuments. When Leo X., too, appointed Raphael to superintend
the works at the rebuilding of St. Peter’s, he gave him a special
charge that the res lapidaria should not be injured. In later times,
these injunctions became more earnest and more frequent, in
proportion to the increasing number and importance of the
inscriptions that were brought to light. Still nothing practical appears
to have been devised until the reign of Benedict XIV., who appointed
the learned Francesco Bianchini to collect all the inscribed stones
that could be found; and it was he who recommended the long
narrow gallery leading to the Vatican Library and Museum as a
convenient place for their preservation. Even then political and other
difficulties interfered to prevent the execution of the design, so that it
was not until the close of the last century that it was really carried out
by Gaetano Marini, under the orders of Pope Pius VI. It is to be
regretted that he took so little pains to make the most of such
materials as he had. He merely inserted the monuments in the wall,
without giving any indication of the places where they had been
found, or making any attempts to classify them, beyond separating
the few which contain the names of the consuls from those which are
without this chronological note. A small selection has since been
made, in our own day, by De Rossi, in obedience to the orders of
Pope Pius IX., and placed in a gallery of the Lateran Palace,
adjoining the Christian Museum. The arrangement of these
specimens (few as they are, comparatively speaking) makes it a
valuable guide to those who would study this part of our subject to
any profit.
The collections at the Vatican and the Lateran together do not
exceed two thousand. Hundreds of others, recovered by more recent
excavations, have not yet found a suitable home; many have been
left in their original sites. Still it will always remain true that the
number actually in existence is quite insignificant when compared
with those which have been destroyed or lost. A large proportion,
however, even of these have not altogether perished; they were
copied, not always with accuracy, yet with praiseworthy diligence, by
various scholars, even from the eighth and ninth centuries; and since
the invention of printing, similar collections have been, of course,
more frequent. We need not enter into any detailed account of these;
we will say but a brief word even about De Rossi’s collection, for as
yet he has only published the first volume, which contains all the
Christian inscriptions of Rome during the first six centuries, whose
date is indisputably fixed by the names of the consuls having been
appended to them.
Of these, only one belongs to the first century, two to the second,
the third supplies twenty, and the fourth and fifth about five hundred
each. Of this last century, of course, only those which belong to the
first ten years can be claimed for the Catacombs, because, as we
have already seen, they ceased after that period to be the common
cemetery of the faithful. It appears, then, that all the dated
inscriptions of gravestones found in the Catacombs up to the year
1864 do not amount to six hundred: whence some writers have
argued that in the earliest ages Christians were not in the habit of
inscribing epitaphs on their graves. This conclusion, however, is
obviously illogical; for we have no right to assume that the proportion
between dated and undated inscriptions remained uniform during the
first four centuries. If there are only six hundred epitaphs bearing the
names of consuls, there are more than twice as many thousands
without those names; and we must seek, by independent processes
of inquiry, to establish other chronological criteria, which, if not
equally exact, may yet be shown to be generally trustworthy. And
this is what De Rossi has done, with a zeal tempered by caution
which is beyond all praise. It would be impossible to exaggerate,
first, the slow and patient industry with which he has accumulated
observations; then the care and assiduity with which he compares
the innumerable examples he has collected with one another, so as
to ascertain their marks of resemblance and difference; and finally,
the moderation with which he has drawn his conclusions. These vary
in value, from mere conjecture to the highest degree of probability, or
even of moral certainty. In a popular work like this, there is no room
for discussion; we must confine ourselves to a statement of some of
the best ascertained and most important facts, resting upon certain
chronological canons, which a daily increasing experience warrants
us in saying are now demonstrated with palpable and almost
mathematical exactness.
First, then, De Rossi observes it as a notable fact, attested by the
contents of all the Catacombs, that the most ancient inscriptions on
Christian tombs differ from those of the Pagans “more by what they
do not say, than by what they do say.” The language of Christian
epigraphy was not created in a day any more than Christian art was.
There were urgent reasons for changing or omitting what the Pagans
had been wont to use; but the Church did not at once provide
anything else in its stead. Hence the very earliest Christian
tombstones only recorded the bare name or names of the deceased,
to which, in a very few instances, chiefly of ladies, one or two words,
or the initials of words, were added, to denote the rank or title which
belonged to them—e.g., C.F., clarissima femina, or lady of senatorial
rank. Generally speaking, however, there is an entire absence from
these epitaphs of all those titles of rank and dignity with which Pagan
monuments are so commonly overloaded. And the same must be
said of those titles also which belong to the other extremity of the
social scale, such as servus and libertus. One cannot study a dozen
monuments of Pagan Rome without coming across some trace of
this great social division of the ancient world into freemen and
slaves. Yet in a number of Christian inscriptions in Rome, exceeding
twelve or thirteen thousand, and all belonging to centuries during
which slavery still flourished, scarcely ten have been found—and
even two or three of these are doubtful—containing any allusion
whatever to this fundamental division of ancient Roman society. It is
not to be supposed that there was any legislation upon the subject;
not even, perhaps, a hint from the clergy; it was simply the
spontaneous effect of the religious doctrines of the new society,
reflected in their epigraphy as in a faithful mirror. The children of the
Primitive Church did not record on their monuments titles of earthly
dignity, because they knew that with the God whom they served
there was no respect of persons; neither did they care to mention the
fact of their bondage, or of their deliverance from bondage, to some
earthly master, because they thought only of that higher and more
perfect liberty “wherewith Christ had set them free;” remembering
that “he that was called, being a bondman, was yet a freeman of the
Lord; and likewise he that was called, being free, was still the
bondman of Christ.”
We repeat, then, that the most ancient inscriptions on Christian
gravestones in Rome consisted merely of the name of the deceased;
ordinarily his cognomen only, though in some of the very earliest
date the name of the gens was also added; not, we may be sure,
from a motive of vanity, but merely for the purpose of identification.
Large groups of inscriptions of this kind may still be seen in some of
the oldest portions of subterranean Rome; traced in vermilion on the
tiles, as in the Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla, or engraved in letters of
most beautiful classical form, as in the Cœmeterium Ostrianum and
the Cemetery of Pretextatus. The names are often of classical origin;
nearly a hundred instances of Claudii, Flavii, Ulpii, Aurelii, and others
of the same date, carrying us back to the period between Nero and
the first of the Antonines. Very often there is added after the names,
as on Pagan tombstones, such words as filio dulcissimo, conjugi
dulcissimo, or, incomparabili, dulcissimis parentibus, and nothing
else. In fact, these epitaphs vary so little from the old classical type,
that had they not been seen by Marini and other competent
witnesses—some of them even by De Rossi himself—in their original
position, and some of them been marked with the Christian symbol
of the anchor, we might have hesitated whether they ought not rather
to be classed among Pagan monuments; as it is, we are sure that
they belonged to the earliest Christian period; that they are the
gravestones of men who died in the Apostolic, or immediately post-
Apostolic age.
It was not to be expected, however, that Christian epitaphs should
always remain so brief and bare a record. In the light of Christian
doctrine, death had altogether changed its character; it was no
longer an everlasting sleep, though here and there a Christian
epitaph may still be found to call it so; it was no longer a final and
perpetual separation from those who were left behind; it was
recognised as the necessary gate of admission to a new and nobler
life; and it was only likely, therefore, that some tokens of this change
of feeling and belief should, sooner or later, find expression in the
places where the dead were laid. Amid the almost innumerable
monumental inscriptions of Pagan Rome that have been preserved
to us, we seek in vain for any token of belief in a future life. Generally
speaking, there is a total silence on the subject; but if the silence is
broken, it is by faint traces of poetical imagery, not by the distinct
utterances of a firm hope, much less of a clear and certain belief.
The Christian epitaphs first broke this silence by the frequent use of
a symbol, the anchor indicating hope, carved or rudely scratched
beside the name upon the gravestone. Presently they added words
also; words which were the natural outpourings of hearts which were
full of Christian faith and love. On a few gravestones in those parts of
the Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla already spoken of, we read the
Apostolic salutation, Pax tecum, or Pax tibi; on one in the
Cœmeterium Ostrianum, Vivas in Deo, and these are the first germs,
out of which Christian epigraphy grew.
The epitaphs on the gravestones of the latter half of the second
and of the third centuries are only a development of the fundamental
ideas contained in these ejaculations. They still keep silence as to
the worldly rank, or the Christian virtues of the deceased; they do not
even, for the most part, tell us anything as to his age, or his
relationship to the survivor who sets up the stone; most commonly,
not even the day of his death or burial. But they announce with
confident assurance that his soul has been admitted to that happy lot
reserved for the just who have left this world in peace, that he is
united with the saints, that he is in God, and in the enjoyment of
good things; or they breathe a humble and loving prayer that he may
soon be admitted to a participation in these blessings. They ask for
the departed soul peace, and light, and refreshment, and rest in God
and in Christ. Sometimes, also, they invoke the help of his prayers
(since he, they know, still lives in God) for the surviving relatives
whose time of trial is not yet ended. In a word, they proceed upon
the assumption that there is an incessant interchange of kindly
offices between this world and the next, between the living and the
dead; they represent all the faithful as living members of one Body,
the Body of Christ; as forming one great family, knit together in the
closest bonds of love; and this love finding its chief work and
happiness in prayer, prayer of the survivors for those who have gone
before, prayer of the blessed for those who are left behind. We
subjoin a few examples of the class of epitaphs of which we speak;
and to secure accuracy, we will only give those that we have
ourselves copied from the originals, and which every visitor to Rome
may, therefore, still see if he pleases. The figures which we have
appended to some of these inscriptions denote the column and the
number under which they will be found in the gallery at the Lateran;
the letters k.m. refer to the Kircherian Museum at the Roman
College; and the last four may be seen where they were found, in the
Catacomb of SS. Nereus and Achilles.
1. Pax tecum, Urania, xviii. 17.

2. Spes, Pax tibi. xviii. 20.
3. ΥΓΙΕΙΑ ΖΗΣΕΣ ΜΕΤΑ ΙΣΤΕΡΚΟΡΙΟΥ
ΤΟΥ ΛΕΓΟΜΕΝΟΥ ΥΓΕΙΝΟΥ ΕΝ ΤΕΩ. xix. 23.
4. ΦΙΓΟΥΜΕΝΗ ΕΝ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΣΟΥ ΤΟ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ. ix. 28.
5. Lais cum pace. Ispiritus in bonu quescat. ix. 15.
6. Susanna vivas in Deo. xx. 30.
7. Semper in D. vivas, Dulcis anima. ix. 5.
8. Regina, vivas in Domino Zesu. ix. 17.
9. Bolosa, Deus tibi refrigeret quæ vixit annos xxxi. ix. 12.
10. Amerimnus Rufinæ ... Spiritum tuum Deus refrigeret. ix.
13.
11. Refrigera Deus anima Ho.... ix. 14.
12. Kalemere Deus refrigeret spiritum tuum
Una cum sororis tuæ Hilare. k. m.
13. Lucifere ... meruit titulum
Inscribi ut quisqui de fratribus legerit roget Deu
Ut sancto et innocenti spirito ad Deum suscipiatur. ix.
10.
14. Anatolius filio benemerenti fecit
Qui vixit annis vii mensis vii diebus xx
Ispiritus tuus bene requiescat
In Deo. Petas pro sorore tua. viii. 19.
15. Aurelivs agapetvs et aurelia
Felicissima alvmne felicitati
Dignissimæ qve vicsit anis xxx et vi
Et pete pro celsinianv cojvgem. viii. 21.
16. Pete pro parentes tvos
Matronata matrona
Qve vixit an. i. di. Liii. viii. 18.
17. ΔΙΟΝΥϹΙΟϹ ΝΗΠΙΟϹ ΑΚΑΚΟϹ ΕΝΘΑΔΕ
ΚΕΙΤΕ ΜΕΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΝΗϹΚΕϹΘΕ
ΔΕ ΚΑΙ ΗΜΩΝ ΕΝ ΤΑΙϹ ΑΓΙΑΙϹ ΥΜΩΝ
ΠΡΕΥΧΑΙϹ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΓΛΥΨΑΤΟϹ ΚΑΙ ΓΡΑΨΑΝΤΟϹ. k. m.
18. Gentianvs fidelis in pace qvi vix
It annis xxi menns viii dies
Xvi et in orationis tvis
Roges pro nobis qvia scimvs te in ☧. (Vatican Gallery.)
19. ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙϹ ΕΤ ΛΕΟΝΤΙΑ
ϹΕΙΡΙΚΕ ΦΕΙΛΙΕ ΒΕΝΕΜΕΡΕΝ
ΤΙ ΜΝΗϹΘΗϹ ΙΗϹΟΥϹ
Ο ΚΥΡΙΟϹ ΤΕΚΝΟΝ Ε....
20. Victoria refriger
Isspiritus tus in bono.
21. ... vibas in pace et pete pro nobis.
22. ΖΗϹΑΙϹ ΕΝ ̅Κ̅Ω ΚΑΙ ΕΡΩΤΑ ΥΠΕΡ ΗΜΩΝ.
1. Peace with thee, Urania.

2. Peace to thee, Spes.
3. Hygeia, mayest thou live in God with Stercorius, who is (also)
called Hyginus.
4. Beloved one, may thy spirit be in peace.
5. Peace with thee, Lais. May thy spirit rest in good [i.e., God].
6. Susanna, mayest thou live in God.
7. Sweet soul, mayest thou always live in God.
8. Regina, mayest thou live in the Lord Jesus.
9. Bolosa, may God refresh thee; who lived thirty-one years.
10. Amerimnus ... to Rufina, may the Lord refresh thy spirit.
11. Refresh, O God, the soul of ...
12. Kalemere, may God refresh thy spirit, together with that of thy
sister Hilare.
13. Lucifera ... deserved that an epitaph should be inscribed to
her, that whoever of the brethren shall read it, may pray
God that her holy and innocent spirit may be received to
God.
14. Anatolius set this up to his well-deserving son, who lived
seven years, seven months, and twenty days. May thy
spirit rest well in God. Pray for thy sister.
15. Aurelius Agapetus and Aurelia Felicissima to their most
excellent foster-child Felicitas, who lived thirty-six years;
and pray for your husband Celsinianus.
16. Pray for your parents, Matronata Matrona, who lived one year
and fifty-three days.
17. Dionysius, an innocent child, lies here with the saints: and
remember us, too, in your holy prayers, both me who
engraved and me who wrote [this inscription].
18. Gentianus, one of the faithful, in peace, who lived twenty-one
years, eight months, and sixteen days: and in your
prayers make petition for us, because we know that thou
art in Christ.
19. Demetrius and Leontia to their well-deserving daughter
Syrica. Remember, O Lord Jesus, our child.
20. Victoria, may thy spirit be refreshed in good [i.e., in God].
21. Mayest thou live in peace and pray for us.
22. Mayest thou live in the Lord and pray for us.
It would be easy to fill several pages with inscriptions of this kind;

but enough has been produced to impress upon the reader a fair
idea of their general character. They abound on the monuments of
the second and third centuries; but after that date they fade out of
use, and are succeeded by a new style of epigraphy, colder and
more historical. Mention is now made of the exact age of the
deceased, and of the length of his married life, not as to years only,
but as to months, and sometimes even as to days and hours; of the
day of his death also, more commonly of his burial, and, in a few
instances, of both. To record the day of the burial (depositio) was
creeping into use before the end of the third century; from the middle
of the fourth, it became little short of universal; and in this century
and the next, mention of the year also was frequently added. During
this period, the phrase in pace became general, as a formula to be
used by itself absolutely without any verb at all. In old Christian
inscriptions in Africa, this phrase frequently occurs with the verb vixit;
in which case the word pax is undoubtedly used in the same sense
in which Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and other ecclesiastical writers
employ it, as denoting peace with God to be obtained through
communion with the Church; and in a community distracted by
schisms and heresies, as the African Church was, such a record on
the tomb of a Christian is intelligible and important. Not so in Rome;
here the purport of the thousands of greetings of peace has
reference to the peace of a joyful resurrection and a happy eternity,
whether spoken of with confidence as already possessed, or only
prayed for with glad expectation. The act of death had been
expressed in earlier epitaphs under Christian phrases:—Translatus
de sæculo; exivit de sæculo; arcessitus a Domino, or ab angelis;
natus in æternum; or, much more commonly, Deo reddidit spiritum;
and this last phrase had come into such established use by the
middle of the third century, that the single letter R was a recognised
abbreviation of it. But, in the second half of that century, and still
more frequently afterwards decessit was used in its stead; and in the
fifth century we find this again superseded by Hic jacet, pausat,
quiescit, or requiescit.
Complimentary phrases as to the goodness, wisdom, innocence,
and holiness of the deceased came into fashion about the age of
Constantine, and in later times were repeated with such uniformity
as to be quite wearisome; we see that they were simply formal and

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The Art of Engaging Unionised

Employees Jan Hendrick Nel

Schizoanalytic Ventures at the End of the World: Film,

What Is Art Education?: After Deleuze and Guattari 1st

The Non-Existence of the Real World Jan Westerhoff

The Chemistry of Food 1st Edition Jan Velisek

Gendering Israel s Outsourcing The Erasure of Employees

The Making of Adaptation and the Cultural Imaginary Jan

Was the cat in the hat black? : the hidden racism of

Badiou and the German Tradition of Philosophy Jan

Jan Hendrick Nel

The Art of Engaging

ISBN 978-981-13-2196-2 ISBN 978-981-13-2197-9 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953989

2 The Emergence of the Employee Engagement Concept 11

3 Antecedents and Outcomes Associated with High Levels

4 Circumstances That Influence Engagement in a Unionised

5 Engaging Unionised Employees 61

6 Framework for Engaging Unionised Employees 81

7 Discussion and Conclusion 101

ASTD The American Society for Training and Development

Fig. 1.1 PRISMA-style flow of information through stages 1–4 of the

Table 2.1 Seminal works of employee engagement 17

Abstract This chapter is an overview of the systematic review and narra-

Keywords Conceptual framework • Employee engagement • Narrative

Organisations are increasingly challenged to develop strategies to manage

© The Author(s) 2019 1

concept (Saks and Gruman 2014). Employee engagement proposes a

psychological conditions, which in turn guide the individuals’ decisions to

1. How has engagement been defined and conceptualised within aca-

The identification of relevant literature streams was based on these five

Literature Review Method

and ­models that informed the academic conceptualisation of employee

to the review questions, a narrative synthesis of the evidence was per-

Identification Sources identified through exact Additional sources identified

Sources excluded because they

Sources screened using CIMO

Sources assessed for eligibility based Sources excluded because they

on research questions did not meet eligibility criteria

data on the antecedents and outcomes enabled us to identify additional

which in turn leads to positive individual and organisational outcomes.

Kumar, P., & Swetha, G. (2011). A prognostic examination of employee engage-

The Emergence of the Employee

Abstract This chapter explores the development of engagement

Keywords Conceptualisation of engagement • Definitions of employee

The purpose to this chapter is to explore the origins and development of

© The Author(s) 2019 11

develop a better understanding of the concepts and frameworks that might

The History of Employee Engagement

Kahn (1990) undertook a qualitative study on the psychological condi-

This definition added the expectation of an individual’s satisfaction level

Carnegie Training to explore employee engagement further (Shuck and

The Psychology of Employee Engagement

as the positive antithesis to that is characterised by vigor,

profit linkage to employee

Vance 2006 Contribution to the HRD SHRM Conceptual Commitment

“define[d] in terms of discretionary

Adapted from Shuck and Wollard (2010, pp. 96–97)

2 The Emergence of the Employee Engagement Concept 11

3 Antecedents and Outcomes Associated with High Levels

4 Circumstances That Influence Engagement in a Unionised

5 Engaging Unionised Employees 61

6 Framework for Engaging Unionised Employees 81

7 Discussion and Conclusion 101

Table 2.1 Seminal works of employee engagement 17

and models that informed the academic conceptualisation of employee