Employee engagement is a relatively new construct in academic literature and an increasingly popular idea in practice. Proponents of employee engagement claim a strong positive relationship between engagement and business success, both at the firm and individual levels, and outcomes including retention, productivity, profitability, and customer loyalty and satisfaction. Despite numerous academic and practitioner publications on employee engagement, no consistently-accepted conceptualization of the construct or its sub-dimensions exists, and there is an ongoing debate regarding whether the employee engagement construct is a new idea or a re-hashing of old ideas. Similarly, no consistently-accepted tool to measure employee engagement exists. In the absence of consistent conceptualization and measurement, relationships between employee engagement and its antecedents and outcomes cannot be empirically tested. Drawing on prior literature and practitioner interviews, the present study defines employee engagement as an attitude towards one’s work at one’s company, comprising feelings of vigor, dedication, and absorption; cognitive appraisals of psychological empowerment; and motivation to act, both within role and extra role, in the service of the organization’s goals. In addition, the present study validates a self-report instrument to measure this conceptualization of employee engagement, using construct and scale validation procedures accepted in marketing and information systems literature.

Gamification, immersion and flow are well known within game design, and more frequently considered within the development of educational applications. The simplicity and comprehensibility of an educational game can result into improved learning and a more enjoyable experience, as the focus on the gameplay increases with less instructions and a more straightforward approach for playing and learning. The aim is to focus on the relevant areas in order to implement a pick-up-and-play gamification geography game for learnability, as well as understanding the considerations when developing an educational application of this kind. Moreover, the work mainly focuses on the implementation of relevant and central game design elements, including animations, correlated to the researched areas. Given the information and the implementation, evaluation and analyzation were performed using Think-Aloud protocol combined with two scripted tests. Additionally, two slightly modified questionnaires were used, the Game Experience Questionnaire and User Engagement Scale Short Form, as a completion for any uncertainties or missing information after the Think-Aloud protocol. The work has brought up the importance of understanding the correlation between the relevant areas and the game design elements, as well as discussed these in context of this work. Moreover, it describes the importance of the well-balanced usage of animations, which improves the dynamic and engaging experience, while also contributing to a clearer feedback. The Think-Aloud protocol have shown being very useful and effective for the evaluation and analyzation. However, the questionnaires were only useful to some extent, but overall ambiguous and confusing, mainly because of the short playtime by the participants, as well as the difficulties in interpreting the assumptions.

Recommender systems are without a doubt a staple of the modern internet. Services like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and Spotify rely on them. What makes them so engaging that millions of users spent billions of hours on them every day? User engagement is widely accept as a core concept of user experience but we still don’t know what role the user interface plays into it. This thesis investigates the effect of explanations in recommender systems on the users engagement with a case study on BMW Financial Services Thailand’s recommender system. An experiment on Amazon Mechanical Turks with the User Engagement Scale and A/B testing with Google Analytics proved a significant influence of explanations on the users engagement.

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The diploma thesis deals with company culture and work engagement and it aims to explore the relationship between these two concepts in the field of psychology of work and organization. The theoretical part describes in detail the topic of company culture, its relationship with other aspects of the work environment and the possibility of measuring it with a focus on the Competitive Value Model (CVF). The next part presents work engagement, methods of its measurement, connection to work behaviour and other consequences. The empirical part presents quantitative research, in which answers were collected from 126 respondents who came from 10 different companies. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between company culture and engagement at the individual level. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) was used to examine company culture, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was used to obtain information on the level of engagement. The hypotheses verified the existence of a relationship between engagement and individual types of company culture and the difference between the degree of engagement concerning the dominant type of company culture. The results were analyzed by a combination of Multiple factor analysis, Chi-square test and correlations. The results...

In recent years, the concept of burnout has been expanded and is currently a concern in all professions and occupational groups. Nowadays it is widely acknowledged that people in almost any occupation could develop burnout. To-date, only two studies have examined students' experiences of burnout. Therefore, research regarding this phenomenon in students seems warranted. The objective of this study was to firstly investigate the psychometric properties of adapted versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in a sample of students from a tertiary institution, and secondly to consider the role of biographical variables in relation to burnout and engagement levels. A cross-sectional survey design was used to attain the research objectives. For the purposes of this study, an availability sample of students (N=353) majoring in Organisational Behaviour was drawn at one point in time. The adapted Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-SS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale - Student Survey (UWES-S) as well as a biographical questionnaire were administered. Structural equation modelling confirmed two-factor models of Burnout (consisting of Exhaustion and Cynicism) and Engagement (consisting of Vigour and Dedication). Biographical variables which appear to be predictive of differences in levels of student burnout are home language, overall health status and consideration given to quitting their studies, while engagement is related to home language, academic year of study and consideration given to quitting studies. Recommendations for future research were also made / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Research (Sartain et al., 2006) indicates that engagement demands a more thoughtful way to address the everyday realities of organisational life. The current research endeavours to elucidate the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement amongst leaders in a financial service organisation undergoing change. / South Africa

Research (Sartain et al., 2006) indicates that engagement demands a more thoughtful way to address the everyday realities of organisational life. The current research endeavours to elucidate the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement amongst leaders in a financial service organisation undergoing change.

Research (Sartain et al., 2006) indicates that engagement demands a more thoughtful way to address the everyday realities of organisational life. The current research endeavours to elucidate the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement amongst leaders in a financial service organisation undergoing change.

In recent years, the concept of burnout has been expanded and is currently a concern in all professions and occupational groups. Nowadays it is widely acknowledged that people in almost any occupation could develop burnout. To-date, only two studies have examined students' experiences of burnout. Therefore, research regarding this phenomenon in students seems warranted. The objective of this study was to firstly investigate the psychometric properties of adapted versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in a sample of students from a tertiary institution, and secondly to consider the role of biographical variables in relation to burnout and engagement levels. A cross-sectional survey design was used to attain the research objectives. For the purposes of this study, an availability sample of students (N=353) majoring in Organisational Behaviour was drawn at one point in time. The adapted Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-SS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale - Student Survey (UWES-S) as well as a biographical questionnaire were administered. Structural equation modelling confirmed two-factor models of Burnout (consisting of Exhaustion and Cynicism) and Engagement (consisting of Vigour and Dedication). Biographical variables which appear to be predictive of differences in levels of student burnout are home language, overall health status and consideration given to quitting their studies, while engagement is related to home language, academic year of study and consideration given to quitting studies. Recommendations for future research were also made / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.