Employee Engagement Titles

Positive employee engagement is driven by organizational effectiveness as proven by Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., (2013) in their article, “Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Employee Engagement.” The authors create a study to prove this relationship and find their hypothesis to be true. Employees at a small home services company prove this by working together to restructure their bonus program. These employees exemplify vigor, dedication, and absorption (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 3) as examples of positive engagement. Cain (2006) states an employee is someone who recognizes conflicting goals and sees the juxtaposition of effectiveness among company goals, which puts the employee in the position of being able to provide answers to problems in a way management may not be able (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 2).

This is precisely the scenario in which the employees at the small home services company followed. They identified a problem within their department, solved the problem and at the same time, set higher goals for themselves to earn an even larger bonus and improve company performance. They showed engagement and stretched their skills into areas they hadn’t been stretched before. Some may have been more engaged than others, as engagement is an individualized task.

Two customer service representatives (as nominated by the rest of the team) of the home services company requested a meeting with their manager. The manager had no idea why the meeting was requested, as a meeting of this type had never been solicited before. The customer service representatives revealed a plan to revamp their department’s bonus structure. The representatives cited conflicting goals and inconsistencies between the department goals and company goals, as well as, against other department goals. The manager reviewed their intentions alongside their plan, suggested a few revisions, and set a deadline for draft two.

The manager took the requests to her bosses, the company owners, as per the company hierarchy. The three of them reviewed the proposal together and identified that while this was a good start, it did not solve the problem the employees were attempting to resolve. The manager went back to the two customer service representatives with further feedback and set another meeting. At the second meeting, the customer service representatives solved the problem and their final proposal was again taken to the owners of the company. The owners of the company approved all conditions of the proposal, giving the customer service department a big win.

The employees of the customer service department showed engagement in their job by working together as a team to revise their bonus structure. Instead of complaining, or perhaps very drastically quitting, at the perceived injustices they saw, they worked together to create change. They elected appropriate spokeswomen and managed to give themselves a raise as well. However, the most important thing they did, was create clear guidelines for themselves to earn a win. This win is an example of positive reinforcement. Not only are they being awarded with a created reinforcement, (Daniels, A.C., 2016, p.66) they also rewarded themselves with positive emotions by successfully hitting their goals. Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., (2013, p. 9) state, “Positive emotions for instance compassion, joy etc. lead to the positive activities in organizations like helping behavior, and create an upward spiral of positive feelings (Cameron et al., 2003).” This act of engagement lead to happier, more productive employees.

The customer service bonus program revision exemplifies the term employee engagement as an act that shows, “a desirable condition, has an organizational purpose, and connotes involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort, and positive energy” (Erickson, 2005; Macey and  Schneider, 2008) (Kataria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P., 2013, p. 4). The representatives saw themselves in a position to deal with changing demands in their job and felt encouraged enough to work together to create a proposal to bring to their manager. When employees’ ideas are listened to and, even better, when some are implemented, workers become more engaged (Daniels, A.C., 2016, p. 187).

In addition to the positive emotions and effort the employees felt, they also learned negotiation skills and in turn, presentation skills. Harder (2017, p. 82) says, “Creating an environment that builds good presentation skills offers opportunities for people to present what is valuable to them. It opens the doors to stronger career paths.” The two customer service representatives chosen to present the proposal were Level Four Customer Service Representatives, the highest in the department. They were not chosen because they were the best at presenting, but instead chosen because of their level. They were given the opportunities to expand their presentation skills and will be even better the next time they need to do so.

The Level Four Customer Service Representatives may have felt more accomplished than their peers, as they were directly involved in the negotiation process. It is important for managers to realize the motivation of individuals and not group all team members into the same motivation potentials for positive reinforcement. Daniels (2016) indicated negative reinforcement gets results immediately but positive reinforcement brings results for the long term (p. 51), which is a driving force behind creating positive reinforcement. In addition, negative reinforcement, “gets a level of performance that is just enough to get by” (Daniels, 2016, p.51). Negative reinforcement does not acquire the type of employee engagement that drives organizational effectiveness. Employees need to experience the effects of positive reinforcement to believe in change, as “change is only a mirage unless people actually experience the reality of improvement” (Fullan, 2011, p.52.). While the rest of the group will feel the positive reinforcement of larger and more frequent bonuses, additional work may need to be done to make them feel as impacted as the two spokeswomen.

Employee engagement is one factor directly impacted by organizational effectiveness. As shown in the example of the customer serve department, employee engagement can lead to teamwork and problem solving. This is important because engagement drives performance and employee attitudes. Creating environments that allows employees to learn new skills is an example of a positive reinforcement guided work environment. Employee engagement needs to be considered on an individual employee level in addition to a team level. It is the duty of an organization’s leadership team to create an environment where organizational structure supports employee engagement.

References

Daniels, A. C. (2016).  Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power to Positive Reinforcement. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Fullan, M. (2011).  Change Leader: Learning to do What Matters Most. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harder, D. (2017).  The Workplace Engagement Solution. Wayne, NJ: Career Press.

Kateria, A., Rastogi, R., & Garg, P. (2013). Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Employee Engagement.  South Asian Journal of Management,   20 (4), 56-73. Retrieved October 14, 2018.

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