Question: Critically evaluate the impact of management leadership approach on employee engagement initiatives. Include examples to illustrate your answer.
This essay focuses on management leadership approaches as drivers for employee engagement
The success or failure of an organisation depends on its employees and hence they are an organisations most important asset. This realization has found its way up from being a relatively disregarded issue in the lower quarters of the Human Resource department to being arguably at the top. While quoting the best measures for a company’s success, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric stipulated that employee engagement is the top measure while customer satisfaction and free flow of cash took the …show more content…
It also concluded that employee engagement is a very competitive differentiator for organisations.
While academic reaction to the popularity of employee engagement was not initially strong, in the last decade, academic research also validates these findings. Witemeyer (2013) holds the view that an engaged employee displays a number of positive behaviours such as proactive problem solving, collaboration, staying late, sharing knowledge and participating in dialogue which are potentially highly beneficial to the company. Other researchers also recognise and have provided evidence of positive association between engagement with profitability and productivity. (Hewitt Associates LLC, 2004; Ellis & Sorensen, 2007; Markos & Sridevi, 2010)
Drivers of Employee Engagement
Having evidenced that employee engagement produces positive organisational results as well as individual level results, it is important to examine what drives employee engagement.
This essay focuses on management leadership approaches as drivers for employee engagement
The success or failure of an organisation depends on its employees and hence they are an organisations most important asset. This realization has found its way up from being a relatively disregarded issue in the lower quarters of the Human Resource department to being arguably at the top. While quoting the best measures for a company’s success, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric stipulated that employee engagement is the top measure while customer satisfaction and free flow of cash took the …show more content…
It also concluded that employee engagement is a very competitive differentiator for organisations.
While academic reaction to the popularity of employee engagement was not initially strong, in the last decade, academic research also validates these findings. Witemeyer (2013) holds the view that an engaged employee displays a number of positive behaviours such as proactive problem solving, collaboration, staying late, sharing knowledge and participating in dialogue which are potentially highly beneficial to the company. Other researchers also recognise and have provided evidence of positive association between engagement with profitability and productivity. (Hewitt Associates LLC, 2004; Ellis & Sorensen, 2007; Markos & Sridevi, 2010)
Drivers of Employee Engagement
Having evidenced that employee engagement produces positive organisational results as well as individual level results, it is important to examine what drives employee engagement.