A culture of employee engagement: a strategic perspective for global managers

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Taneja ◽  
Scott S. Sewell ◽  
Randall Y. Odom
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Organizational Sustainability ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Employee Communication ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Results ◽  
Strategic Perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that identifies the strategies that have the ability to create a culture of employee engagement for global managers in making the tactical adaptations necessary to develop and implement global strategy in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focused on the global managers charged with the responsibilities of developing and creating a culture of employee engagement as an important strategy for the competitive advantage of organizations. Findings – Employee engagement should be viewed as a long-term commitment between the employees and the organization, each supporting the other in an era of increasing international operations. In fact, employee engagement is an important strategy for long-term organizational sustainability in international markets. Practical implications – Employee engagement is critical to the management and retention of talented employees in the organization. It can be achieved by managing global mobility in increasingly complex global workplaces; talent so that it enhances business results; training and development; rewards, recognitions and engagement; manager/employee communication and interaction; and leadership and development. Originality/value – In today’s global society, it is critical for organizational leaders to focus on creating a culture of employee engagement to attract and retain quality employees in an increasingly competitive market. Engaged employees are more committed to their work and feel connected to the success of their organization. In addition, they are more likely to believe in their organization’s values, mission and vision. The increasing utilization of boundary less organizations poses a challenge for leaders who strive to create and maintain employee engagement within an organization.

Employee engagement creates a brighter economic future at Jupiter Hotels

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Cattermole ◽  
Jaime Johnson ◽  
Diane Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Results ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Economic Future

Purpose – This paper seeks to address the role and impact of employee engagement within an organization that has undergone major change. It looks at the issues of how to monitor and increase levels of staff engagement over time to deliver business results. Design/methodology/approach – It draws on six-monthly employee engagement surveys and a case study to illustrate how HR can drive and monitor change through employee engagement. Findings – This paper follows a company through economic uncertainty to major organizational change and examines how the role of engagement and monitoring can drive business success. Research limitations/implications – The case study only looks at the issues over an 18 month time period. Originality/value – This paper illustrates how an HR department can build employee engagement to drive the business forward. The case study offers best practice material for HR managers.

How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minjeong Kang ◽  
Minjung Sung
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Employee Communication ◽  
Communication Management ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Symmetrical Communication

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a company’s symmetrical internal communication efforts could influence its employees’ perception of relationship outcomes with the company and the subsequent employee communication behaviors about the company to others and their turnover intention. Additionally, the mediation effects of employee-organization relationship (EOR) quality between symmetrical internal communication and employee engagement were tested. Design/methodology/approach The study collected the data from a survey of randomly selected 438 individuals who work as sales representatives of the case organization. Respondents were randomly selected through stratified sampling. For the overall statistical procedure, this study adopted the two-step structural equation modeling: on the basis of the final measurement model analysis from confirmatory factor analysis, the proposed structural model was tested using latent variables. Findings The findings of this research clearly demonstrate: employee/internal communication management is linked with employee engagement; employee engagement enhances supportive employee communication behaviors and reduces turnover intention. Also, the mediation results show strong mediation of EORs on the effects of symmetrical internal communication on employee engagement. Research limitations/implications Employees’ communication behaviors such as megaphoning and scouting have special strategic values to organizations. With information seeking, selecting, forwarding, and sharing behaviors of employees, organizations may obtain more valuable information than through formal procedures and channels. Professional literature has long been supporting the importance of fostering positive employee communication behaviors (ECBs), suggesting that WOM and information from the employees deemed as most trustworthy by the external publics. ECBs about their organizations may be viewed as a testament of the quality of EOR. This study results show that employee engagement plays a key role in creating positive ECBs. Practical implications Pragmatically, as noted in the findings, symmetrical communication is an important factor that leads to positive ECB. To facilitate employees’ favorable communication regarding an organization, therefore, the organization needs to practice a two-way, employee-centered symmetrical communication system in its everyday communication management. Communication managers are advised to nurture internal communication practices that listen to the employees and invite their participation in addition to providing complete and fair information to employees. Second, by showing the significant positive influence of EOR on employee engagement and ECB, the finding of the study suggests that strategic relationship management with internal publics affect overall management effectiveness. Hence, organizational managers need to adopt various relationship cultivation strategies in their communication with employees, which have been previously proposed by several studies. Originality/value The findings of the study demonstrated that the effects of employee relationship management and symmetrical internal communication indeed exist beyond ECBs to the actual managerial outcomes. The findings also suggest a three-stage model of employee communication management: employee/internal communication management antecedents; employee engagement; and supportive outcomes of effective employee communication programs, such as supportive/extra ECBs.

Employees and sustainability: the role of incentives

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 820-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly K Merriman ◽  
Sagnika Sen ◽  
Andrew J Felo ◽  
Barrie E Litzky
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Organizational Sustainability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Incentive Effects ◽  
Environmental Objectives ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

Purpose – Organizational sustainability has become a priority on many corporate agendas. How to integrate sustainability efforts throughout the organization, however, remains a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine two factors that potentially enhance incentive effects on employee engagement in environmental objectives: explicit organizational values for sustainability and the performance objective’s complementarity with incented financial objectives. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed a quasi-experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, including a status quo condition against which the treatments were contrasted. Participants (n=400) were comprised of a cross-section of US employees from a wide range of occupations and industries. A post hoc qualitative analysis provided additional insights. Findings – Incentive effects were enhanced (i.e. preference for the environmental objective was significantly higher) when the environmental project offered complementary benefits for financial objectives, but not when organization values emphasized sustainability. An entrenched status quo bias for financial performance was discerned among a subset of the sample. Research limitations/implications – Management scholars must pay close attention to the role of implicit norms for financial performance when investigating employee engagement in organizational sustainability efforts. From an applied perspective, framing sustainability objectives to emphasize financial benefits consistent with a financial mission may maximize employee engagement. Originality/value – This study contributes to understanding of organizational sustainability efforts at the individual employee level of analysis, a conspicuously small part of the organizational research surrounding this topic.

Expatriates in the UAE

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanan AlMazrouei ◽  
Richard J. Pech
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Practical Model ◽  
Expatriate Managers ◽  
Strategic Perspective ◽  
Overseas Deployment ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Sending staff to international locations can be costly for employers as well as employees if the expatriate staff members fail in their ability to assimilate themselves or are unable to work within the construct of the foreign culture. From a strategic perspective, failed overseas deployments can have serious implications in both the firm’s reputation and unnecessary costs. We examine this issue within the context of deployments to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires are used to examine the factors relating to expatriate leader adjustment in the UAE. The experiences of expatriate managers in the UAE are discussed. Findings – Our study found that well-structured pre-departure training had a positive effect on expatriate managers’ adjustment to working in the UAE. Mentoring was also considered to be highly effective as a means of preparing employees for an overseas deployment. A number of useful guidelines have been developed from the experiences of the expatriate managers surveyed in our research. Research limitations/implications – Practical implications The results provide notable implications for organizational leaders facing a posting to the UAE and human resource management specialists preparing people for work in the UAE. It also provides a practical model to be used by expatriate leaders to facilitate their adjustment to the UAE culture. Originality/value – Although there has been much research on cross-cultural adaptation, relatively little has been written on practical managerial adaptation, specifically in the UAE. This article helps address this imbalance.

Creating a winning culture: next step for leading HR professionals

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Ulrich ◽  
Wayne Brockbank
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Business Performance ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Organization Culture ◽  
Random Set ◽  
Human Resource Professionals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Results ◽  
The Right

Purpose This paper aims to answer the why, what and how of culture as an emerging human resource agenda. Understanding culture is a trending topic for organization executives and thought leaders. Few deny the importance of culture for shaping and sustaining employee engagement and productivity, sustained strategy and business results. But while culture matters, it is often ambiguous and hard to define. Design/methodology/approach Based on our research on over 1,000 organizations, the authors have found that organization (culture) impacts business performance two to four times as much as individual talent. Findings The authors suggest that culture is not just a random set of values, beliefs or emotions, but a winning culture turns customer promises (firm brands) into internal organization actions. This paper proposes a disciplined process for creating a winning culture that engages employees in the right issues and invite human resource professionals to step up to this opportunity. Originality/value In this paper, the authors posit that the war for talent may be supplemented by understanding victory through organization culture.

Jupiter Hotels helps stars to shine

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-21
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Results ◽  
Hospitality Sector ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Staff Engagement

Purpose – Examines the role and impact of employee engagement in an organization that has undergone major change. Looks at how to monitor and increase levels of staff engagement over time to deliver business results. Design/methodology/approach – Draws on six-monthly employee-engagement surveys and a case study to illustrate how HR can drive and monitor change through employee engagement. Findings – Follows Jupiter Hotels through a period of major change and reveals how employee surveys helped the firm to keep its employees motivated and engaged. Social implications – Looks at how a major employer in the hospitality sector coped with organizational change during an economic downturn. Originality/value – Offers best-practice material for HR managers.

Media interviews as strategic external communication to maintain legitimacy for sustainability activities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen T. Crumley ◽  
Karen Grandy ◽  
Binod Sundararajan ◽  
Judy Roy
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Organizational Sustainability ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Thematic Content ◽  
External Communication ◽  
Inclusive Language

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the thematic content and inclusive language in leaders' media interviews to maintain legitimacy for organizational sustainability activities.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory, qualitative content analysis of 24 organizational leaders' media interviews about environmental sustainability was conducted. Inclusive language (i.e. collective focus terms, collective personal pronouns, and metaphors) and thematic content were analyzed.FindingsLegitimacy maintenance entails both describing organizational sustainability activities and conveying, through the use of inclusive language, multiple audiences' connection to the organization. The qualitative content analysis found that leaders discussed both primary and secondary stakeholders. With the exception of the code defending existing practices, leaders consistently highlighted positive sustainability activities of their organizations. The inclusive language analysis found that collective focus terms were used by all the leaders, with the most common term being “everyone.” Collective personal pronouns were found in half the interviews. Metaphors were employed by all leaders; the most common sustainability-related metaphors were journey, structural, personification, military/competition, vision and science.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is limited to 24 organizations and not representative of all industries.Originality/valueWhile sustainability communication research focuses on annual reports and website and social media content, this study draws attention to a common but under-examined type of strategic external communication: senior organizational leaders' media interviews. To the authors’ knowledge, scholars have not previously considered the possible legitimacy maintenance function of organizational leaders' use of inclusive language and thematic content to address a broad array of stakeholders in their external communication.

The innovation pyramid: five approaches to strategic decision-making

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Hensmans
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Innovation ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Innovation Type ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The innovation pyramid presented in this paper ranks innovation types in terms of their capacity to provide organizations with a long-term commercialization advantage. Design/methodology/approach It is based on ten years of studying different types of innovation and helping hundreds of groups of MBA and Master students apply these insights to hundreds of organizations in different industries. Findings The innovation pyramid provides organizational leaders with a powerful heuristic to organize their strategic innovation priorities, in terms of aligning and committing organizational innovation efforts. Practical implications To help organizational leaders, this paper illustrates each innovation type with clarifying examples of a variety of well-known firms. Originality/value The pyramid provides an antidote to the technological determinism and confusing use of innovation jargon, both of which over-promise disruptive and radical performance effects. Instead, it offers clarity and succinctness of purpose both in terms of aligning and committing to innovation efforts and priorities.

Total quality management as driver for internationalization: a case study of a small family firm

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Floris ◽  
Michela Marongiu ◽  
Cinzia Dessi ◽  
Angela Dettori
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Single Case ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Small Family ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Internationalization Strategies

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and internationalization in small family firms, focusing on the role that the dimensions of TQM may have as strategic resources to implement successful internationalization strategies.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on the Resource-Based View (RBV), the study is based on a single case study, and data were gathered through in-depth interviews with the family owner-manager.FindingsFindings show that small family businesses that aim to operate in international markets have to invest constant attention toward TQM by developing strategies able to achieve excellence. More in detail, for small and medium family firms, TQM represents a driver to internationalize. Therefore, family-owned managers sustain that internationalization success depends on the increasing attention exhibited toward the following dimensions of quality, specifically on three main pillars: relationships, professionalization and long-term vision, which appear to be strategic resources in international markets. An interpretive model is proposed with a set of propositions.Research limitations/implicationsScholarly implications are threefold. First, findings contribute to the RBV theory by introducing the long-term vision as a strategic resource able to activate a loop between TQM and internationalization success. Second, results contribute to TQM literature, highlighting that it represents a driver to internationalize, and following a long-term perspective, its enhancement is stimulated by internationalization. Third, findings contribute to family business studies, underlining the relevance done of owners on professionalization as a strategic resource to ensure excellence and obtain success in overseas markets. The main drawback refers to the fact that results stemmed from one single case study. Further studies could deepen the analysis on multiple cases.Practical implicationsThe proposed case study represents a best practice and can stimulate other entrepreneurs and consultants to invest in TQM to thrive internationalization strategies.Originality/valueThe current study, elucidating that TQM is the driver to stimulate family business internationalization, proposes an interpretive model to study TQM and internationalization in small and medium family firms.

Exploring remote and onsite employees’ preferred appreciation languages prior to COVID-19 and during COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul White
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Work Setting ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Remote Employees ◽  
Internal Characteristic ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Communicating appreciation to employees has been shown to be an important factor in contributing to employee engagement and making workplaces more effective. Research has shown that employees differ in how they desire to be shown appreciation. The purpose of this paper is to examine how working remotely (vs onsite), the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and employees’ age group impacted the ways employees want to be shown appreciation at work. Design/methodology/approach Using the five Languages of Appreciation as a framework (Chapman and White, 2019), over 200,000 individuals’ results from the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory were compared across various groups. The dependent variable: (Primary Language of Appreciation) was examined in light of three independent variables: work setting (onsite vs remote), timeframe (pre-COVID-19 vs during COVID-19) and age range of the employee. Findings Preferences for how to be shown appreciation were quite stable across work setting, timeframe and age range, suggesting that one’s preferred ways of being shown appreciation is largely an internal characteristic that is only mildly influenced by external factors. Minor trends were found when comparing various age groups and remote vs onsite employees. Originality/value Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees’ desires for appreciation is critical for organizational leaders. With vast numbers of new remote employees in the workforce, understanding how they are similar to and vary from onsite employees is paramount for addressing the needs of all team members. This study provides valuable information on both topics, as well as differences across age groups.

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