SOCIAL RESEARCH METHOD

Group members:

Adyasha Das (UH17004)

Nirlipta Panda (UH17034)

Saswati Sahoo (UH17048)

Sipra Choudhry (UH17054)

 Title: Employee Engagement

 Objective: To be able to conceptualise and define employee engagement and
productivity individually then and find out the factors that relate them and whether
improving employee engagement increases productivity and by how much.
 To be able to conceptualise and define employee engagement and find out the factors
that contribute to employee engagement in a typical organization.

 Methodology:
o Sampling
o Variables:
1. Environment where an employee works(Organizational Factors)
a) Peer influence
b) Supervision
c) Encouragement and acknowledgement (through incentives,
rewards, recognitions)
d) Communication style in the organization
e) Organizational structure ( for promotions, new job
roles/positions, career growth)
f) Fair pay
g) Providing value and validation to the employee: Recognition or
affirmation that a person or their feelings or opinions are valid
 or worthwhile would help them feel valued in the organization.
Fe
h) Empowering the employees
2. Personal characteristics of employee to influence the level of
engagement(Individual Factors)
a) Interest
b) Ideologies
3. Role clarity
o Data collection methods: Secondary data to be collected on each of the
variable from sources present over the internet such as Mckinsey, gartner to
get accurate information on those variable so that the data would be valid for
further analysis
o Instruments
 Expected Results: To summarize what engages employee in today’s world and
thereby establish relationship between employee engagement and productivity.
 Timeline: Two months

Definition:

William Kahn provided the first formal definition of personnel engagement as "the
harnessing of organisation members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people
employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role
performances.- Kahn, William A (1990). "Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement
and Disengagement at Work" (PDF). Academy of Management Journal. 33 (4): 692–724.
doi:10.2307/256287. Retrieved 2016-04-14

In 1993, Schmidt et al. proposed a bridge between the pre-existing concept of 'job
satisfaction' and employee engagement with the definition: "an employee's involvement with,
commitment to, and satisfaction with work. Employee engagement is a part of employee
retention." This definition integrates the classic constructs of job satisfaction (Smith et al.,
1969), and organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991).

These definitional issues are potentially severe for practitioners. With different (and often
proprietary) definitions of the object being measured, statistics from different sources are not
readily comparable.
Definitions of engagement vary in the weight they give to the individual vs the organisation
in creating engagement.

So we would want to go ahead with a research that combines both organizational and
individual factors to determine what impacts employee engagement more so that
organizations could narrow their focus to those factors while thinking of employee
engagement. The research would classify various parameters that constitute the
organizational and the individual factors.

To understand employee engagement we should understand what an engaged employee is

like and to get better clarity lets understand the concepts of non-engaged employee and
disengaged employee first.

Non-Engaged Employees:
Focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome or goal. Often feel their contributions
are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped

Disengaged Employees:
Disruptive and negative toward the organization and its mission; moreover, they undermine
what their engaged co-workers accomplish

Engaged Employees:
Willing and able to contribute to company success as well as infuse passion into their work
(extra energy, brainpower, and time)

QUESTIONS:
Organizational Factors:
1. Peer influence
 I am surrounded by teammates who are motivated and doing good at work
 My co-workers inspire me to work better

2. Supervision
 I have access to feedback in order to progress in my role
 I am more likely to do my work if interjected by my boss time and again
3. Encouragement and acknowledgement and Validation (through incentives, rewards,
recognitions)
  I will be motivated to work more if I am given some incentive, say a salary hike
 I expect some form of appreciation when I do an exceptionally good job
4. Communication style in the organization
 The information flow in my organization is easy to follow/ catch up with
 Senior management communicates well with the rest of the organization.
5. Organizational structure ( for promotions, new job roles/positions, career growth)
 My organization provides me with the opportunity for job rotation
 My manager is actively interested in my professional development and advancement.
6. Fair pay
 I am satisfied with the compensation I get in lieu of the work I perform
 My salary is competitive with similar jobs I might find elsewhere.
 My benefits are comparable to those offered by other organizations.
7. Empowering the employees (value and validation to the employee):
 I feel valued at my workplace
 my opinions matter
 Favourable policy
Individual Factors
1. Interest
 My work is challenging enough and excites me
 I use my strengths to the maximum potential to complete my job
2. Ideologies
 The behaviour of my co-workers annoys me
 My values are aligned with the culture and ethics of my organization
Role clarity
 I know what is expected of me
 I understand the overall goals of my company and where my work fits in

Likert Scale
1. Strongly Disagree-0%
2. Disagree-25%
3. Neither agree nor Disagree-50%
4. Agree-75%
5. Strongly Agree-100%