A New Era for Employee Engagement - Wiley Online Library

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A New Era for Employee Engagement Theresa M. Welbourne

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n this special issue, several authors uncover aspects of employee engagement that you may not have considered for either your own practice within organizations or for research. These new perspectives are important because, despite the significant investments in employee engagement work to date, multiple reports continue to show that employee engagement is declining. Thus, if engagement is important, and not all of the efforts done to increase it are working, then it appears to be time to evaluate the work done and make changes to move forward into a new era for employee engagement. As you will read in this issue, much confusion remains about the definition of the construct of employee engagement. Many terms are used to describe engagement, and if multiple definitions exist and are used, then it remains hard to legitimately claim anything about whether “it” is going up or down at a national or global level and why we should care. In addition to having a vague definition of engagement, my coauthor, Dr. Philipp Schramm, and I raise an additional question—engaged in what? Thus, we might conclude that we are unclear what engagement is and also in disagreement about the behaviors in which we expect employees to engage when we see improvements. In order to answer this question, Dr. Alec Levenson and Alexis Fink pursue an additional and important question related to the performance outcomes of

engagement. What is the path to change in behavior, and what is a realistic way to go about that work? At the same time, despite the confusion and perhaps lack of rigorous science on this topic, success stories continue. Dr. Benjamin Schneider and Mark H. Blankenship discuss the engagement work done at Jack in the Box as an example of what can go right. Philipp Schramm, who is a senior executive at Webasto, also has a story of positive change related to his own work on engagement. In addition, engagement is not a topic pursued only in for-profit organizations; Dr. Barry R. Nathan presents an argument for the special case of engagement in not-forprofit organizations with a case study within an education environment. Finally, Dr. Edward E. Lawler, who has a stellar career studying programs such as employee engagement, weighs in on next steps and shares his thoughts about how engagement is similar to or different from many related topics studied in the past. The purpose of this set of articles is to stimulate your thinking to help bring about the next era in employee engagement. We have learned a lot over the years, while spending significant amounts of money and effort to get there. It appears, by a lot of metrics, that the efforts have gained positive outcomes in many organizations. At the same time, there are signs that the value of the work done to date may have reached its peak. We suggest that it is time to consider

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.21634

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Employment Relations Today

what the new era of engagement may be, and to do that, we all have to seriously question and critique what’s working and what is not.

I want to thank all of our authors for sharing their expertise and thoughts, and we welcome your input as you read and consider your own next steps in this body of work.

Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne is the executive director, Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute, and the Will and Maggie Brooke Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Culverhouse College of Commerce. She also is the founder, president, and CEO of eePulse, Inc., a human capital technology and consulting firm, as well as an affiliated researcher with the Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California. Dr. Welbourne’s expertise is in the areas of strategic leadership and human capital optimization in high-growth, entrepreneurial, and high-change organizations. She has a large body of work on initial public offerings. Dr. Welbourne’s research and work have been featured in popular publications such as Inc. magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Business Week, New York Times, and Entrepreneur magazine. She also publishes in academic outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal. Theresa is a prolific writer and well-known speaker, and consults with numerous organizations in multiple industries.

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Theresa M. Welbourne Employment Relations Today

DOI 10.1002/ert