Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice, and Competitive Advantage

216 Pages·2011·2.12 MB·English

by  William H. Macey

Praise for Employee Engangement
“Macey and his colleagues provide a fascinating analysis of engage-
ment – what it means, why it works, and, most importantly, how to
create and maintain an engaged workforce.”
Fritz Drasgow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Employee Engagement walks us through the complexity of this
deceptively simple concept and makes concrete the process of trans-
lating engagement into hard fi nancial results.”
Peter Cappelli, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
“A hugely important topic, handled with just the right mix of schol-
arly insight and practical experience. This book is a valuable addition
to the literature.”
Jeffery S. Schippmann, Balfour Beatty Construction
“If you want to increase employee engagement to achieve your orga-
nization’s strategic objectives this is the book for you. It deconstructs
what engagement really means, explains what factors shape it, shows
how to diagnose your organization current state and tell you what
managerial levers you can use to increase it and consequently raise
organizational performance. This book is at once scientifi cally sound
and highly readable.”
Michael Beer, Harvard Business School
“No one knows more about employee engagement, in all its forms,
than do these authors. They give careful, useful and practical advice
on using employee opinion surveys to measure and increase employee
engagement!”
Allen I. Kraut, Baruch College, C.U.N.Y.
Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, P ractice, and Competitive Advantage
William H. Macey, Benjamin Schneider, Karen M. Barbera, and Scott A. Young
© 2009 Valtera Corporation ISBN: 978-1-405-17903-4
Talent Management Essentials
Series Editor: Steven G. Rogelberg, PhD
Professor and Director Organizational Science, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
Senior Advisory Board:
• Eric Elder, PhD, Director, Talent Management, Corning Incorporated
• William H. Macey, PhD, Chief Executive Offi cer, Valtera Corporation
• Cindy McCauley, PhD, Senior Fellow, Center for Creative Leadership
• Elaine Pulakos, PhD, Chief Operating Offi cer, PDRI, a PreVisor Company
• Douglas H. Reynolds, PhD, Vice President, Assessment Technology, Development
Dimensions International
• Ann Marie Ryan, PhD, Professor, Michigan State University
• Lise Saari, PhD, Director, Global Workforce Research, IBM
• John Scott, PhD, Vice President, Applied Psychological Techniques, Inc.
• Dean Stamoulis, PhD, Managing Director, Executive Assessment Practice Leader for
the Americas, Russell Reynolds Associates
Special Features
Each volume contains a host of actual case studies, sample materials, tips, and cautionary
notes. Issues pertaining to globalization, technology, and key executive points are high-
lighted throughout.
Titles in the Talent Management Essentials series:
Performance Management: A New Approach for Driving Business Results
Elaine D. Pulakos
Designing and Implementing Global Selection Systems
Ann Marie Ryan and Nancy Tippins
Designing Workplace Mentoring Programs: An Evidence - Based Approach
Tammy D. Allen, Lisa M. Finkelstein, and Mark L. Poteet
Career Paths: Charting Courses to Success for Organizations and Their Employees
Gary W. Carter, Kevin W. Cook and David W. Dorsey
Mistreatment in the Workplace: Prevention and Resolution for Managers and Organizations
Julie B. Olson - Buchanan and Wendy R. Boswell
Developing Women Leaders: A Guide for Men and Women in Organizations
Anna Marie Valerio
Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice, and Competitive Advantage
William H. Macey, Benjamin Schneider, Karen M. Barbera, and Scott A. Young
Online Recruiting and Selection: Innovations in Talent Acquisition
Douglas H. Reynolds and John Weiner
Senior Executive Assessment: A Key to Responsible Corporate Governance.
Dean Stamoulis
Real - Time Leadership Development
Paul R. Yost and Mary Mannion Plunkett
Employee Engagement:
Tools for Analysis, Practice, and
Competitive Advantage
William H. Macey,
Benjamin Schneider,
Karen M. Barbera, and
Scott A. Young
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition fi rst published 2009
© Valtera Corporation
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing
program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientifi c, Technical, and Medical business to form
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The right of William H. Macey, Benjamin Schneider, Karen M. Barbera, and Scott A. Young to be
identifi ed as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Employee engagement : tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage /
William H. Macey . . . [et al.].
p. cm. – (Talent management essentials)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-7903-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4051-7902-7 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. Employee motivation. 2. Employees–Attitudes. I. Macey, William H.
HF5549.5.M63E47 2009
658.3′14–dc22
2008054917
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Icon in Case Scenario boxes © Kathy Konkle / istockphoto.com
Set in 10.5 on 12.5 pt Minion by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed in Singapore
1 2009
For George and our family – Bill, Todd, Lauren, Katherine,
Amanda, and Billy (WHM)
For Jack Bartlett, mentor, friend and The Great Engager (BS)
For Michael and Carter, who give meaning to all I do (KB)
For my wife Jennifer and our three amazing girls, Hannah, Carly,
and Kayla (SY)
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1 Engaging Engagement 1
How Engagement Makes a Difference and What
Engagement Is 2
The Business Case for Employee Engagement 2
Engagement as Psychic Energy: On the Inside 4
Engagement as Behavioral Energy: How Engagement
Looks to Others 5
How an Engaged Workforce Creates Positive Financial
Consequences for Organizations 8
On High Performance Work Environments: Four Principles
for Creating an Engaged Workforce 10
The Capacity to Engage 10
The Motivation to Engage 11
The Freedom to Engage 12
The Focus of Strategic Engagement 13
Engagement and Discretionary Effort 15
Interaction of Cause and Effect 16
The Remainder of the Book 16
vii
viii Contents
Chapter 2 The “Feel and Look” of Employee Engagement 19
The Feel of Engagement 20
Urgency 20
Focus 21
Intensity 22
Enthusiasm 23
Cross-Cultural Issues in Describing the Feelings of
Engagement 24
Summary: The Feel of Engagement 27
The Look of Engagement: Employee Behavior 27
Persistence 28
Proactivity 29
Role Expansion 31
Adaptability 33
Summary: The Look of Engagement 35
Strategically Aligned Engagement Behavior 35
On Commitment, Alignment, and Internalization 36
What About Employee Satisfaction? 39
Where Does This Take Us? 41
Chapter 3 The Key to an Engaged Workforce:
An Engagement Culture 43
What is Organizational Culture? 43
Creating a Culture for Engagement: How People are
Valued in Organizations 46
The Central Role of a Culture of Trust in Employee
Engagement 46
Trust in Senior Leadership, Trust in Management,
and Trust in the System 50
The Role of Fairness in a Culture of Engagement 51
Culture Emergence 55
Learning the Culture 59
Do the People or the Environment Make the Culture? 62
The Role of the Work Itself in a Culture of Engagement 66
The Role of Monetary Incentives in a Culture of
Engagement 68
Does Organizational Success Impact Employee
Engagement? 70
Contents ix
The Role of Culture in Creating Strategic Employee
Engagement 72
How Culture Supports Alignment 73
Summary 73
Chapter 4 Phase 1 of Creating and Executing an
Engagement Campaign: Diagnostics and the Engagement
Survey 77
Pre-Survey Diagnostic Activities 80
Step 1: Conduct the Background Check and Acquire the
“Language” 80
Step 2: Engage Leadership to Defi ne Strategic Engagement
and the Supporting Culture 82
Step 3: Craft the Engagement Messaging 85
The Engagement Survey 89
Writing Questions that Focus on the Feelings of
Engagement 91
Writing Questions that Focus on Behavioral Engagement 92
Writing Generic Behavioral Engagement Survey
Questions 96
Writing Questions that Focus on Creating the Employee
Capacity to Engage 96
Writing Questions that Focus on Whether People
Have a Reason to Engage 99
Writing Questions that Focus on Whether People Feel
“Free” to Engage 100
Summary 102
Chapter 5 Phase 2 of Creating and Executing
an Engagement Campaign: Action Planning and
Intervention 105
Survey Results Interpretation 106
Benchmarks 106
Survey Results Feedback 108
Feedback at the Executive Level 109
Feedback at the Managerial Level 111
Communicating Survey Results Company-Wide 112
Summary 114
x Contents
Preparing the Organization for Taking Action 114
Commitment for Action 115
Resources and Tools That Facilitate Action Planning and
Change 116
Variants on the Action Planning Model 119
How Much Measurable Change is Possible? 120
Actual Changes That Build and Maintain Engagement 122
Interventions that Build Confi dence and Resiliency 123
Interventions that Enhance Social Support Networks 125
Interventions that Renew or Restore Employee Energy 126
Interventions that Enhance the Motivation to Engage 126
Interventions that Enhance the Freedom to Engage 129
Interventions Focused on Process Fairness 130
Interventions Focused on Outcome Fairness 132
Interventions Focused on Interactional Fairness 133
Leadership Behavior and Engagement 133
Summary 135
Chapter 6 Burnout and Disengagement: The Dark Side
of Engagement 137
Disengagement: Early Unmet Expectations at Work 140
The Nature and Trajectory of Burnout 143
The Components of Burnout 145
The Trajectory of Burnout 146
Is Burnout Inevitable? 147
Effective Coping With Burnout 150
Social Support 150
Autonomy and Job Control 151
Burnout, Workaholism, and Engagement: Resolution of
the Paradox 153
Job Creep and the Erosion of Trust 155
Additional Stress Factors and Disengagement 155
Remedies and Interventions 157
The Need for Recovery 157
Other Interventions 158
Resistance to Change and Engagement: Another Dark Side
of Engagement 159