Employee Engagement in Contemporary Organizations

Book excerpt: Although researchers have made great strides in clarifying the meaning of employee engagement, scholars are ambivalent as to whether employee engagement is distinct from other constructs related to the employee–organization relationship, and it is argued that there is a need for further scholarly examination and exploration, particularly within the context of the rapidly changing work environment where twenty-first-century technology and behaviour meet twentieth-century organization, demanding innovative responses to the challenges of employee engagement. Addressing this issue, this book reviews, analyses and presents evidence from academic researchers and supplements this with practice-based case studies from a range of international organizations. The author seeks to provide a coherent, consistent definition of employee engagement; clarity about its benefits; identification of its key features and attributes, and an understanding of how these are translated into practice; and insight into the most effective ways of measuring employee engagement in a meaningful way.