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1 – 10 of over 58000Facilitation of genuine occupational engagement rather than a more superficial level of participation that has minimal therapeutic benefit is a challenge within secure mental…
Abstract
Purpose
Facilitation of genuine occupational engagement rather than a more superficial level of participation that has minimal therapeutic benefit is a challenge within secure mental health settings. The purpose of this paper is to develop, pilot and evaluate therapeutic tools based on a framework of occupational engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used action research with occupational therapists from two secure residential units. Focus group discussions gathered participants’ views of how the occupational engagement framework could be used to inform a therapeutic tool. Following the development and piloting of the subsequent tools, focus groups were again used to review their usefulness in practice. Discussions were audio recorded and thematically analysed.
Findings
Three tools were designed and piloted. Evaluation revealed a number of benefits and different ways in which the tools could be used in practice.
Research limitations/implications
This research has indicated that the occupational engagement framework has potential for increasing understanding of the relationship between the value and consequences of participating in occupations. The limited timescale of the research restricted the opportunity to fully explore the tools’ potential effectiveness as outcome measures.
Practical implications
The clinical tools developed within this research have provided some information to the clinical teams which has contributed to their understanding of how service users experience participating in occupations.
Originality/value
The occupational engagement framework and resulting tools have the potential to enhance understanding of occupational engagement within secure settings.
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Vijay Kumar Shrotryia and Upasana Dhanda
Employee engagement has become a hot topic among the global workforce. Both academicians and practitioners tout engagement to have a positive impact on individual and…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee engagement has become a hot topic among the global workforce. Both academicians and practitioners tout engagement to have a positive impact on individual and organizational performance. However, despite the enhanced interest, the stagnant engagement levels worldwide pose a grave concern for the researchers. Numerous overlapping and inconsistent definitions of employee engagement lead to a conceptual chaos resulting in poor operationalization of the construct. The purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-dimensional measurement tool for employee engagement based on the evidences from the best companies to work for in India.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews with the top management of the 15 best companies are used for the generation of items using grounded theory methodology. These items are then subjected to content validity assessment by six domain experts. The scale is administered to the middle-level employees of five companies (n = 332) through questionnaire for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability assessment and initial evidences for convergent and discriminant validity.
Findings
The study aimed at developing and validating an employee engagement assessment instrument, which is well-grounded in theory and built on the conceptual framework proposed by both academicians and practitioners and rigorously tested for its psychometric properties to ensure the precise measurement of employee engagement. A 3-factor/16 item employee engagement measurement tool is the finding of this study, which attempts to bridge the incongruity between the academic and industrial view on employee engagement.
Originality/value
Looking at the dearth of measurement tools built in developing countries and with the intent of resolving the issues related with cultural differences in the application of western assessment tools, the developed scale made a notable contribution to engagement theory with prime focus in the Indian context. The three dimensions of employee engagement-alignment, affectiveness and action- orientation- are in a form and language, that is, comprehensible and consequential for practitioners enabling them to take a closer look at the critical engagement elements that align with the organization's human capital strategy and foster improved performance.
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Akansha Mer and Avantika Srivastava
Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the organisations in the form of increased job demands which manifested through increased workload, time pressure, etc…
Abstract
Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the organisations in the form of increased job demands which manifested through increased workload, time pressure, etc. Similarly, stress and burnout engulfed the employees. Remote work became the new normal post-pandemic. Remote workers require more engagement. This has brought Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the forefront for engaging employees in the new normal.
Purpose: With limited studies on AI-enabled employee engagement in the new normal, this study investigates and proposes a conceptual framework of employee engagement in the context of AI and its impact on organisations.
Methodology: A systematic review and meta-synthesis method is undertaken. A systematic literature review assisted in critically analysing, synthesising, and mapping the extant literature by identifying the broad themes.
Findings: Since many organisations are turning to remote work post-pandemic and remote work requires more engagement, organisations are investing in AI to boost employee engagement in the new normal. Several antecedents of employee engagement such as quality of work life, diversity and inclusion, and communication are facilitated by AI. AI helps enhance the quality of work life by playing a major role in providing fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities, continued growth and security, work and total life space, and social relevance of work life. This has led to positive organisational outcomes like increased productivity, employee well-being, and decreased attrition rate. Furthermore, AI helps in measuring employee engagement. The various tools of AI, such as wearable technology, digital biomarker, neural network, data mining, data analytics, machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), etc., have gone a long way in engaging employees in the new normal.
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Stefano Landi, Antonio Costantini, Marco Fasan and Michele Bonazzi
The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they collected data on the number of posts, popularity, commitment and followers before and during the outbreak. The authors also performed a content analysis to identify the topics covered by the posts.
Findings
Empirical results suggest that social media has been extensively used as a public engagement tool in all three countries under analysis but – because of legitimacy threats and resource scarcity – it has also been used as a dialogic accounting tool only in New Zealand. Findings suggest that fake news developed more extensively in contexts where the public body did not foster dialogic accounting.
Practical implications
Public agencies may be interested in knowing the pros and cons of using social media as a public engagement and dialogic accounting tool. They may also leverage on dialogic accounting to limit fake news.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to look at the nature and role of social media as an accountability tool during public health crises. In many contexts, COVID-19 forced for the first time public health agencies to heavily engage with the public and to develop new skills, so this study paves the way for numerous future research ideas.
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LibraryThing is a Web 2.0 tool allowing users to catalogue books using data drawn from sources such as Amazon and the Library of Congress and has facilities such as tagging and…
Abstract
Purpose
LibraryThing is a Web 2.0 tool allowing users to catalogue books using data drawn from sources such as Amazon and the Library of Congress and has facilities such as tagging and interest groups. This study seeks to evaluate whether LibraryThing is a valuable tool for libraries to use for promotional and user engagement purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a sequential mixed methods three-phase design: the identification of LibraryThing features for user engagement or promotional purposes, exploratory semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire.
Findings
Several uses of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes were identified. The most popular reason libraries used LibraryThing was to promote the library or library stock, with most respondents using it specifically to highlight collections of books. Monitoring of patron usage was low and many respondents had not received any feedback. LibraryThing was commonly reported as being easy to use, remotely accessible, and having low cost, whilst its main drawbacks were the 200 book limit for free accounts, and it being a third-party site. The majority of respondents felt LibraryThing was a useful tool for libraries.
Practical implications
LibraryThing has most value as a promotional tool for libraries. Libraries should actively monitor patron usage of their LibraryThing account or request user feedback to ensure that LibraryThing provides a truly valuable service for their library.
Orginality/value
There is little research on the value of LibraryThing for libraries, or librarians' perceptions of LibraryThing as a Web 2.0 tool.
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Esben Rahbek Gjerdrum Pedersen, Morten Hove Henriksen, Claus Frier, Jeanette Søby and Vernon Jennings
– The objective of the paper is to describe and discuss how the biotech company Novozymes integrates stakeholder thinking into everyday sustainability practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the paper is to describe and discuss how the biotech company Novozymes integrates stakeholder thinking into everyday sustainability practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on first-hand experiences as well as secondary information from Novozymes' stakeholder-oriented sustainability activities.
Findings
The paper illustrates how a company is striving to transform the general stakeholder principles into concrete, manageable actions. Moreover, the paper describes some of the needs, challenges, and paradoxes experienced by an organisation that is trying to make sense of stakeholder thinking.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of how various stakeholder relations management methods can be used in practice to integrate sustainability in an organisation.
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Rachael Wheatley and Daria J. Kuss
This paper outlines researcher–practitioner reflections on the use of a visually adapted repertory grid technique (VARGT) with men convicted of stalking. It draws on and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper outlines researcher–practitioner reflections on the use of a visually adapted repertory grid technique (VARGT) with men convicted of stalking. It draws on and assimilates participant experiences of the VARGT as a research engagement tool. Further, it extends discussion to propose its value as a generic engagement tool for when personal insights and collaborative case formulations may otherwise be difficult to access.
Design/methodology/approach
The repertory grid technique, developed from Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory (1955), was adapted visually for utility in a mixed methods research study with those who commit stalking offences (Wheatley, in preparation). Analytical and reflexivity processes within this original study highlighted rich and recurrent data across the sample pertaining to the positive participant experience of the VARGT, unrelated to its core research question.
Findings
This paper presents reflections and psychological discussion for experiences of using the VARGT. Key features clustered around therapeutic alliance and engagement, enlightenment and a motivation for positive change.
Practical implications
This paper suggests the VARGT has value in participant–client engagement, particularly where sensitive topics are being investigated and participants have difficulty directly articulating their psychosocial functioning.
Originality/value
This novel technique offers potential as an engagement tool for use in research and clinical settings.
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This paper aims to explore predicting employee learning activity via employee characteristics and usage for two online learning tools.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore predicting employee learning activity via employee characteristics and usage for two online learning tools.
Design/methodology/approach
Statistical analysis focused on observational data collected from user logs. Data are analyzed via regression models.
Findings
Findings are presented for over 40,000 employees’ learning activity for one year in a multinational technology company. Variables including job level and tool use yielded a predictive model for overall learning behaviors. In addition, relevant differences are found for managers and nonprofessional learning.
Research limitations/implications
Importantly, how well employees learned content was not measured. This research is also limited to observational relationships: for example, the online tools were used by self-selected users, instead of randomly assigned. Future research which randomly assigns tool use to employee subgroups could explore causal relationships.
Practical implications
This paper presents implications for business analysts and educational technology: how predictive analytics can leverage data to plan programs, the significant challenges for the adoption and usage for online learning tools, and the distinct needs of managers engaging with these tools.
Originality/value
Given a growing emphasis on using employee data, it is important to explore how learning behaviors can be made visible in people analytics. While previous research has surveyed employee cultures on learning or explored the socio-psychological factors which contribute to this learning, this paper presents novel data on employee participation in learning programs which illuminates both how HR metrics can productively use this data to reify learning patterns, and how workplace technology designers can consider important factors such as internal hierarchies.
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The purpose of this paper is to reconcile various theoretical directions in employee engagement with self-determination theory (SDT) as a unifying framework and introduce an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconcile various theoretical directions in employee engagement with self-determination theory (SDT) as a unifying framework and introduce an inter-disciplinary employee engagement economics model based on SDT.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted applying a T1/T2 intervention study design. Study 1 examined the causal relationship between an organizational intervention and employee engagement with n=367 employees from a European pharmaceuticals company using both survey and actual performance data. Study 1 results were used as input data for study 2 which tested the employee engagement economics model by calculating the pre-/post-economic value added and return on investment (ROI) for the intervention.
Findings
Study 1 results showed a significant positive impact of the SDT-based intervention on both self-reported and actual employee engagement. Study 2 converted study findings into pre-/post-economic considerations putting an economic dollar value on achieved employee engagement gains and calculating an ROI in relation to the cost incurred.
Practical implications
The present results support SDT as a unifying theory for employee engagement and the proposed employee engagement economics model as strategic decision-making tool for planning and evaluating the economics of employee engagement interventions.
Social implications
This research supports a shift in corporate focus from “people as cost” to “people as values” proposing a systematic, value-based, strategic management approach to employee engagement based on cost-benefit analysis.
Originality/value
This is the first research to contribute an empirical economic model for employee engagement interventions to literature. It is based on the first reconciliation of engagement literature identifying SDT as a unifying framework. Finally, for the first time, this work identifies subjective vitality as a measure for engagement and contributes a definition for disengagement to literature.
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Anshu Sharma and Jyotsna Bhatnagar
The paper aims to highlight the role of enterprise social media as an internal workplace tool for employee engagement purposes.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to highlight the role of enterprise social media as an internal workplace tool for employee engagement purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a viewpoint on how social media can be used internally by organizations after considering both academic and practitioner literature in the respective field.
Findings
The paper posits that organizations should move beyond using social networking tools for recruitment and branding purposes and take a step further to use social media tools internally for employee engagement initiatives. It provides practical implications for managers to embrace social media as an engagement tool and to increase employees’ participation on such media.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides implications for both researchers and practitioners for using social media as a strategic employee engagement initiative and devising appropriate social media and human resource strategies to do so.
Originality/value
The paper offers insights into how enterprise social media can be used as an internal communication tool for engaging employees in this technologically connected era.
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