Reframing Employee Engagement Within the Context of Meaning and Purpose

Abstract

The Problem

Leaders who develop high levels of employee engagement within their organizations enjoy increased levels of competitive advantage. Consequently, organizations understandably desire higher levels of engagement. However, present research and perspectives on employee engagement have focused primarily on leveraging outcomes toward performance rather than the conditions that nurture performance. Such a unidimensional focus presents a gap in understanding how engagement emerges in practice and what strategies human resource development (HRD) practitioners can utilize to cultivate positive conditions for employee engagement.

The Solution

Reframing engagement within the context of meaning and purpose provides a unique lens from which to view the conditions that cultivate the development of engagement. In this article, we present an alternative, yet complementary view of employee engagement that focuses on how performance can be sustained within the context of meaning and purpose. Emerging implications for the field of HRD are explored.

The Stakeholders

The intended audience for this article includes HRD scholars, scholar-practitioners, practitioners, and students interested in the development and use of employee engagement, meaningful work, and the operationalization of meaning and purpose within an HRD context.