Theory Building For Effective Employee Engagement
Social exchange theory
Social exchange is one of the most influential conceptual paradigms for understanding workplace behaviour. One of the basic principles of SET is that relationship evolves over time into trusting, loyalty, and mutual commitment. To do so, certain rules of exchange must be abided by the parties. Rules of exchange form a “normative definition of the situation that forms among or is adopted by the participants in an exchange relation”. In this way, rules and norms of exchange are “the guide lines” of exchange processes. Most of management research focuses on expectations of reciprocity. Reciprocity or repayment in kind is probably the best-known exchange rule.
The nature of reciprocity within exchange and distinguishing three different types of reciprocity: (a) reciprocity as a transactional pattern of interdependent exchanges, (b) reciprocity as a folk belief, and (c) reciprocity as a moral norm. The independent exchange outlines that action by one party leads to a response by another. Folk of belief involves the cultural expectation that people get what they deserve. A moral norm is a standard that describes how one should behave, and those who follow these norms are obligated to behave reciprocally. Oversimplification, exchange ideology refers to the relationship between what the individual receives and gives in an exchange relationship. Some social psychologist shave advanced the notion that individuals differ in the degree they endorse reciprocity. Those high in an exchange orientation carefully track obligations (score keeping). Those low in an exchange orientation are less concerned about obligations and less likely to care if exchanges are not reciprocated.
Many studies have begun to investigate reciprocity in this way. Findings suggest that individuals with a strong exchange orientation are more likely to return a good deed than those low in exchange orientation. Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, and Sowa (1986) were first to explore exchange ideology. In their investigations of perceived organizational support (POS) and absenteeism, they found that the relationship was stronger for individuals with high exchange ideology than those with a low exchange ideology. Witt and colleagues found that strong exchange ideology significantly increased satisfaction with training and manager-rated commitment. Application of this theory was demonstrated by the studies of Witt and colleagues 1993, and Wajda (2013) in which organizations avail exchange theory in building relationship with employee in order to gain engagement in return whereby productivity is the consequence of engagement. In line with recipocity of maral norms, employees will engage themselves and effectivly committed in response to organisation and create an employee-organisation relationships that evetually results in productivty.
Therefore, nurturing engagement requires a two‐way relationship and commitment between employer and employee which implies exchange. Hence, the theory outline tne relationship between employee engamgment, particularlly the dimonsion of dedication, and productivty.
JD-R model
The JD-R model is based on the assumption that every occupation may have its own causes of employee well-being, which can be classified into two general categories: job demands and job resources. An overarching model can be applied to various occupational settings, irrespective of the particular demands and resources involved. Job Demands refers to the physical or emotional stressors in ones’ role. These, for example, include time pressures, heavy workload, stressful working environment, role ambiguity, emotional stress, and poor relationships. Job Resources refers to the physical, social, or organizational factors that help one achieve goals and reduce stress. They include autonomy, strong work relationships, opportunities for advancement, coaching and mentoring, and learning and development.
The Hakanen, Schaufeli, & Ahola argue that there are two simultaneous processes under way. The first, when job demands are high and job resources are low, stress and burnout are common. High job demands exhaust employees’ resources and lead to depletion of energy and to health problems. Conversely, good job resources can offset the effects of extreme job demands and encourage motivation and engagement.
Thus, the theory outlines that the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model can predict employee burnout and engagement, and consequently productivity.
Broaden-and build theory of positive emotion
The broaden-and-build theory describes the form and function of a subset of positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment and love. A key proposition is that these positive emotions broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire: joy sparks the urge to play, interest sparks the urge to explore, contentment sparks the urge to savour and integrate, and love sparks a recurring cycle of each of these urges within safe, close relationships. The broadened mindsets arising from these positive emotions are contrasted to the narrowed mindsets sparked by many negative emotions (i. e. specific action tendencies, such as attack or flee).
A second key proposition concerns the consequences of these broadened mindsets: by broadening an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire--whether through play, exploration or similar activities--positive emotions promote discovery of novel and creative actions, ideas and social bonds, which in turn build that individual's personal resources; ranging from physical and intellectual resources, to social and psychological resources. Importantly, these resources function as reserves that can be drawn on later to improve the odds of successful coping and survival. This chapter reviews the latest empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory and draws out implications the theory holds for optimizing health and well-being.
The application of this theory in respect of this study was outlined by Barbara (2004). Barbara stated that, the positive emotions stem from the engagement in which eventually results in better performance and better outcome (productivity). The link between positive emotions and activity engagement provides an explanation for the often-documented positivity offset. According to Deiner and Deiner (1996), without this offset individual would be unmotivated to engage with their environment. Hence, this theory demonstrated the relationship of engagement and positive emotions that is needed to have productive employee.
