This assignment requires a written assessment with reference to learning outcomes 1, 3, 4 and 6. I will therefore take each question one by one. Learning outcomes 2 and 5 will be covered by formative assessment, which will provide the 50/50 split required.
Learning outcome 1
1.1/1.2/1.3 – Requires me to describe what is employee engagement and how does it differ, if at all, from related concepts like employee involvement, employee participation and employee consultation? Also how far is employee engagement something which is genuinely new and distinctive, or is it merely a repackaging of old and well-established ideas?
Chiumento (2004) defined employee engagement as a positive, two-way, relationship between an employee and their organisation. Both parties are aware of their own and the other’s needs, and the way they support each other to fulfil those needs. Engaged employees and organisations will go the extra mile for each other because they see the mutual benefit of investing in their relationship.
One of the first challenges presented by the literature is the lack of a universal definition of employee engagement. Kahn (1990) defines employee engagement as “the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances”. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement concerns employees’ beliefs about the organisation, its leaders and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organisation and its leaders. The physical aspect of employee engagement concerns the physical energies exerted by individuals to accomplish their roles. Thus, according to Kahn (1990), engagement means to be psychologically as well as physically present when occupying and performing an
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