Posts tagged psychology

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.

Academia is not the real world…wake up

Meandering Genius

I’m sitting here listening to a Doctoral professor lecture at the importance of APA format and the fact that no one has an original thought, so everything you say needs to be cited.  She claims that no one comes up with anything on their own and everything is based on research.

Really?

This comes from someone who claims that her “job” is academia.  In other words she is 100% employed as a professor.  I’m not saying that being a 100% professor is bad or less than others.  However, this psychology professor that has never held any other type of job, has ever applied anything in the business world.

Research is great and yes, much of our thoughts are influenced by the environment around us, be it people, books, or experiences.  However, in business–the real world–you apply what you’ve learned to the situation and then come up with independent thought to apply to the specific situation.  Thus, in business, you must come up with things on your own–have original thought!

I find this all too often with doctoral and even some master’s professors who spend all their time teaching and not doing.  The team of faculty here is very condescending to the students when they don’t spend anytime in the real world applying what we’re learning.  Very frustrating.