Employee Engagement: A Literature Review

Employee Engagement: A Literature Review

Sandeep Kular, Mark Gatenby, Chris Rees, Emma Soane, Katie Truss

ISBN No. 1-872058-39-6/978-1-872058-39-9/9781872058399 Kingston Business School

Kingston University

Date: October 2008

Working Paper Series No 19

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Contents

Page

Contact

i

Foreword

ii

Introduction

1

Part 1:

Conceptualising Employee Engagement

3

Defining Engagement

Researching Engagement

Antecedents and Consequences of Engagement

Employee Engagement in Context

3

4

6

7

Part 2:

Engagement and Indivdiual Differences

10

Part 3:

Engagement and Employee Involvement

15

Part 4:

Summary and Conclusions

18

Part 5:

Recommendations

20

References

23

i

Contact

Sandeep Kular

Mark Gatenby

Chris Rees

Emma Soane

Katie Truss

Kingston Business School

Kingston University

Kingston Hill

Kingston upon Thames

Surrey KT2 7LB

e-mail: k.truss@kingston.ac.uk

ii

Foreword

This working paper reports the findings of a literature review dissertation undertaken by

Sandeep Kular in 2007, which formed part of her MA Human Resource Management degree

at Kingston University. The dissertation contributed towards the development of a conceptual

framework for the establishment of the Kingston Business School Employee Engagement

Consortium, a research partnership aimed at developing knowledge and understanding of

employee engagement, its drivers, and its consequences.

Our interest in employee engagement began in 2006, when we were approached by the

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) to undertake a survey of levels of

engagement in the UK workforce. Our findings were published in the CIPD report Working

Life: Employee Attitudes and Engagement (Truss et al 2006). We found that levels of

engagement nationally were low, but that high levels of engagement were associated with a

host of positive outcomes for individuals and their employers. Our study revealed the value of

engagement, but we wanted to know more about how engagement levels vary across different

sectors and contexts. Sandeep¡¯s work formed part of the next steps in developing this further

research process.

The Consortium is now moving ahead with sharing knowledge and developing new insights

into the nature of employee engagement and its impact on organisations.

Five key areas are being explored: What does ¡®employee engagement¡¯ mean?; How can

engagement be managed?; What are the consequences of engagement for organisations?; How

does engagement relate to other individual characteristics?; How is engagement related to

employee voice and representation? Sandeep¡¯s dissertation involved exploring some of the

relevant literature around each of these issues. Specifically she focused on three key

questions:

1. How has employee engagement been conceptualised?

2. How do individual differences relate to employee engagement?

3. How does employee involvement relate to employee engagement?

This working paper summarises a broad range of academic literature under each of these

headings. We found it a useful contribution to our subsequent work, and we are grateful to

Sandeep for pursuing her dissertation research with such depth and rigour. I trust it will be of

interest to anyone wishing to know more about this increasingly important area of

management practice.

Professor Katie Truss

Director, Kingston Business School Employee Engagement Consortium

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