Posts tagged employee satisfaction

Gaps in Literature Regarding Employee Engagement

Meandering Genius

Almost a year ago I started a PhD program with Walden University specializing in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Since about 2002, I have been actively studying leadership and motivation and in 2005 I did an in depth study in Organizational Commitment.

Since then, employee motivation has evolved into a concept of Employee Engagement, which goes beyond Employee Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment.

Over the last ten years, Gallup has conducted their employee engagement survey (Q12) and what they have discovered is that about 70% of employees are consistently disengaged at work. This is costing U.S. businesses alone, from $450 to $550 billion a year in productivity and revenue losses.

Based on experience, I have seen that organizations that have a strong purpose always seem to drive strong employee engagement or organizational commitment. My work in early 2000s focused on why people in the military and nonprofits tended to be more committed or engaged.

Now, in my PhD, I am focusing on employee engagement and the concept of organizational purpose. I’ll be examining the literature in this area in the coming months for a potential dissertation. If anyone has input on this topic, I would love their input.

When You Need A Swiss Army Knife in Business

Business Consulting Change Management Leadership Meandering Genius Organizational Commitment Performance Measurement Process Improvement Strategic Communication Strategic Planning

Lately I have met several organizations that are at a crossroads in their own evolution. Many companies realize the importance of things like strategy, change management, process improvement, strategic communication, and employee engagement. However, these organizations are making tactical decisions on the direction of these areas versus truly looking at this from a strategic perspectives.

Instead of hiring several different individuals or creating separate teams all focused on doing the same thing, companies today should should focus on bringing all their Operational Excellence activities under one team working directly for the CEO or President of the company.  This group should be led by a senior leader that sits at the same table as the companies other leaders.

This Swiss Army Knife professional–SVP/VP, Operational Excellence–should manage things like:
– Strategy development, execution, and change
– Performance optimization through process, product, and functional continuous improvement
– Strategic communication inside and outside the organization
– Strategic human capital management to include education, training, and development and employee satisfaction, commitment, and engagement
– Information and innovation engagement

This team does not need to be big…depending on an organization’s size, it could be as small as three or four people.  However, it should leverage other support areas throughout the organization, like Human Resources, Finance, IT, etc. These organizations would not report to the position, but work with the position.

Today, some organizations have some or all of these activities occuring, but they are scattered across the organization and have very little singular direction. By bringing the functions together into a small effective team, an organization is equipped to deal with the challenges of today and the future.

Of course, the leaders of these types of organizations have to have a solid understanding of all these functions at strategic, operatiomal, and tactical levels and not focused on creating some massive sandbox of people with various skills. They need to be highly skilled with a focus on lean and mean.