Employee Engagement

Definition of Employee engagement

Emotional
Employee engagement is a concept whereby an employee feels an emotional attachment to their employers and the goals and values the employer holds. There doesn’t appear to be a definitive description of employee engagement, but most agree that the emotional attachment is a key element to being an engaged employee. “The term employee engagement has gained considerable popularity in the past 20 years yet it remains inconsistently defined and conceptualized”, Shuck B & Wollard K (2010) - Human Resource Development Review. This emotional attachment could be described as a passion for the organisation and their part in it and a feeling that they can make a difference. …show more content…

However, with respect to gender, other studies seem to contradict this. Some studies suggest that (in Europe and North America), there is no significant difference in levels of engagement between men and woman. “In previous reports we observed how gender was not a strong predictor of engagement (i.e., women and men had the same overall engagement levels and patterns) in North America and Europe.” Blessing White (2013) - Employee Engagement.
There does seem to be more of a consensus on the other points, though. Most research seems to confirm that Younger workers are less engaged than older workers and that engagement tends to raise with age. As people getting older, they tend to get more self-assured and confident in their ability and skills and this translated into better engagement with their employees.

Figure 1

Source Blessing White (2013)

Managers do also tend to be more engaged than non-managers. This could be a result of climbing the corporate ladder and feeling rewarded by promotion. As people get older and more experienced they tend to become more confident and comfortable in their skills and this could