Employee Engagement for Journal of Communication -myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theEmployee Engagement for Journal of Communication. Answer: Employee engagement can be defined as the level of enthusiasm as well as dedication that every employee feels towards their jobs and towards their organization. Researchers describe this factor as the eagerness that the employees show towards their task that actually makes them passionate in their work (Mone and London 2018). The passion of an engaged employee is easily reflected in their individual outcomes like in their work, how they behave in the organization, how they perceive other employees and many others. An engaged employee has a number of positive aspects. They are seen to care about their work as well as about the performance of company. They also want to feel that their efforts are making difference to the organizations and therefore they try to dedicate themselves completely for the benefit of the organization. Researchers are of the opinion that employees who are highly engaged have a specific internal state of mind. Such employees have a state of mind where they are physically, emotionally and mentally stable which help them to bind their work effort, satisfaction and commitment altogether (Huang et al. 2016). Cultural diversity; With the advancement of the period of globalization, every organization is identifying the need of development of the multicultural working environment. Every organization has a wide number of employees coming from different background having their own cultural traditions, preferences and inhibitions (Karanges et al. 2015). This helps in number of employees coming from different background having their own cultural traditions as well. Therefore, those employers who are culturally sensitive and are culturally aware of their needs and requirements of the employees can ensure employee satisfaction and hence ensure employee engagement. An example of cultural diversity maintained by STARBUCKS; This organization believes that employing diverse employees not only helps to bring innovation and creativity at workplace but also gives the scope to the organization to learn about the needs and requirements of the different cultures. In order to ensure employee engagement, the employers encourage the managers to learn properly to appreciate, respect and respond to the needs of the employees, respect their values, beliefs and expectations of the diverse people and similar others. They believe that by diverse employees, they will be able to allow melting pot of cultures, ideas as well as values that will influence a new way of thinking. A plan would be provided which will help in taking important initaitves. Adopting a learning culture; Researchers are of the opinion that when organizations should able to develop a learning culture where cultural awareness should be influenced in the office environment, they can influence employee engagement largely. It is important that the employers should encourage development of a culture in the organization that would motivate the employees to keep in learning and acquiring knowledge about different cultural traditions and preferences of employees coming from different backgrounds all the time. When the employers develops an idea that the employer of their organization is not only busy in making profits and sales but also puts importance in improvement and education of the cultural awareness of the staffs, employees coming from different background would be satisfied and develop a liking towards the organization and the work (Binyamin and Carmeli 2017). This would increase employee engagement. Transparency; Employees are seen to dislike the higher authorities to keep up the habit of beating around the bush or being culturally biased or culturally insensitive to the employees through their activities and decisions. Researchers are therefore of the opinion that other contributing factors which may result in development of employee engagement is development of the transparent as well as honest work environment (Breevert et al. 2014). Employees really like environments where they can walk up to their higher officials and conduct a serious discussion revealing their concerns and issues that are affecting them regarding their cultural issues or the different biasness they are facing in the workplace. They also expect their higher officials to be concerned about their issues and thereby develop strategies by which their cultural demands are met and satisfied. This would influence employee engagement. Communication; Often different cultures have different customs, traditions, and display of body languages while communicating. Another important factor that helps in providing employee engagement is effective cultural communication between the employees and the employers. When there is miscommunication among the employees or between the employees and employers due to inappropriate body language, it becomes important for them to understand that such ineffective communication may result in development of issues among the companys projects or other activities. This may result in delaying of goal achievement as well as meeting of objectives and goals (Mishra et al. 2014). Therefore, employers need to be sure that an organizational culture is to be maintained where undisrupted effective communication should be influenced which ensures employee engagement that is culturally competent and culturally sensitive. Employee recognition; All great companies have clearly stated that they understand the importance of employee recognition in business world. Researchers have stated that satisfied as well as engaged employees bring out positive energy that helps the organization to see profits and sales. When the dedication and the sacrifices of the employees are paid importance to and recognized, the employees feel motivated and hence they feel more engaged in the their job. While providing rewards, employers should be sure that employees from other cultural backgrounds are not treated differently but in a way by which not only their morale is boosted but also they feel accepted in the organization. In many cases, it is seen that employers, due to their own cultural biasness, tend to encourage their employees of own culture in a better way than those of other cultures. Therefore, employers should be careful and should provide equal significance to all. Effective manager working relationship; Effective management is highly critical for the successful retaining as well as engaging of the employees. When employees feel that they are able to develop good rapport with the management and are also getting good vibes from them, they feel appreciated (Huang et al. 2014). Their work is noticed and this encourages their constructive employee engagement. All these ensure job engagement. In order to develop good rapport with the employees, managers and employers need to develop certain skills. They need to be culturally competent, culturally sensitive and overcome their biasness. They can also go through several evidence-based papers or take advises from stalwarts about how to develop proper cultural communication skills. These would help in developing strong bonds and relationships with employees from different culture. This would develop the working environment and will help in producing more numbers and meet the goals. Flexible: Another important factor that also influences employee engagement is the flexibility option provided to the employees. When the employees are provided different sorts of flexibilities like half day leaves, flexible hours of work, work from home and many other benefits, they feel satisfied. They feel that organizations care about their concerns and issues for which they have come out with effective strategies (Albreacht et al. 2015). Therefore, organizations that provide flexibilities can ensure higher levels of employee engagement. In case of culturally different people, it is seen that many organizations do not respect their cultural traditions and festivals and tend to make them follow the company list of holidays. The company list of holidays may not coincide with their required list of holidays they need for their festivals and celebrations. Therefore, it becomes very important for the employers to provide importance for the holidays they require, the customs they follow and the many others. Therefore, their pleas for holidays should be entertained and flexibilities should be provided to them accordingly. This would help in developing their engagement in the job, as they would feel that the employers respect their culture and traditions. Impact of employee engagement in the workplace: Employees who are highly engaged helps in developing an organizational culture that has different positive effects. It increases profitability of the organization. It also helps in improvement of the retention rate of the employees. It helps in boosting happiness in the workplace. It also ensures higher levels of productivity. It also ensures more innovation. It also initiates connectedness of the employees with that of the organization. It also ensures better communication and more collaboration of the employees. The employees also show greater commitment to the company as well as improved recruitment rates (Mete 2018). Five dimensions of employee engagement by Kumar and Pansari (2015) Employee engagement is seen to be intricately associated with five important aspects. The first one is employee satisfaction. Employees who are satisfied in their workplace and with all aspects of their organizational culture will show more employee engagement. Employee identification is another aspect. When the employees feel that they are identified of their work and are respected and loved, they feel engaged in the organization. Employee commitment and employee loyalties are other two facets besides employee performance. Better the job engagement; the higher will be the mentioned assets. Relation of employee engagement on productivity and profitability; Employee engagement is negatively associated with absenteeism and positively associated with focus and motivation. The higher the employee engagement found on the organization, lesser will be their absenteeism, as they will feel to come to the office and complete their allotted targets. These will be possible due to stable mental and emotional health of the individuals. Higher employee engagement also ensures that the employees are highly motivated and they are focused in their work (Welch 2015). All these ensure higher productivity of the organization as lower absenteeism and higher motivation help to meet production of the organization. References: Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach.Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance,2(1), pp.7-35. Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance.International journal of productivity and performance management,63(3), p.308. Binyamin, G. and Carmeli, A., 2017, January. Managers and Employees Perception of Social Climate: Implications for Employee Engagement. InAcademy of Management Proceedings(Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 11521). Academy of Management. Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O.K. and Espevik, R., 2014. Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement.Journal of occupational and organizational psychology,87(1), pp.138-157. Huang, Y.H., Lee, J., McFadden, A.C., Murphy, L.A., Robertson, M.M., Cheung, J.H. and Zohar, D., 2016. Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework.Applied ergonomics,55, pp.248-257. Huang, Y.H., Lee, J., McFadden, A.C., Murphy, L.A., Robertson, M.M. and Zohar, D., 2014. The impact of safety climate beyond safety outcomes: Job satisfaction, employee engagement and objective turnover rate. InProceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Human Factors in Organisational Design and Management, Copenhagen, Denmark. Karanges, E., Johnston, K., Beatson, A. and Lings, I., 2015. The influence of internal communication on employee engagement: A pilot study.Public Relations Review,41(1), pp.129-131. Mete, M., Davies, G. and Whelan, S., 2018. Employer Brand Image and Employee Engagement: An Exploratory Study in Britain.World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering,5(2). Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications.International Journal of Business Communication,51(2), pp.183-202. Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018.Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge. Saks, A.M. and Gruman, J.A., 2014. What do we really know about employee engagement?.Human Resource Development Quarterly,25(2), pp.155-182. Welch, M., 2015. Dimensions of internal communication and implications for employee engagement.