scholarly journals Working in the Eye of the Pandemic: Local COVID-19 Infections and Daily Employee Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Reinwald ◽  
Sophia Zimmermann ◽  
Florian Kunze

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed many aspects of our society and work life. This study assesses how daily variations in employees' work engagement are affected by daily variations in infection rates in employees' communities. Applying the conceptual framework of event system theory, we argue that surging COVID-19 cases have an impact on employee engagement, depending on the individual sensemaking processes of the pandemic. We assume that employee age and received leader support are key context factors for these sensemaking processes and that particularly older employees and employees who receive little leader consideration react with lower work engagement levels toward rising local COVID-19 infections in their proximity. We find support for most of our proposed relationships in an 8-day diary study of German employees, which we integrate with official COVID-19 case statistics on the county level. We discuss the implications of these results for the literature on extreme events and individual workplace behavior. Furthermore, these findings have important implications for companies and executives who are confronted with local COVID-19 outbreaks or other extreme societal events.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 209-213
Author(s):  
Stephanie Douglas ◽  
Robin Roberts

Purpose Employee engagement studies are popular in contemporary research because of the complexity organizations face in nurturing the performance and productivity of multi-generations of workers. The purpose of this paper is to assess association of age and dimensions of work engagement. Design/methodology/approach In total, 181 participants completed the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) to measure work engagement including the dimensions of absorption, vigor and dedication as well as demographics. One-way ANOVA and post hoc tests were conducted to examine the relationship between age and work engagement. Findings Employees 50 years of age and older were found to have statistically significant higher work engagement scores than the employees under the age of 50. Statistically significant scores were also found to be higher in absorption and dedication. Originality/value The workforce is aging with older employees becoming larger populations in organizations. Understanding how age influences employee work engagement supports human capital management strategy within organizations. HR professionals can also use the findings to develop targeted employee engagement to leverage the dedication and talents of older employees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-491
Author(s):  
Dheyaa Falih Bannay ◽  
Mohammed Jabbar Hadi ◽  
Ahmed Abdullah Amanah

Work creativity manifested in innovative workplace behavior (IWB) and employee work engagement is fundamental to maintaining firm’s sustainability and competitiveness. In this regard, this study investigates the supporting effect of innovative leadership on IWB and employee engagement by maximizing employee vigor, dedication, and absorption. The study data were collected using a questionnaire-based technique, and the questionnaires were administered to 150 respondents working in mobile phone companies in Southern and Central Iraq. The results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS software. The study results revealed that inclusive leadership and work engagement were significantly related to IWB, and work engagement played a mediating role between inclusive leadership and IWB. The findings further indicated that inclusive leadership behaviors such as openness, accessibility, and availability motivated the subordinates to be engaged in IWB. To promote IWB, company leaders need to effectively engage their followers by taking pride and satisfaction in employee output, which might help employee work engagement and IWB.


Author(s):  
Holy Greata

This study aims to look at the effectiveness of performance appraisal training programs to improve perceived organizational support and employee engagement among employees at YPTK educational institutions. This research uses a quantitative approach, with the before-and-after study design research design. The strength of this program is the ability to measure the impact of an intervention. Measuring devices perceived organizational support is an adaptation of the survey of perceived organizational support, while measuring instruments employee engagement is an adaptation of the Utrecht work engagement scale. The results of this study indicate the influence of perceived organizational support on employee engagement of 0.168 (p = 0.016 significant at l.o.s 0.05). Paired sample t-test results showed significant differences in perceived organizational support and employee engagement scores before and after the training and outreach of performance appraisal. Keywords: Perceived Organizational Suppor; Employee Engagement, Performance assessment   Penelitian ini bertujuan melihat efektifitas program pelatihan penilaian kinerja untuk meningkatkan perceived organizational support dan employee engagement pada karyawan di lembaga pendidikan YPTK. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif, dengan design penelitian the before-and-after study design. Kelebihan dari program ini adalah kemampuan untuk mengukur dampak dari sebuah intervensi. Alat ukur perceived organizational support merupakan adaptasi dari survey of perceived organizational support, sedangkan alat ukur employee engagement merupakan adaptasi dari Utrecht work engagement scale. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan adanya pengaruh perceived organizational support terhadap employee engagement sebesar 0.168 (p=0.016 signifikan pada l.o.s 0.05). Hasil uji paired sample t-test menunjukkan adanya perbedaan skor perceived organizational support dan employee engagement yang signifikan sebelum dan sesudah dilakukan pelatihan dan sosialisasi penilaian kinerja.   Kata Kunci: Perceived Organizational Suppor; Employee Engagement, Penilaian Kinerja.


This volume comprises 27 chapters focused on the design and execution of employee survey programs. These chapters reflect the latest advances in technology and analytics and a pervasive emphasis on driving organizational performance and effectiveness. The individual chapters represent the full range of survey-related topics, including design, administration, analysis, feedback, and action-taking. The latest methodological trends and capabilities are discussed including computational linguistics, applications of artificial intelligence, and the use of qualitative methods such as focus groups. Extending beyond traditional employee surveys, contributions include the role of passive data collection as an alternative or supplement in a comprehensive employee listening system. Unique contextual factors are discussed including the use of surveys in a unionized environment. Individual contributions also reflect increasing stakeholder concerns for the protection of privacy among other ethical considerations. Finally, significant clarifications to the literature are provided on the use of surveys for measuring organization culture, strategic climate, and employee engagement.


Author(s):  
Wenqing Tian ◽  
Huatian Wang ◽  
Sonja Rispens

Creative employees are treasured assets for organizations. However, relatively little is known about what specific actions employees can take to manage their own creative process. Taking a motivational perspective, this study examined how job crafting behaviors positively link to employee creative performance through work engagement, and whether perceived work group status diversity moderates this relationship. We conducted a weekly diary study in which 55 employees from a Chinese energy company were asked to fill in diaries over four consecutive weeks (176 observations in total). Results of the multilevel analyses showed that weekly job crafting behaviors were positively related to weekly creative performance through increasing weekly work engagement. In contrast to our expectation, we found that weekly job crafting behaviors were more positively related to weekly creative performance when perceived work group status diversity was high. In summary, our study suggests that job crafting behaviors are effective actions employees can take to manage their creative processes through increasing work engagement. In addition, we stress that status diversity in existing work environments is an important contextual factor that shapes the job crafting process.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Sharma

Work engagement is not only a "nice-to-have" but has been shown to be linked to various positive outcomes of work, including its proven financial and behavioural gains. The concern regarding employee engagement is increasing, and organizations of the 21st century are looking for every possible way to develop the culture of employee engagement deliberately. In this context, this research introduces employee engagement as a viable method to encourage organizational productivity and examines how perceptions of specific human resource (HR) practices and organizational identification relate to experiences of employee's work engagement. The study data was collected using standard psychometric tools from 75 mid-level managers working in various organizations. Statistical analysis was performed to answer research questions. The results conveyed the significance of applying encouraging human resource practices and demonstrated the positive effect of organization-al identification (OID) on work engagement. HR practices and OID were found instrumental in positively predicting the significant amount of work engagement. By discovering the relationship between HR practices (conditions that organizations can influence easily), organizational identification, and employee engagement, this study relates to the realistic implementation of measures to improve employee engagement and especially emphasises them. As most companies are searching for ways to promote employee engagement, the latest re-search results are of practical importance to HR executives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Sekhar ◽  
Manoj Patwardhan ◽  
Vishal Vyas

The Problem The Indian information technology (IT) industry has shown a phenomenal growth over the last two decades. These changes such as increased global competition and the shift in the blend and level of the workforce have led to an increasing level of uncertainty in the industry. To overcome this unprecedented change, IT firms need to adopt flexible human resource management (FHRM) that has a direct and/or indirect impact on job performance. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the impact of work engagement on job performance through FHRM among IT professionals in India. The Solution The results indicate that the use of FHRM by the employees is an important mediator between the positive relationship of work engagement and job performance. Both work engagement and FHRM contributed to job performance. The sample firm and responses for the study were limited to IT industry domain only. The results suggest that FHRM should be promoted at the employee and firm levels to boost job performance. The Stakeholders Reflecting on the employee engagement and job performance via FHRM would boost the organizational flexibility in the IT industry. FHRM makes the employee more organization fit and more engaged for their respective job. This study may be helpful in unveiling the importance of flexibility in job performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that links work engagement, FHRM, and job performance in the Indian IT industry context. The study helps in the development of theory in FHRM and employee engagement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-34
Author(s):  
Maja Rožman ◽  
Sonja Treven ◽  
Vesna Čančer

Generational differences present a new aspect of diversity among employees in the workplace. The increasing number of older employees and negative attitudes of younger employees toward them create the need for better understanding between generations and the need to improve mutual cooperation among age-diverse employees in an organisation. The main objective of the paper is to determine the impact of intergenerational synergy on the work engagement of older employees in Slovenia. For this purpose, empirical research was conducted in medium-sized and large companies among employers and older employees in Slovenia. Factor analysis was used to replace a large number of statements with a smaller number of factors - new variables with which we performed a simple linear regression. Based on the results, we confirmed the hypothesis that promoting intergenerational synergy in companies has a statistically significant positive impact on the work engagement of older employees in Slovenia. In this context, companies should take the following measures: eliminate discrimination of older employees, promote intergenerational synergy, and promote intergenerational understanding between young and older employees.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Vahideh Delbahari ◽  
Iraj Soltani ◽  
Akbar Etebarian Khorasgani

Today’s organizations need energetic and engaged employees, those who are interested in their jobs. Generally, the engaged ones love their job and do their job tasks well. If there is no engagement in the organizations, the organization is encountered with serious problems in this ground. This study aims to design engagement assessment model in the organizations and its applied purpose is creating new theoretical basics in the maturity of engagement in the organization and this helps the organizations for better perception and consistency of organizational goals with the goals of employees. The employees of the National Iranian Oil Company constituted the population for this research. The National Iranian Oil Company was selected as the context, because employee engagement has emerged as a critical problem confronting this sector. 356 employees of this company were selected by simple random sampling method and data were collected using a questionnaire. The researcher attempts to answer the question how we can design an engagement assessment model in the organizations. The different dimensions of engagement are identified at individual and organizational levels and then based on the findings, the employees are classified based on the individual and organizational engagement and the results of this study can help the researchers for better recognition of this internal variable and this helps the better understanding of researchers to use it.


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