Employee Engagement

Employee engagement has quickly become new paradigm in organisational studies over past few years. Employee engagement is a measurable degree of an employee 's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Having engaged employees has become vital in current business scenario where organisations look to their employees to take initiatives, bring innovations and optimum solutions to their present requirements. This study investigates the states of engagement of employees from two different sectors in Kerala namely, banking and IT (Information Technology). The purpose of the study is to define various concepts of employee engagement

Since the employee engagement construct is still afresh, both literature and consulting models are examined so as to gain insights and obtain contributions from practice, in addition to the academic data.

Kahn (1990) was the first researcher to suggest that engagement means the psychological presence of an employee while executing his organizational task. According to Kahn (1990) in employee engagement people expressed and engaged emotionally, cognitively and physically. The cognitive part of employee engagement is concerned with the thinking of employees about their organization, leaders and working conditions. The emotional part of engagement of employee is related to the feeling of employees about various engagement factors and employees’ attitude towards their leaders and organizations.

According to Scarlett Surveys (2001) employee engagement is a measurable degree of an employee 's positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform is at work. Schaufeli et al. (2002) define engagement “as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and

However, Rothbard (2001) found that one’s degree of engagement differs by the role in question. Drawing upon this ground, Saks considered the work role separate from the role as a member of the organization and conducted the first study to examine work engagement and organizational engagement independently. Saks (2006) defines “organizational engagement as the sense of personal attachment to the company itself, independent of the individual’s professional role within the organization.”

Saks (2006) argues that organizational engagement is explained through Social Exchange Theory (SET). Saks asserts that workforce repay the organization with their level of engagement, dedicating their mental, physical, and emotional resources based on their assessment of what the employer has offered them. When employees perceive that the employer has not responded appropriately to their contributions, they will be more likely to become depressed and disengaged.

Saks (2006) argues that “Commitment is a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his actions and beliefs that sustain his activities and his own