OGBH201: Organisational Behaviour - Employee Engagement Theory - Case Study Assessment Answers

1. Engagement theory refers to the framework that lays down the aspects that help an organisation in retaining and engaging their employees. Employee engagement in an organisation is widely dependent upon motivation of the employees (Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). As per the theory of employee engagement, the leaders of the organisation shall ensure that all the members of the organisation are engaged fully that they do not think of leaving the organisation and joining another. It also implies that the commitment of employees is similar to that of entrepreneurs. Above all the factors the most significant factor that affects employee engagement is motivation factors. In XYZ organisation there were many motivational factors that were there when Fiona’s father was handling the business and these factors are not present now.

At the time when Fiona’s father was running the company the most significant factor of motivation was recognition. Every individual working in the company was recognised for the hard work and efforts that they do. The leadership style followed by Fiona’s father was majorly connected with Path-goal theory of leadership style. In that a leader fixes up the goals after consulting the followers and the leader also supports followers to achieve those goals. This is a kind of participative leadership (Attridge, 2009). Fiona’s father was following the same leadership style and this leadership style kept the employees motivated and enthusiastic towards the work. At the same the culture of organisation was such that everyone has a say in the decisions of the organisation. The organisation had an open communication system wherein any staff member could directly talk to Fiona’s father and due to that all the problems were solved there and then. This implies that the culture of the company was informal and open and the problems were solved in an abrupt manner. But after Fiona took over the company everything got changed. There were major changes took place in leadership style and culture of the organisation that affected the level of motivation of the employees and this further affected the employee engagement.

Changes made by Fiona were exactly opposite to that of her father’s policies and due to that as many as 50% of tenured consultants had resigned and 60% of new recruits have resigned with in a period of one year. This clearly suggests that she could not engage the employees. The most significant reason behind non-engagement of employees is changes in the organisational structure. She made organisational structure very formal and it also discouraged open communication system. The staff members could not talk to Fiona directly about their concerns. She also changed the performance appraisal system and this discouraged the employees’ working. She also stopped showing concerns for workplace balance that her father used to do. She stopped Yoga sessions and weekly meetings with staff and due to all that the motivation level of employees affected to a very great extent. The consultants and staff started complaining about new policies, workload and improper functioning of the company. Fiona also started indulging in favouritism and due to that workload on some staff members was very less while other used to work very hard (Coetzee, Schreuder, & Tladinyane, 2014). In this manner the staff members started resigning and this suggests that Fiona could not engage employees.

In this manner employee engagement is a vital part of an organisation and it helps in improving the performance of the employees to a very great extent.

1. Organisational justice is a concept that is regarded as the perception of the employees about the organisation. It majorly deals with the perceptions of fairness and these perceptions are informational, interactional, procedural and distributive (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). For an instance if a company makes redundant half of the staff then an employee might feel that it is injustice and this may further result in drop in the productivity. Justice refers to the idea that an action is morally right and it may be further defined as per religion, ethics, law or equity. Equity theory of motivation focuses on determination of the fact that whether the distribution of resources is fair or not. This theory also assets that the employees tend to maintain equity between the inputs that put in a job and the output that they receive against it (Mostafa, Williams, & Bottomley, 2015). This is a source of motivation for them. If employees are satisfied with the outcomes that they receive against input then they are motivated otherwise their motivation level might decrease. For an instance if an employee is working 8-10 hours a day with full dedication and in return he is getting paid lesser than the employee who is working only 7 hours then this will affect the level of motivation of the employees and they will not be willing to work efficiently. This is why these two terms that are organisational justice and equity are very vital in motivating the employees. These two terms definitely help an organisation in getting benefitted in terms of productivity and commitment. If these two aspects are in their place in an organisation then there are high chances that the employees will be satisfied and will do their job with full commitment (Billett, 2009). This will also help in engaging and motivating employees in the job to a very great extent. Hence, these two terms are very significant for an organisation.

2. As a consultant a number of changes are required to be made at workplace to motivate the employees so as to improve their performance. First of all the structure of organisation plays a very important role. The organisational structure shall be such that it enables direct and effective communication among all the members of the organisation. This makes employees feel that they are heard and their problems are getting solved by the management (Edeard & Mone, 2014). If employees’ problems are solved then it defiantly increases their level of motivation. Thus the first change will be in the organisational structure. Secondly, there shall be regular meetings of employees with management without any mediator such as HOD so that they can directly share their concerns with management thus the second change shall be in the communication process. There is a need to have a proper performance appraisal system that appraises the performance on the basis of actual performance of the employees. This calls for a need of change in performance appraisal system of the organisation. Along with that it is also very important for an organisation to be concerned about work life balance of the employees and thus the changes in organisation’s policies are important (Luthans & Peterson, 2012). There shall be certain activities in the organisation that will help the employees to maintain a proper balance between their personal life and work life. This shall include activities such as Yoga. It is also required that employees are given proper recognition for the work that they do and for that organisational justice and equity are very important. Thus the changes shall be made in such a way that it promotes justice and equity.