Human resource management advocates consider that obtaining employees' affective commitment to the organisation is an important objective. A key part of this concept is concerned with employees' identification with organisational goals and values. Recent research however, indicates that employers want employees to maintain their commitment levels even though organisations are undergoing periods ofextensive change that impact on many aspects of these goals and values. In the literature, employee commitment is regarded as a stable construct that nothing seems to alter. Despite this, there is increasing evidence to suggest that commitment may change if something in the organisation changes. To date, little research has sought to measure the impact of organisational changes on employee commitment. This study seeks to find out if commitment is altered by organisational changes or if commitment remains constant after the implementation of change. It also examines the impact of a range ofvariables on employees' commitment levels not previously addressed in the literature. The study adopted a cross sectional design. Data was collected by use of both quantitative techniques, (incorporating the British Organisational Commitment Scale or BOCS) and qualitative approaches, in three organisations located in the South East of England. An evaluation of the BOCS' reliability and dimensionality was carried out. In contrast to the literature, an eight item scale was shown to be superior, providing the best fit to the data. BOCS was found to comprise two distinct, but related components, hence the measure is considered bi-dimensional. The study makes several contributions to the literature. In particular, the: process of change (i.e. strategy used by each organisation to elicit organisational changes); antecedents to commitment (i.e. personal and work related variables); extent to which changes are experienced and content of change (i.e. the changes themselves) are all shown to affect the outcomes for individuals' commitment after periods of change in the organisation. Of the changes examined, almost all lead to increased levels ofemployees' self reported commitment. This challenges the claims that suggest commitment is stable and unchangeable. The study also revealed a number of factors lead to increased commitment amongst the workforce after change. These represent employee perceptions of change. Researchers and practitioners will need to focus on these issues in the future when considering commitment if they are to safeguard it after changes in the workplace.

The purpose of this research was to investigate if selected cultural and national aspects had an effect on employee engagement drivers. Another aim was to find out if applying global engagement tools in different cultures would provide an accurate engagement report. Finally, a new tool was proposed and examined in this study by companies operating in the Middle and Near East regions. Employee engagement has been of growing concern to business leaders as well as occupational psychologists, since it was claimed to relate to organisational productivity and long term success. Despite this growing concern and various consultancy solutions provided, few academic researches tackled cross cultural employee engagement aspects. In this research, both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used. The qualitative research data consisted of two in-depth interviews with employees working in the Middle and Near East regions. The quantitative research data was gathered with the aid of two questionnaires. One hundred and eighty nine responses were received out of two hundred and seventeen questionnaires sent. The response rate was eighty seven per cent. This research produced a number of key findings: (a) Cultural, national and organisational factors affect engagement drivers. (b) Engagement drivers change over time, at least in priority. (c) Measuring engagement through a globally designed fixed tool is not likely to produce accurate results that management can use to plan for actions. The main conclusion drawn from this research was that current approaches to measuring employee engagement are taking engagement drivers as common for granted, and this concept should be revised. The author recommends that leaders should investigate and run an analysis of engagement drivers before any engagement survey is undertaken. A new tool has been presented by the research and was tested by a number of organisations. This tool takes into account building engagement questionnaires based on key drivers analysed from specific work cultures.

Title:                 Talent Management   Author:             Simon Kjellman Level:               Master Thesis 30, hp Keywords: Talent management, Organizational Performance, Employee engagement, Human resource management Background: Today business is pressured to provide result and profit, but at the same time provide health and stimulate work environment for the employees. Human resource is rising to be the organizations new winner to get a competitive advantage. In order to be successful and continue to grow, companies need to attract and maintain their talent. Research question: Which tensions between organizational performance and employee engagement can arise when using talent management?  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to develop an understanding of which tensions    between organizational performance and employee engagement that can arise when using talent management. By focusing on employee engagement and organizational performance, I put the emphasis on the approaches used when using talent management and therefore I also developing what characterizes the used approach. Method: A qualitative research approach was applied, which included a case study design consisting of multiple cases. Unstructured interviews and observations were the methods used for collecting the empirical data. The seven respondents were selected from two Swedish companies, based on a theoretical sampling method. The data analysis method included a cross-case analysis. Theoretical framework: Based on the purpose, the concepts that I find most relevant and coherent with Talent Management, Employee engagement and Organizational performance will be introduced and explained in the following sections. At first, Talent Management is defined and explained and then the employee engagement and organizational performance come as following. The theories will provide the basis for a detailed investigation and analysis over Talent Management. Findings: Swedish companies uses a collective approach to talent management. What characterizes the work with talent management in a collective culture are inclusion, democracy, soft culture and communication. They are using democratic and human ways of treating their employees. This causes the tension to be low in overall because usually the desires are met on both sides. Signs of separation in developments plans between different professionals can start a tension. The communication is important when using talent management to get a stable work environment.

Student Number : 9111753K - M M research report - School of Management - Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management / Employee engagement is a critical business issue for South Africa if we are to take this country to the next competitive landscape. South African business has been mired by negative perception of underperformance and uncompetitiveness from the international community for years in the past, with an over-reliance on the mining sector. From 1994, this perception has progressively improved and going forward more urgency from business is required in order to progress even further. Whilst employee engagement represents only one factor amongst a number of macro and micro issues, it is central to this country’s economy, business productivity and sustainability. In attempting to assist business in this regard, a study of factors that promote employee engagement has been investigated. The research was qualitative and quantitative in nature. A number of respondents from across the length and breath of South Africa participated in the study. Analysis was done on the results and correlation done to the propositions and the literature. The findings identified employee engagement strategy, the culture of engagement, leadership and management, talent mindset, communication and knowledge sharing, and organisations’ reputation and branding as prominent factors in business in South Africa. Resulting from the research, an employee engagement model is proposed which attempts to integrate key lessons for business.

Companies that have a well-formulated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice is one step in the right direction of contributing to a prosperous society where future generations are not compromised. Although companies may have a CSR practice, it is not guaranteed that that the practice is effective. Essentially, employees have a key role in the success of the company’s CSR practice. Employees are major actors in carrying out and actualizing the company’s CSR initiatives and without the employees’ willingness to engage in CSR initiatives, the company will fail to uphold a CSR practice. Therefore, it is essential for companies to understand how employees can become engaged in the CSR practice. We have extracted previously identified factors that have played a role in employees CSR engagement, i.e. attitudes towards CSR, organizational identification, management support, training and development, recognition, CSR culture, and internal CSR communication. In order to get a deeper understanding of employee CSR engagement, it was perceived of relevance to examine in what way these factors influence employees’ engagement in CSR. The study has been conducted at a case company operating in the green service support sector. Trough semi-structured interviews, this study consists of experiences and perceptions from both managers and employees. Whilst the study focuses on the employee perspective, managers are included in order to get a more comprehensive understanding of employee CSR engagement. We found that both internal and external factors can be drivers or impediments for employee CSR engagement. Matching values and attitudes towards CSR were found to be drivers, because working with an important societal mission, or consider and value CSR on a personal level positively influence CSR engagement among individual employees. Supportive managerial behaviour, more specifically, inspirational managers, setting clear goals and appropriate recognition was also found to be drivers for CSR engagement. Furthermore, in terms of CSR integration, insufficient CSR culture and internal CSR communication was found to be impediments. This because, employees did not feel they knew how to contribute, nor did they experience that CSR was prioritized. Additionally, two new factors were found; time constraints as an impediment, and social interactions as a driver. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, employee engagement

Research report presented to the Unisa School of Business Leadership / The purpose of the research is an investigation into how employee involvement can be used as a tool towards raising levels of engagement within actively disengaged employees at Ngwane Mills.

Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.

Employee engagement levels are critical to organizations that desire to retain a workforce that innovates, produces positive results, and stays committed to the organization. The purpose of this single case study was to explore employee engagement strategies used by business leaders to retain talent. The conceptual framework that guided this study was Deci's self-determination theory. Data collection occurred through semistructured interviews with four participants within the insurance industry having three or more years of management experience and having a positive reputation for engaging employees. The participating company is located in central Indiana. Participants answered 10 open-ended questions related to employee engagement and retention of talent. Data were transcribed and coded to identify themes. The modified van Kaam method was used for analysis of the data. Open and honest communication between managers and employees, managers looking beyond words to recognize disengagement and respectful and a caring leadership team at all levels of the company were amongst the prominent themes identified during data analysis. The study findings may contribute to business practices positively by increasing the understanding of the importance of employee engagement strategies in a work setting as well as how engagement levels affect retention. The study findings may contribute to social change by providing leaders ideas on how to provide greater job satisfaction to employees, which could translate into improved professional and personal lives by providing employees a greater feeling of fulfillment and confidence with their job.

When organizational leaders create cultures that foster employee engagement, the leaders experience multiple benefits such as enhanced organizational performance, increased profitability, and improved retention rates. Although small business leaders must create and sustain atmospheres that nurture employee engagement to experience maximized success, 85% of organizational leaders struggle with executing strategies that increase engagement. The purpose of this qualitative, single case study was to explore strategies that small business leaders use to increase employee engagement. Servant leadership theory was the conceptual framework chosen for this study. The population included 3 small business leaders of a coffee shop located in Birmingham, AL. A review of company documents, as well as member checking of initial interview transcripts, helped to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretations. The final interpretations consisted of 2 main themes: creating a culture that enhances and sustains employee engagement and demonstrating leadership characteristics that increase employee engagement. Employee engagement increases when leaders use strategies that include effective employee development strategies, incentives and rewards, deliberate hiring practices, effective communication, leading by example, and leveraging employee innovation and ownership. These findings influence positive social change by uncovering strategies necessary to increase employee engagement, because employees who engage in the workplace display stronger forms of attachment to businesses, develop a significant bond within the community, and experience improved family interactions.

More than 50% of the workforce in the United States is disengaged, costing U.S. organizations almost $355 billion annually. Engaged employees improve customer satisfaction, perform effectively, and are committed to organizational goals. Guided by Kahn's personal engagement theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in the hospitality industry used to improve employee engagement for increased productivity. A purposive sample of 1 business leader each from 6 organizations in South Korea shared their experiences with the phenomenon of employee engagement. Data were collected through face-to-face semi structured interviews and by reviewing company position descriptions and human resource policies. Yin's data analysis method revealed prevalent themes of communication, recognition and rewards, and work environment. Leaders influence employee engagement through open communication, providing rewards or recognition as performance incentives, and creating a psychologically safe work environment. Implications of this study for social change include decreased physical and mental health costs for employees and organizations. Improving employee engagement in the hospitality industry can reduce absenteeism and increase organizational profitability, sustainability, and participation in community and social programs.