International Journal of Research and Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR)

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Emerging Trends of Employee Engagement: A Review of Selected

Studies
1

Bhagyasree Padhi, 2Aruna Kumar Panda

Gandhi Engineering College, Bhubaneswar

International Society for Social Services (ISSS) Sahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar-7 (Odisha)

Abstract : The present study aims to discuss about the

significance of employee engagement practices of various
firms and industries operating in the competitive global
scenario over a considerable period of time. Attempts have
been made here to focus upon the critical role of employees
for the viability, sustainability and overall competitiveness
of the organization, and therefore, the significance of
employee engagement as the most valuable asset for every
organization. For the purpose of investigation, a significant
number of research works conducted both in India and
abroad are discussed on a selective basis out of numerous
past literatures available in the area, keeping in mind their
vital linkage with the theme of employee engagement. It is
expected that a review study of this capacity would trigger
the analytical minds of the World wide researchers and
policy makers of this area in scientific decision making and
furthering the research.
Key Words : Employee engagement, review of literature,
Human resource management, work engagement,
competitive advantage, organizational effectiveness,
transformational leadership, communication, employee
development, reward and recognition, corporate culture.

I. INTRODUCTION
In the world literature the origin of human resource
management in a raw form could be traced as back as to
3000 B.C. However over the decades it developed a
multidisciplinary organizational function there by
embodying several theories and ideas from major fields
like management, philosophy, sociology, economics etc.
(Senyucel, 2009: Panda, 2015: Mahapatra and Panda,
2008).
Human resource management in its mature form could
gain its momentum only during the mid of 1980s that
resulted in to an increase in product-market competition
like privatization and non-unionism that ultimately
forced the government to reorganize employment
relations more from an industrial relation prospective to
people based human resource management (Guest,
1989; Stredwick, 2005; Ivo, 2006).
The recent global recession imposed a greater strain on
employees and witnessed a pay freeze; benefit cuts and
lay-off industries that imposed a severe challenge for the
concerned employers to develop, motivate and maintain
a highly engaged work force (Aon Hewitt, 2012).

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In this section, an attempt has been made to make a
review of the available literature on different dimensions
of Employee Engagement. The review includes mainly
the empirical studies on different aspects of Employee
Engagement.
The research paper of Saks (2006) entitled Antecedents
and Consequences of Employee Engagement focused
to test a model of the antecedents and consequences of
job and organizational engagement based on social
exchange theory (SET) which argues that obligations are
generated through a series of interactions between
parties who are in a state of reciprocal interdependence.
Thus, it supports engagement as a two-way relationship
between the employer and employees that satisfies most
of the social, economic, emotional and organizational
obligations. As a part of research design, survey method
was executed and 102 employees working in a variety of
jobs and organizations having on an average of 12 years
of experience were participated. The average age was 34
and 60% of the employees were female. Further the
participants had been in their current job for an average
of 4 years and in their organizations an average of 5
years. The survey includes the majors of job and
organizational engagement as well as the antecedents
and consequences of engagement. The findings of the
study stated that there is a meaningful difference
between job and organizational engagement. Further it
came to notice that the job and organizational
engagement play a pivotal role in facilitating the
relationship between the pre-existing traditions of
employee
engagement
and
job
satisfaction,
organizational commitment, intention to quit and
organizational citizenship behavior.
Dicke (2007) in his research paper entitled employee
engagement: I want it, what is it? tried to find out what
exactly employee engagement is, keeping in mind the
confusion and misdirection associated with it. His paper
further identified the primary causes of such problems as
lack of congruity in to the definition and measurement
of employee engagement, and the concept of employee
engagement rarely having a concrete distinction from
other concepts that are closely related with it. The paper

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elaborates these issues in detail and provides meaningful
suggestions for the human resource leaders regarding
employee engagement.
Holwerdas
(2007)
research
work
entitled
Communicating for Engagement highlighted the
impact of the nature of internal communication within
the organization on the conduct of business. Further, the
paper identified a greater linkage between the methods
of communication and the manner in which they are
communicated to the work force engagement strategies
of the company. This investigation explores as to how to
leverage the engagement efforts of the organization by
enhancing the effectiveness of communication.
Kontakos (2007) carried out a research work entitled
Seeing Clearly: Employee Engagement and Line of
Sight where he elaborately discussed the concept of
engagement and identified its relationship with a number
of dimensions like: (i) developing a clear line of sight
and building an employer brand around it from inside
the organization while leveraging leadership (ii)
communication (iii) employee development and (iv)
corporate and social responsibility. The research paper
identified these dimensions though not entirely new to
the strategic human resource management but
significant enough as much as the case of employee
engagement is concerned, and therefore, offers
meaningful suggestions for HR practitioners.
Mauno, Kinnunen and Ruokolainen (2007) research
work entitled Job demands and resources as
antecedents of work engagement: A longitudinal study
investigated the experience of work engagement and its
antecedents in a public health care organization (which
includes seven hospitals) of Finland. The study mainly
focused on three different types of job demands that
include: (i) time demand at work, (ii) work-to-family
conflict and (iii) job insecurity. In addition, it also
highlighted three types of job resources: (i) job control,
(ii) organization-based self-esteem and (iii) perceived
management quality. For the purpose of investigation,
necessary
questionnaires
were
designed
and
administered on healthcare personnel like doctors,
nurses, researchers, cleaning and catering staff etc. over
two different time periods i.e. 2003 and 2005. The total
number of respondents was 409 that represented 65.7%
of response rate. The study revealed that work
engagement (especially vigor and dedication) was
frequently experienced among the participants and on an
average it remained the same across the follow up
period. The experience of work engagement also
remained reasonably stable during the two year period
under study. Further, job resources narrated earlier
predicted work engagement comparatively better than
job demands. The outcome further proved that job
control on dedication remained statistically significant.
Molinaro and Weiss (2008) in their study entitled
Driving Employee Engagement elaborately discussed
about how the employee engagement has emerged as a
critical leadership challenge and, therefore, highlighted

the need for creating inspiring workplace by leaders to

engage employees for enhancing organizational
productivity. Over the past few years, they conducted
interviews of hundreds of employees at all levels, and in
a cross-section of the sectors and identified six
important factors that actually drives engagement
namely (i) Being part of a winning organization (ii)
working for the admire leaders (iii) having a positive
working relationship with the colleagues (iv) doing
meaningful work that has an impact to the organization
(v) Recognition and appreciation for the employee and
(vi) work-life balance. In addition, the researchers stated
that it is crucial for the leaders to understand the factors
that drive employee engagement for the overall
organizational growth and success.
The research work of Moss (2008) entitled Cultivating
Regulatory Focus of Followers to Amplify their
Sensitivity to Transformational Leadership emphasized
the relationship between transformational leadership and
engagement in selected public and private sector
establishments. For the purpose of the investigation, a
sample of 160 employees from the public and private
sectors were taken into account. The major findings of
the study indicated that in both the sectors the positive
association between the vision and vigor becomes more
prominent with increased focus on promotion.
Whit ford and Moss (2009) penned a research paper
entitled Transformational Leadership in distributed
work groups: The moderating role of follower regulatory
focus and goal orientation and studied the relationship
between individual characteristics and leadership style.
A total of 165 employees belong to small, medium and
large public and private organizations in Australia,
North America, Europe, Asia, South Africa and South
America were taken as the sample for the investigation.
The findings of their study suggested that the visionary
leadership has a positive association with work
engagement. In addition, personal recognition also
correlated positively with work engagement.
Zhu, Avolio and Walumbwa (2009) made a study
entitled Moderating role of follower characteristics
with transformational leadership and followers work
engagement. For the purpose of investigation a sample
size of 188 top management personnel from various
industries of South Africa were selected. Out of which
48 were top executive leaders and 140 were following
senior managers. At the end, the study revealed the fact
that the follower characteristics did significantly predict
the transformational leadership-follower engagement.
Desai, Majumdar and Prabhu (2010) conducted an
empirical investigation entitled A Study on Employee
Engagement in Two Indian Business, namely, the
manufacturing organizations and IT organizations and
tried to find out (i) the depth of employee engagement,
and also (ii) compared the underlying reasons indicating
high or low employee engagement in the said concerns.
For the purpose of investigation a sample of 50 middle
level executives of a car manufacturing unit and 50

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employees of an IT firm located in and around
Bengaluru city of India were taken as samples. The
characteristics of the collected samples were based on
certain parameters like age (30-45 years), education
(Graduation and above), Income (5-10 Lakhs per
annum), marital status (Married only) and social class
(middle and upper middle class). The statistical models
of correlation analysis, two-way analysis of variants and
t-test were carried out for the investigation purpose. The
outcomes of the study indicated that the degree of
employee engagement was significantly high in
manufacturing organizations in comparison to the IT
firms. Further, it came to light that various causes like
the impression that the firm cares for and values the
employees, easy and smooth communication with the
immediate supervisor, empathetic attitude of the
supervisor for his subordinates, recognition of the
employees meaningful contributions towards the
organizational goal and freedom to participate in the
decision-making process, etc., remained responsible for
a higher engagement in the manufacturing process.
Markos and Sridevi (2010) study entitles Employee
Engagement: The Key to Improving Performance
explained ten strategies of employee engagement
namely: (i) start it on day one, (ii) start it from the top,
(iii) enhance employee engagement through two-way
communication, (iv) give satisfactory opportunities for
development and advancement, (v) ensure that
employees have everything they need to do their job,
(vi) give employees appropriate training, (vii) have
strong feedback system, (viii) incentives have a part to
play, (ix) build a distinctive corporate culture, and (x)
focus on top performing employee, and suggested that
these strategies can be highly relevant for organizational
success and growth.
Robertson and Cooper (2010) conducted an empirical
investigation on Full Engagement: The Integration of
Employee Engagement and Psychological Well-Being,
and proposed that the sustainability of employee
engagement is highly related to employee well-being.
While conducting the research they reviewed various
concepts on employee engagement, provided several
brief-case studies as illustrations and extended a model
to revitalize full engagement in organizations. The major
findings of this study stated that most current
prospective on employee engagement has least direct
relevance to well-being which is nothing but a narrow
commitment-based view of engagement that is heavily
meant for the benefit of the organizations only.
However, there should be a broader perception of
engagement that should take in to account the employee
well-being, including his psychological well-being.
According to these researchers, this concept of full
engagement is a better basis for building sustainable
benefits both for individuals and organizations at large.
The investigation of Sengupta and Ramadoss (2010)
on Employee Engagement: Unlocking the secrets to
nurturing a productive workforce focused on the
concept, importance and application of employee

engagement. The study identified the role of strong

corporate culture as a vital growing media for nurturing
engagement across the companies.
Their research work was both textual and contextual in
nature that included eight theoretical chapters and eight
business cases related to Taj Hotels, Titan, Tata
Consultancy Services, Oliver Wiman, Google, Bharti
Airtel, and finally a real life story of a working couple in
a metro and their work demands to unwittingly
compromise on the safety of their baby. All the cases
included and discussed in the research provided a
practical and application-based insight to employee
engagement in different business scenarios.
Siddhanta and Roy (2010) carried out an empirical
study on Employee Engagement - Engaging the 21st
Century Workforce, where they observed that different
factors of employee engagement such as: employee
performance, productivity, safety, attendance and
retention, customer service and satisfaction, customer
loyalty and probability, etc., lead to business success. It
is, therefore, crucial for the management to keep the
employee engaged so that the net worth of the
shareholders can be optimized. However, the study
further emphasized about the significance of the
corporate culture that is expected to have a greater
influence on employee engagement.
Aon Hewitt (2011) conducted a research study entitled
OCL Employee Engagement Survey with a motive to
find out the employee engagement practices prevailing
in the Orissa Cement Limited (OCL) in its cement and
Refractory divisions. In their survey 721 employees
were covered across five locations, namely: Rajgangpur,
Bhubaneswar, Kapilas, Kolkata and Ranchi. Apart from
this pen and paper survey, the organization emailed to
67 employees to participate in the survey. Out of which
31 employees responded. The findings of this survey
focused on the parameters like basic psychological
needs of job security, safety and in time payment of
salary, familiar working environment providing
flexibility and freedom in work and good brand name
that works well in OCL. Further it identified pay and
benefits including (i) lack of facilities for
accommodation, healthcare, schooling, recreational
facilities, (ii) salary differentials between the employees
of cement and refractory divisions and inequality of
salaries between the employees, (iii) lack of clarity in
salary slabs and entitlement and grades that needs
further development in the company. It came to light
that the HR department of the organization was not good
enough to handle the basic needs of the employees.
Hardly the employees were aware of the companys HR
policy that needed an improvement. Further initiatives
are required and policies should be made regarding the
future career of the employees as most of them
expressed their view against the lack of career
opportunities in the organization as a whole.
Mishra, Sahoo and Das (2011) carried out an
investigation entitled The Real Essence and Key

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Drivers of Employee Engagement: An Evidence of
Organizational Effort that emphasized the relationship
between the management and employee. Further, it
reiterates the importance of fair and equitable
environment for improvement in service, organizational
performance and customer satisfaction. The study
narrates employee engagement as the level of
commitment and involvement that an employee has
towards the organization and its value. Furthermore, the
paper indicates that effective and positive engagement of
the employees with their organization results in to an
emotional connection with the company, better harmony
among the colleagues and the companys clients, and
improves customer satisfaction and service levels. The
researcher made a critical analysis of employee
engagement initiatives that are taken by Rourkela Steel
Plant which include: (i) vision, culture and core values
of the organization (ii) role of top management (iii)
employee socialization (iv) redeployment strategies (v)
employee involvement (vi) training initiatives (vii)
performance management, performance linked pay and
other reward systems, and (viii) top performing
employees that further adds to the performance of the
organization.
Mohanty (2011) conducted a study entitled Employee
Engagement and Retention Strategy and discussed
about the engaged employee, the one who is
intellectually and emotionally bound with the
organization with a positive attitude and committed
towards the organization and its values. In addition, the
paper discussed the importance of employee
engagement and the role of organization to make the
process successful by keeping the employees engaged.
Further, on a context the paper focused on a case namely
HCL technologies and elaborately discussed the various
employee engagement strategies in the organization,
namely: (i) smart service desk (ii) 360- degree feedback
(iii) opinion polls (iv) directions (v) U&I Initiative (vi)
CEOs blog (vii) Natasha (viii) IGen (ix) innovation at
HCL.
Panda (2011) conducted an investigation entitled
Entrepreneurship under threat: A case study on KICH
Group of companies, Rajkot, Gujarat (India) with an
objective to identify
various operational issues
prevailing in the organization like the threats of product
duplication, brand dilution in general and challenges
related to employee engagement, higher attrition rate
and unethical market competition in particular. The
various key issues pertaining to employee engagement
like compensation, employee participation in
management, conducive working environment, wage
and salary administration, etc., were highlighted in the
study. Necessary questionnaire and schedule were
prepared and an unstructured interview was conducted
with the management of the company for collection of
data. The author suggested that the management should
adopt several remedial measures for retention of
employees such as effective grievance handling
procedure, better scope for workers participation in

management, reforms in the training and wage and

salary administration to cope with the challenge of
higher attrition rate. The researcher also suggested both
monetary rewards for the target achievers and gettogethers of management and employees in various
cultural events, pujas and celebrations to boost the
morale and organizational commitment of the
employees as the strategies of retention and engagement.
Panda, Singh and Sahoo (2011) conducted an
empirical investigation on Employee Engagement
Initiatives in India - A competitive study with reference
to IT and ITes Organizations that focused on how
employee engagement is an antecedent of job
involvement. The study conducted in three major private
organizations - TATA Tele Services, Infosys and
MindTree explores that an engaged employee is
supposed to be the one who is aware of business context
and work dynamics with colleagues and peer groups to
improve performance within the job for the benefit of
the organization and makes a comparative analysis of
employee engagement strategies adopted by these
organizations.
Parida and Hota (2011) research paper on Employee
engagement: A study at NTPC, Kanhia narrated how
employee engagement is critical in ensuring success and
sustainability of the organization in challenging times.
The study aims to find out the level of employee
engagement in the organization and discussed about the
existing framework for employee engagement at NTPC,
Kanhia. Major findings of the study also highlighted
about the efficiency of various people-centric initiatives
of the organization such as
(i) recruitment and
training (ii) employee development center and (iii)
power management institute, etc., and recommended
suggestions that can further strengthen the hidden
potential of the organization.
The research paper of Patro (2011) on Real Time
Employee Engagement: Concept and Strategies dealt
with real time engagement as a human resource
utilization strategy and discussed about its importance in
the context of global competition. The paper briefly
highlighted three vital strategies that focused on (i)
individual employee (ii) the groups, and (iii) the
organization. The paper described several strategic
prospective like HR practices, team building processes,
organizational culture, knowledge management,
communication systems, etc., as possible action plans
for real time employee engagement in an organization.
Rath and Rath (2011) investigated on Employee
Engagement: In the Indian Context and explained that
an effective and positive employee engagement plays a
vital role in the current era. Therefore the programmes
related to employee engagement are important as they
have to align the human activities to the company
strategy. However, an engaged employee also have
certain expectations from the management like a healthy
environment within the organization. Major findings of
the study identified that in comparison to workers in

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Asia-Pacific, Europe or North America, Indian
employees enjoy higher level of job satisfaction and
connect more strongly with the objective of their
organization. They concluded that the overall work
environment prevailed in the Indian organizations seems
to be more conducive than that is prevailing in the
organizations belonging to Asia-Pacific, Europe or
North American countries.
In their study on How can leaders achieve high
employee engagement?, Xu and Thomas (2011)
investigated the relationship that exists between the
leadership and engagement. The sample size for their
research was 414 employees belonging to New Zealand.
The outcomes of the research indicated that relationshiporiented leadership factors were positively associated
with engagement.
Kumar and Sia (2012) carried out an empirical
research entitled Employee Engagement: Explicating
the Contribution of Work Environment with an
objective to investigate the contribution of various
dimensions of work environment (otherwise called
antecedent variables) towards employee engagement.
Altogether eight antecedents variables including two
relationship oriented variables (co-worker cohesion and
supervisor support), three personal growth variables
(autonomy, task orientation and work pressure) and
system maintenance variables (clarity, control and
physical comfort) have been taken in to account and
their contribution towards three specific employee
engagement dimensions, namely, cognitive engagement,
emotional engagement and physical engagement have
been identified. The study focused upon 100 semiskilled employees from food processing organizations
situated around Patiala, Punjab. The findings of the
study indicated that two personal growth variables,
namely, work pressure and autonomy have
significant contribution towards cognitive as well as
emotional engagement, followed by the contribution of
relationship-oriented variables. Further, it has come to
light that except peer cohesion there is no significant
contribution of any other variable towards the physical
engagement of the employees.
Shuck and Herd (2012) conducted an investigation on
Employee Engagement and Leadership: Exploring the
Convergence of Two Frameworks and Implications for
Leadership Development in HRD with a purpose to
examine the relationship between leadership behaviour
and the development of employee engagement. The
study was conceptual in nature that focused more on
leaders emotional intelligence approach. Further, it
came to light that the engagement can be improved
provided ample attention is given to the sub-ordinates
basic needs. The findings of the study reiterate the fact
that management should have a willingness to respond
the followers positively under a conducive working
environment.
A global survey on The Impact of Employee
Engagement on Performance was conducted by the

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (2013)

where a total of 568 respondents representing companies
from North America (54%), Asia (18%), Europe (16%),
MEA (7%) and South/Central America (5%) were
participated. The respondents belonged to organizations
with 500 or more employees and were from a variety of
industries, like IT/Tele Communication firms (16%),
financial services (14%), Manufacturing (12%),
Energy/utilities (9%), Health care (8%), Education (8%)
and other sectors (33%). The respondents included a mix
of executive management or Board members, senior
management, middle management and other grades. The
outcome of the survey revealed that while most leaders
understand the importance of the engagement, around
75% of the total respondents came up with a view that
most employees in their organizations are not highly
engaged. The report revealed a significant gap in the
views of executive managers and middle level managers
in this area. The top executives were much more
optimistic about the level of employee engagement in
their organizations that significantly differed from those
of middle management as much as their front-line
workers engagement was concerned. Further, the report
identified that many companies find it challenging to
measure engagement and its impact on financial results.
Whereas for a fewer it was effective and measurable
with parameters like customer satisfaction or increased
market share.
The research work of Khan (2013) on Employee
engagement drivers for organizational success has been
accepted by the World-wise researchers as a vital piece
of knowledge which proposed that employee
engagement should be a continuous process in every
organization. Further the researcher suggested that the
concerned management of the organization must
implement this concept of engagement from the day one
by helping employees and by creating a conducive work
environment.
Swaminathan and Aramvalarthans (2013) research
paper entitled Employee Engagement of Managerial
Staff in Hospitals An Indian pilot study focused on
different drivers of employee engagement namely: (i)
employee empowerment (ii) communication (iii) team
work (iv) training and development (v) recognition (vi)
leadership quality, and (vii) work-life balance. Their
study indicated that employee engagement is an
antecedent of job involvement.
Kadamand and Thakar (2014) carried out a research
work entitled
A Study of Health and Safety
Measures with reference to Selected Co-operative Sugar
Factories and indicated that proper implementation of
health and safety measures in the organization lead to
productivity, task effectiveness, job satisfaction,
motivation etc. among the employees, and the same
leads to employee engagement.
A research paper penned by Myilswamy and Gayatri
(2014) entitled
A Study on Employee Engagement:
Role of Employee Engagement in Organizational

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Effectiveness that elaborately discussed about the
dynamism of global economy and the need for the
organizations to address the evolving technological
developments. Their study specifically underlines the
necessity of having high performing and committed
work force for the survival and the growth of the
organization. The authors stated that engagement is
nothing but the willingness and ability of the employees
to give their best to the organizational success and
therefore employee engagement should be considered as
a key factor which is powerfully linked to range of
organizational success factors and overall organizational
effectiveness.
Strom, Sears and Kelly (2014) investigated on Work
Engagement: The Roles of Organizational Justice and
Leadership Style in Predicting Engagement among
Employees, having the primary objective to examine
the transactional and transformational leadership styles
as serving the role of moderators in the relationship
between organizational justice and work engagement.
For the purpose of study, an online survey was
conducted and administered to a randomly generated
group of 10,000 individuals via email communication.
However usable data were obtained from 348 customers
of US yielding a response rate of 3.48%. In this regard
four hypotheses were formed that stated (i) the positive
relationship between distributive justice and work
engagement will be stronger for employees reporting
low as compared to high transactional leadership (ii) the
positive relationship between procedural justice and
work engagement will be stronger for employees
reporting low as compared to high transactional
leadership (iii) the positive relationship between
distributive justice and work engagement will be
stronger for employees reporting high as compared to
low transformational leadership, and (iv) the positive
relationship between procedural justice and work
engagement will be stronger for employees reporting
high as compared to low transformational leadership.
The outcome of the study indicated that the positive
relationship that both distributive and procedural justice
held to work engagement would be more pronounced
among employees experiencing low transactional
leadership than among employees experiencing high
transactional leadership.
Albrecht, et al. (2015) in their research work entitled
Employee Engagement, Human Resource Management
Practices and Competitive Advantage - An Integrated
Approach elaborately discussed about four key HRM
practices, namely, selection, socialization, performance
management and training, and their impact on (i)
organizational climate (ii) job demands and job
resources (iii) the psychological experience of safety (iv)
meaningfulness and availability at work (v) employee
engagement (vi) individual, group and organizational
performance, and (vii) competitive advantage. On the
basis of their study, the researchers proposed a model
that integrates several frameworks which have been
cited previously and executed independently in the HR

and engagement literature. The major findings of the

study revealed that the practitioners in the HRM area
need to focus more on engagement in HRM policies and
practices like selection, socialization, performance
management, training and development than on the
traditional routine administration like conducting annual
engagement surveys to facilitate and improve employee
engagement and help organizations to achieve
competitive advantage.
Panda (2015) made an empirical study of the strategies
related to Employee Engagement as the part of HRM
practices in East-Coast Zone of Indian Railways. For the
purpose of investigation necessary schedules have been
prepared for the management and union officials. In
addition, the techniques of interview, observations and
discussions were also used to collect the primary data.
Further, a questionnaire has been designed and
administrated to a total sample respondents of 416
employees belong to various department of East Coast
Railway (ECoR). Major findings of the study indicated
that the factors related to employee engagement were
highly fulfilling in the organization, giving an
impression to the employees as valued and involved in
the work culture. The opinion survey revealed the fact
that more than 90% of the respondents were satisfied in
the areas related to procurement, pay benefits, welfare
measures, performance appraisal, reward system and
career advancement. However, it came to notice that a
few areas like organizational communication, discipline
and grievance redressal procedure needed further
improvement as these factors could satisfy merely 64%
of the total sample respondents.
Selvarani and Punitha (2015) made a study on
Employee Engagement in Chettinad Cement
Corporation Limited, Puliyar, Karur and the objective
was to understand the level of employee engagement
and its impact on the organization. For the purpose of
investigation, data was collected from both primary and
secondary sources. The technique of random sampling
method was adopted, and a questionnaire was prepared
and administered on a sample size of 200 employees of
the organization. The technique of Percentage Analysis,
Chi Square test and Karl Pearson Correlation methods
were adopted and statistical package of SPSS was used
for the purpose of interpretation. After examining the
various factors influencing the employee engagement,
the authors suggested that giving more emphasis on
employee ideas and opinions, improving employee
motivation, maintaining a more productive and
satisfying work environment, providing reward and
recognitions to the employees, initiating profit sharing
programmes,
effective
communication
between
managers and employees, etc., would be helpful in
improving the productivity of the organization.

III. CONCLUSION
Employee engagement has generated a great deal of
interest in recent years characterized by an unique
construct that consist of cognitive, emotional and

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behavioural components at individual level of role play,
where the employees deeply, attentively, positively and
emotionally connected with their work resulting higher
productivity, profitability and security in the work place
(Fleming and Asplund, 2007; Macey and Schneider,
2008; Shuck and Wollard, 2008; Saks, 2011). There
should be ample growth opportunities in several
dimensions for the employees of the organizations to
keep them engaged and arrest the attrition rate. In
addition, healthy fun and entertainment should also go
side by side with the culture of employee engagement to
keep them stress free and revitalized. For example, we
can consider the work culture of companies like
Google or Yahoo, who do not follow the traditional
model of engagement; rather working there is full of
freedom, happiness and flexibility (Stewart, 2013).
Further examples are the BPO companies (like
Brigade at Hyderabad, India) who follow innovative
HR strategies to retain employees and promote
employee engagement. They promote transparent work
atmosphere and appoint
fun officers who
would ensure ways to motivate and release the stress of
the employees. The similar strategies can also be
considered and tested in the core industries. A few
companies also following the strategy of making tie-up
with key Universities to train, explore and build high
potential within the employee, for example, the tie-up of
Wipro with Symbiosis Institute of Business
Management, HCL with VIT University, Chennai, etc
(Panda, 2012). Adoption of such innovative strategies
with ever changing dimensions of global business
scenario is expected to keep the employee inspired,
motivated and engaged for the benefit of self and the
organization as a whole.

[5]

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