The Importance of Employee Engagement

transplant is a constant in now? s modern business activity. As Harvard Business School Professor rump Kotter wrote in Fujitsu? s Fit for Change? report, the current rate of heighten within businesses is faster than the rate at which presidencys be improving almost(prenominal) brasss just piece of asst keep up with the speed of change. (www. theinformationdaily. com, 2012). This more and more involved and competitive environs inflicts a greater pressure on the employees precondition that the employees are the heart of arrangements not approaching them appropriately is one of the important reasons of incarnate stroke (Argenti, 2009).Although t here is not a lot of question through with(p) in this field as it is a relatively naked as a jaybird concept (Saks, 2006), intelligence the immensity of employee engagement and implementing a well-developed upcountry discourses plan is crucial for success, especi onlyy during change (Dolphin, 1999). The constitution sho uld be manoeuvre by experts through all this complexity if it wants to overcome all the tightness that originates from the dynamics of change and survive. THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT galore(postnominal) authors cl use that an arrangement? accomplishments, financial performance and employee bug outcomes may be predicted by the levels of employee engagement. However, it is surprising that all the same if it is a logical assumption, it appears that employee engagement is waning and that disengagement among the majority of today? s ca-caforce is costing huge amounts of money to organisations in productivity loss (Saks, 2006). At present, workers are well educated, bring greater expectations than those of away generations, and aspire to be possessed of a better apprehending of the political party they work for (Argenti, 2009).According to Argenti (2009), around companies? senior managers exclude lower-level employees from taking part in most decision-making. Accor ding to Dolphin (1999), employee intercourse is too often conducted by in-experienced and subordinate personnel. Therefore, it could be said that organisations do acknowledge the importance of employee engagement to some degree simply are not following an appropriate and stiff two-way communication dodging that leave behind engage their staff. ORDER AND falsify every(prenominal) organisation has a cultivation and identity of its own and these should be consistent, coherent, and clear. When an organisation suffers a big change, it might have the need to acquire a parvenu identity and/or alter or even create a whole late corporate culture (Dolphin, 1999) to be able to take in this change effectively, there essential be a well-defined vision. near of the definitions of vision in this context make reference to an mentationl or a forthcoming to which the organisational change should lead to (Palmer, Dunfard Akin, 2006).Without a squiffy vision and effective internal com munications, the changes introduced by managers may seem arbitrary and excess vision helps to motivate staff in working towards the change and attractive in what may appear to be daunting or unsound consummations (For Kanter et al. , as cited in Palmer et al. , 2006, p. 245). Sutton and Khan (1986 as cited in Jimmieson et al. , 2004, p. 12) argue that when a deep change is about to happen, workers go through a transition of sensory faculty-making in which they need information to help them establish a sense of prediction and understanding of the situation.Palmer, Dunfard and Akin (2006) insist in the importance of having their employees well informed about the situation and about what is anticipate from them, To the accomplishment that the strategic intent is not complemented by clarity as to expected actions, the chances increase employees exit fail to convert a change inaugural into supporting action at their level of organisation. The Key point here is that the lack of supporting action is not due to overt apology or even apathy it is due to the lack of clear understanding of what such accessary action would look like. (Palmer et al. , 2006, p. 149) Organisations essential(prenominal) therefore aim to strain a balance between order and change. For instance, they can all operate efficiently if members execute their roles consistently, perform everyday operations, and uphold ordered social organisations, but they also need to stay open and agile exuberant to react to and anticipate the fluctuating stresses of today? s changing technical environment. (Jacobs, 2004, p. 382). Carl Weick (1979, as cited in Jacobs, 2004, p. 82) highlights in his relational perspective the role of communication when dealing with the tension that arouses between these two elements and suggests that organisations are in marrow the outcome of communication collaborations. Lewin? s Three Stage Model of Change (Carnall,2007, p. 70) can be utilize to help the organi sation better understand this process. It consists of three stages 1. Unfreezing. It is related to cultural change.Identifying both present doingss and required behaviours undeniable to achieve the organisation? s mission and common goals and analysing the diversitys, with the participation of the phoner? s members, is the first step of unfreezing actual change. 2. Changing/Moving. Identifying the procedures and changes in the structure that will modify the execution of the new behaviours and the implementation and examination of accomplishments. 3. Refreezing. transfuse the new behaviours, attitudes, and values in the group.This is usually done by honor new behaviours, carrying out policies, implementing an effective communication, and educating members in order to support the new culture and behavioural principles commission to change is attained in this stage. However, as organisations and their environments are ever more un reliable and dynamic, many changes may kick the bucket at once and when one area is refreezing another might be unfreezing or moving. This has led Clark and Clegg to believe that no-hit management in the future must be based on intelligence and creativity and the capacity to question and learn? executives must learn how to combine perennial change with the ability to sustain business as usual? (1998, as cited in Carnall, 2007, p. 78-79). An organisation is dynamic, it is persistently reinventing itself, and therefore must be monitored constantly. THE RISKS OF CHANGE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT A possible reason for calamity could be that organisations simply do not dedicate enough time or attention to understand the psychology of change. Employees? xperience is a critical factor that should be considered it is how people adapt and react to change that makes a difference. Firstly, changes in an organisation are not linear by nature and thus irresolution is the most common psychological condition that emerge s as a leave alone (Callan et al. , 2004) much of what we refer to as subway to change? is really safeguard to un truety meaning that the resistance originates from the process of dealing and handling change, not from the change itself (Carnall, 2007, p. 3). Secondly, Palmer, Dunfard and Akin (2006) argue that people? perceptions of how they believe that change will affect their personal interests will influence their readiness for it. People have a tendency to support changes that do not seem dour to their interests and resist those that appear to be harmful. (Palmer et al. , 2006, p. 149). Managers should understand the potential risks of letting employees stage changes on their own without a consistent support on behalf of the organisation. uncertainness and uncertainty should be dissipated and substituted by safety, and common interests should be communicate to avoid feelings of threat.According to Argenti (2009) effective internal communications not only requires facili tating employees with applicable and sincere information but it should also reinforce their belief that they are significant as solidifyings to the company and that subsequently their matters are too. Listening to them and allowing their participation in conversations regarding organisational change will keep them excited about their work, connected to the company? s vision, and in a position to further goals of the organisation (Argenti, 2009, p. 84). An compositors case that describes poor attention to how stakeholders react to change (whether they are predisposed to pleasant it or reject it from the beginning) is Kodak? s announcement of its reduction in custody to its staff, and of its dividend cut to its investors. They ignored the importance of setting an adequate strategy to foster a positive response prior to change and this basically resulted in resistance to change from both groups which led the merger with Compaq Computers a failure (Palmer et al. , 2006, p. 1) REASS URING EFFECTIVENESS IN COMMUNICATION Before any action is taken, the organisation must have a sense of the present force of its internal communications. Argenti (2009) reveals that an excellent way to measure the effectiveness of its actions is by carrying out communication audits and systematic temperature checks to discover the employees? attitudes towards the organisation itself, their opinion about the attribute of the communications they are getting, and whether the messages are being understood.Once this is done, an internal communication mannequin can be implemented to work on solutions to any communication deficiencies and satisfy those requests. The strategic Employee Communication Model and Best-practice Definitions (Appendix A) can be used in a change programme as benchmarks against which to measure a company? s employee communication strengths and weaknesses as well as a model of effective change. According to Barrett (2004), both the model and its incompatible elem ents were inspired by query done in numerous outcome 500 companies on what actually works in employee communication.The best companies incorporated many of these definitions in their practice scheme. This model links all caput factors involved in employee communication between them and to the company? s manoeuvres and strategy it analytically breaks down communication into distinguishable and manageable portions and illustrates how interconnected and inter-reliant separately portion is when employee communication is placed strategically within the organisation, a must in order to make change feasible. What actuates this model from a tactical level to a strategic one is the direct connection to the firm? strategic documentals and business planning process plus the overlay of supportive management with on-going assessment of individual and company communication. (Barrett, 2004, p. 22). An example of a level-headed communication in practice is what CEO Gordon Bethune did in Con tinental airlines. Every month, he held an open-house in his own office where employees were welcome to go and ripple to him about any issues, suggestions, or complaints, and in numerous occasions he would go himself to meet the employees at their workplace.This platform for open, informal, and sincere discussion was his sign of leadership. He has been recognised for having significantly improved employee spirit and productivity as well as enhancing the global culture of the firm. This is illustrative of what should be done to have the organisation prepared in the eventuality of change. THE LEARNING ORGANISATION. FROM INDIVIDUALS TO A TEAM In order for the organisation to move as a whole it should behave and act as one.Organisations should provide the ground for individuals to move out of their sense of self, be flexible, and connect with and contribute to the group consciousness. Many authors emphasise the need of creating nurture cultures within organisations in order to achiev e success during change. Teams, not single individuals, are the key to successful organizations of the future and individuals have to learn in the context of the team (Appendix B). Hurst (1995, as cited in Carnall,2007, p. 65) for instance exposes that a performance organisation should evolve into a learning organisation when it faces complexity tightly defined tasks, learn systems and rigid structures should be replaced by recognition, networks and teams. His ecocycle model of eight stages points toward renewal through which the company reinvents itself, more explicitly, in which people rethink what they seek to achieve, with whom and how, and thereby recreate the organisation it is certainly a learning process. The complexity theory can throw some light on this perspective.As Darwin, Johnson and McAuley (2002, cited in Carnall,2007, p. 84) note, the basic idea that lies beneath the relevance of the complexity theory within the literature regarding organisational behaviour is that of a multifaceted adaptive beingness described as a coherent network of agents interacting in parallel with no ? command and control framework? and who are ? adaptively intelligent? (Appendix C). This view links to the idea of ? self-organisation? (Carnall,2007, p. 84). Emery (2004, as cited in Carnall, 2007,p. 85) also presents an analysis of open-systems theory-based action research as an enabler of learning and change.She starts off by stating that learning is first harmonic for viable change and then argues that practitioners must deal with all individuals at every level of the corporation and all practical areas must be implicated in some kind of practise that will enable them to take part in this learning process. However, she highlights that there are certain obstacles that might get in the way such as certain attitudes of the elite members, fail to use a common language throughout the organisation, and diverse framework and priority schemes.Another issue to tackle is the fact that individuals have diverse learning rates and they learn in different ways (Carnall, 2007). That is where the role of internal communications plays a significant role. Professional practitioners should be able to identify where communications fail and target unlike audiences with different techniques to be able to engage them appropriately. We therefore can determine that the objective of education in the long-run would be to create a sozzled sense of listening and of responsiveness that will permeate(s) the organisation (Macleod, p. 9) by -Forming engaging managers that will know how to communicate cultures and values and treat their personnel with respect. As MacLeod ((Macleod, p. 79) ) states in his report, managers who engage facilitate and empower rather than control or measure up their staff they treat their staff with appreciation and respect and show commitment to developing, increasing and rewarding the capabilities of those they manage. . -Giving employees a v oice and tools to address management with their concerns.They must feel they are listened to and see that their opinions count and make a difference And that they are able to speak out and challenge when appropriate (Macleod, p. 79) purpose Employee engagement levels can predict an organisation? s accomplishments and performance as it is claimed by many authors. However, due to today? s complex environment it is more than necessary to build up a strong internal communications strategy. Employees should not be isolated from the organisation as a whole and should be informed and involved in it. The corporate culture should be coherent and the vision should be clear.If organisations fail to communicate all this properly and engage its employees into believing that change is not synonym of threat, resistance will appear. Resistance may lead to a break in the internal homeostasis and the consequences will show up as a failure when trying to move the organisation forward. REFERENCES Arge nti, P. (2009) Corporate Communication. 5th ed. Singapore Mc Graw Hill. Carnall, C. (2007) Managing Change in Organisations. 5th ed. Essex Prentice-Hall. Dolphin, R. (1999) The Fundamentals of Corporate Communications. Butterworth-Heinemann. Jimmieson, N. t al. (2004) A Longitudinal Study of Employee Adaptation to Organizational Change The Role of Change-Related discipline and Change-Related Self-Ef? cacy. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology , 9 (1), p. 11-27. MacLeod, D. and Clarke, N. (2009) Engaging for succeeder enhancing performance through employee engagement. report Department for Business Palmer, I. et al. (2006) Managing Organizational Change A Multiple Perspectives Approach. s. l. Mc Graw-Hill Saks, A. (2006) Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21 (7), p. 00-619. www. theinformationdaily. com (2012) Making your organisation fit to change. online Available at http//www. theinformationdaily. com/2012/12/21/making-yo ur-organisation-fit-to-change Accessed 4 baby 2013. Jacobs, G. (2004) Corporate creative thinking. In Oliver, S. M. ed. Handbook of corporate communications and humans relations. London Routledge, pp. 382-384. Barrett, D. J. (2004) A best-practice approach to change communication. In Oliver, S. M. ed. Handbook of corporate communications and public relations. London Routledge, pp. 22-24. . APPENDICES Appendix A. Figure 2. 1 Strategic employee communication model (Barrett, 2004, p. 23) *Appendix B. Senge? s five disciplines 1. Systems thinking everyone must learn how to view things as a whole and that one set of events has impact on others 2. Personal mastery ? the discipline of continually clarify and deepening personal vision, of focusing energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.? 3. noetic models ? learning to unearth internal pictures of the world, to bring them to surface and hold them purely to scrutiny? 4.Build a share vision leadership is the k ey to creating and communication the vision the leader creates vision but is prepared to have it reshaped by others 5. Team learning teams, not single individuals, are the key to successful organizations of the future and individuals have to learn in the context of the team (Senge, 1990, as cited in Carnall, p. 164) *Appendix C. Darwin, Johnson and McAuley (2002, Carnall, p. 84) describe a multifaceted adaptive organism 1. It is a network of ? agents? acting in parallel, often interconnected, ways but without any ? ommand and control? framework 2. These agents are ? adaptively intelligent? constantly quest and making sense of patterns, testing ideas, evolving and learning. 3. Change is achieved through learning, evolution and adaptation. 4. wangle of the system is dispersed throughout the system. 5. Coherence within the system arises out of competition and cooperation among the agents as they see advantage in alliances and other arrangements for mutual support. This view links t o the idea of ? self-organisation?. (Darwin et al, 2002, as cited in Carnall, p. 84)