Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:31:17.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Employee engagement: Driving strategy implementation through dimensions of organisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2019

Hester Nienaber Open the ORCID record for Hester Nienaber [Opens in a new window]
Hester Nienaber*
Affiliation:
Operations Management, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research worldwide reports low levels of employee engagement reflecting employee well-being. This observation spells dire consequences for enterprise performance, expressed as goal achievement, and attained via strategy. Strategy implementation failure adds to enterprise performance pressures, while reducing employee well-being. Research investigating employee engagement as driver of strategy implementation through dimensions of organisation is limited. This paper conceptually examines how employee engagement can be enhanced while driving strategy implementation through dimensions of organisation. The Nienaber and Martins (2015, Journal of Contemporary Management, 12(1), 401–425) survey results serve as illustration. The conclusions arrived at here show that all six factors – at individual, team/unit, and enterprise levels – can be classified according to the dimensions of organisation. Moreover, the dimensions of organisation are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but rather interrelated, and influence employee engagement in unexpected ways. The contribution of this paper stems from the promise that dimensions of organisation serve as mechanism to drive strategy implementation via employee engagement.

Keywords

employee engagementdimensions of organisation‘framework’processesstrategy implementation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , September 2022 , pp. 1036 - 1056
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguinis, H., & Edwards, J. R. (2014). Methodological wishes for the next decade and how to make wishes come true. Journal of Management Studies, 51, 143–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, L. D. (1985). Successfully implementing strategic decisions. Long Range Planning, 18(3), 91–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 63(3), 308–323. doi: 10.1108/IJPPM-01-2013-0008.Google Scholar
Ansoff, H. I. (1988). The new concept of corporate strategy. USA: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Anthony-McMann, P. E., Ellinger, A. D., Astakhova, M., & Halbesleben, J. R. B. (2017). Exploring different operationalizations of employee engagement and their relationships with workplace stress and burnout. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 28(2), 163–195. doi:10.1002/hrdq.21276CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aon Hewitt. (2017). Trends in global employee engagement: Global anxiety erodes employee engagement gains. Available at http://www.aon.com/engagement17/?utm_source=emailandutm_medium=sotwandutm_campaign=empengage2017 (accessed 13 March 2017).Google Scholar
Argyris, C. (1989). Strategy implementation: An experience in learning. Organizational Dynamics, 18, 3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnard, C. I. (1948). The nature of leadership. In Merrill, H. F. (Ed.), Classics in management (pp. 432–460). Washington, DC: American Management Association.Google Scholar
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrick, M. R., Thurgood, G. R., Smith, T. R., & Courtright, S. H. (2015). Collective organizational engagement: Linking motivational antecedents, strategic implementation and firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(1), 111–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human need. Psychological Inquiry, 117(3), 497–529.Google Scholar
Beer, M., & Eisenstat, R. (2000). The silent killers of strategy implementation and learning. Sloan Management Review, 41(4), 29–40.Google Scholar
Bourgeois, I. J., & Brodwin, D. (1984). Strategic implementation: Five approaches to an elusive phenomenon. Strategic Management Journal, 5, 241–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, Z. S., Peters, J. M., & Weston, J. W. (2016). The struggle with employee engagement: Measures and construct clarification using five samples. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(9), 1201–1227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chandler, A. D. (1962). Strategy and structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cheese, P., Thomas, R. J., & Craig, E. (2008). The talent powered organization: Strategies for globalisation, talent management and high performance. London: Kogan Press.Google Scholar
Chen, S., Westman, M., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2015). The commerce and crossover of resources: Resource conservation in the service of resilience. Stress and Health, 31, 95–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chua, J., & Ayoko, O. B. (2019). Employees’ self-determined motivation, transformational leadership and work engagement. Journal of Management & Organization, 1–21. doi:10.1017/jmo.2018.74.Google Scholar
Cocks, G. (2010). Emerging concepts for implementing strategy. The TQM Journal, 22(3), 260–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costanza, D. P., Blacksmith, N., Coates, M. R., Severt, J. B., & DeConstanza, A. H. (2016). The effect of adaptive organizational culture on long-term survival. Journal of Business Psychology, 31, 361–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, A. B., & Osborne, J. W. (2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 10(7), 1–9.Google Scholar
Craig, J., & Lopez, P. D. (2016). Can leaders enhance follower innovation by requiring it? Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(1), 46–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeCharms, R. (1996). Personal causation. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
DeVellis, R. F. (2013). Scale development: Theory and practice (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Drucker, P. F. (1985). The discipline of innovation. Harvard Business Review, 2002, 80(8), 95–103.Google Scholar
EY. (2018). Development Dimensions International, Inc., The Conference Board, Inc., and EYGM Limited. (2018). Global Leadership Forecast 2018, Development Dimensions International, Inc., The Conference Board, Inc., and EYGM Limited, available at https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ey-the-global-leadership-forecast/$FILE/ey-the-global-leadership-forecast.pdf (Accessed 6 December 2018).Google Scholar
Fayol, H. (1916). General principles of management. In Merrill, H. F. (Ed.), Classics in management (pp. 189–216). Washington, DC: American Management Association.Google Scholar
Floyd, F. W., Cornelissen, J. P., Wright, M., & Delios, A. (2011). Processes and practices of strategizing and organizing: Review, development, and the role of bridging and umbrella constructs. Journal of Management Studies, 48(5), 933–952. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.01000.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franco-Santos, M., Lucianetti, L., & Bourne, M. (2012). Contemporary performance measurement systems: A review of their consequences and a framework for research. Management Accounting Research, 23, 79–119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2012.04.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galbraith, J. R. (2012). The evolution of enterprise organization designs. Journal of Organization Design, 1(2), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallant, W. (2017). Factorial invariance of an employee engagement instrument across different race groups. Unpublished Masters dissertation. Pretoria, South Africa: University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Gallant, W. H., & Martins, N. (2018). Measurement invariance of employee engagement across race groups. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 67(9), 1463–1481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Granero, A., Llopis, O., Fernández-Mesa, A., & Alegre, J. (2015). Unraveling the link between managerial risk-taking and innovation: The mediating role of a risk-taking climate. Journal of Business Research, 68, 1094–1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, G., Shoss, M. K., & Leon-Perez, J. M. (2015). Going beyond workplace stressors: Economic crisis and perceived employability in relation to psychological distress and job dissatisfaction. International Journal of Stress Management, 22(2), 137–158. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038900. (Accessed 24 March 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Govindarajan, V., & Fisher, J. (1990). Strategy, control systems, and resource sharing: Effects on business-unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 33(2), 259–285.Google Scholar
Grant, R. M. (1996). Toward a knowledge base view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17, 109–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, R. M. (2018). Contemporary strategy analysis (10th ed.). West Sussex: Wiley and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Gunter McGrath, R. (2013). The end of competitive advantage. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.Google Scholar
Guth, W. D., & MacMillan, I. C. (1986). Strategy implementation vs middle management self-interest. Strategic Management Journal, 7, 313–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutermann, D., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Boer, D., Born, M., & Voelpel, S. C. (2017). How leaders affect followers’ work engagement and performance: Integrating leader-member exchange and crossover theory. British Journal of Management, 28(2), 299–314. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12214CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hair, J. F., Celsi, M., Money, A., Samouel, P., & Page, M. (2016). Essentials of business research (3rd ed.). NY, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harris, I. C., & Ruefli, T. W. (2000). The strategy/structure debate: An examination of the performance implications. Journal of Management Studies, 37(4), 587–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiman, G. W. (2014). Understanding research methods and statistics: An integrated introduction for psychology (7th ed.). Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Henson, R. K., & Roberts, J. K. (2006). Use of exploratory factor analysis in published research: Common errors and some comments on improved practice. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(3), 393–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyden, M. L. M., Fourné, S. P. L., Koene, B. A. S., Werkman, R., & Ansari, S. (2017). Rethinking ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ roles of top and middle managers in organizational change: Implications for employee support. Journal of Management Studies, 54(7), 961–985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkin, T. R. (1998). A brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in survey questionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1, 104–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership. American Psychologist, 49, 493–504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2008). Quality control why leaders need to understand personality. Leadership in Action (LIA), 28(5), 3–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaccard, J., & Jacoby, J. (2010). Theory construction and model-building skills: A practical guide for social scientists. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Jack, G., Zhu, Y., Barney, J., Brannen, M. Y., Prichard, C., Singh, K., & Whetten, D. (2013). Refining, reinforcing and reimagining universal and indigenous theory development in international management. Journal of Management Inquiry, 22(2), 148–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P., Kaplan, S., Seidl, D., & Whittington, R. (2016). On the risk of studying practices in isolation: Linking what, who, and how in strategy research. Strategic Organization, 14(3), 248–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P., & Spee, A. P. (2009). Strategy-as-practice: A review and future directions for the field. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(1), 69–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jex, S. M., Beehr, T. A., & Roberts, C. K. (1992). The meaning of occupational stress items to survey respondents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(5), 623–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johns, G. (2006). The essential impact of context on organizational behavior. Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 386–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.Google Scholar
Kahn, W. A. (1992). To be fully there: Psychological presence at work. Human Relations, 45(4), 321–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, R. B., & Hogan, R. (2010). How to (and how not to) assess the integrity of managers. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 62(4), 216–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karasek, R., & Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of work life. USA: Basic Books. Available at https://www.questia.com.Google Scholar
Kauppila, O.-P. (2014). So, what am I supposed to do? A multilevel examination of role clarity. Journal of Management Studies, 51(5), 737–763. doi:10.1111/joms.12042CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (1991). Implementing global strategies: The role of procedural justice. Strategic Management Journal, 12, 125–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (1993). Making global strategies work. MIT Sloan, 34, 11–27.Google Scholar
Köseoglu, M. A., Yazici, S., & Okumus, F. (2018). Barriers to the implementation of strategic decisions: Evidence from hotels in a developing country. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 27(5), 514–543, doi:10.1080/19368623.2018.1402723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Küpers, W., Mantere, S., & Statler, M. (2013). Strategy as storytelling: A phenomenological collaboration. Journal of Management Inquiry, 22(1), 83–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lafley, A. G., & Martin, R. L. (2013). Playing to win: How strategy really works. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Lê, J. K., & Jarzabkowski, P. A. (2015). The role of task and process conflict in strategizing. British Journal of Management, 26, 439–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, E., & Puranam, P. (2016). The implementation imperative: Why one should implement even imperfect strategies perfectly. Strategic Management Journal, 37, 1529–1546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockwood, N. (2007). Leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage: HR's strategic role. Society for Human Resource Management Research Quarterly, 3(1), 1–11.Google Scholar
Macey, W. H., & Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mankins, M. C., & Steele, R. (2005). Turning great strategy into great performance. Harvard Business Review, 83(7/8), 65–72.Google ScholarPubMed
Martins, E. C., & Terblanche, F. (2002). Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 6(1), 64–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martins, N. (2016). Confirming the measurement properties of an engagement measure. Paper presented at the 15th European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies, Kingston Business School, Kingston University, London.Google Scholar
Martins, N., & Nienaber, H. (2018). The influence of time on employee engagement in the SA business environment. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 67(9), 1682–1702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mencl, J., Wefald, A. J., & van Ittersum, K. W. (2016). Transformational leader attributes: Interpersonal skills, engagement, and well-being. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(5), 635–657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michaelis, T. L., & Markham, S. K. (2017). Innovation training: Making innovation a core competency. Research-Technology Management, 60(2), 36–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Micheli, P., & Mura, M. (2017). Executing strategy through comprehensive performance measurement systems. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(4), 423–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, M. J., Culbertson, S. S., & Fullagar, C. J. (2012). Conceptualizing and measuring engagement: An analysis of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13, 519–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B., & Stine, C. (2011). Performance management at the wheel: Driving employee engagement in organizations. Journal of Business Psychology, 26, 205–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nienaber, H. (2016). Engagement and strategy. In Nienaber, H., & Martins, N. (Eds.), Employee engagement in a South African context (pp. 2–21). Randburg: Knowres.Google Scholar
Nienaber, H. (2017a). Leadership, risk taking and employee engagement in a South African context. Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Management Leadership and Governance ICMLG 2017, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Reading, UK: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, 323–330.Google Scholar
Nienaber, H. (2017b). Immediate manager, performance evaluation and employee engagement: Game changer for organizational performance? Paper presented at the Nineteenth Annual International Conference of GBATA, Hilton Vienna, Austria, July 11–15, 2017, 584–595.Google Scholar
Nienaber, H., & Martins, N. (2015). Validating a scale measuring engagement in a South African context. Journal of Contemporary Management, 12(1), 401–425.Google Scholar
Nutt, P. C. (1999). Surprising but true: Half the decisions in organizations fail. Academy of Management Executive, 13(4), 75–90.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, C. A., Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A., Lapiz, M., & Self, W. (2010). How leadership matters: The effects of leaders’ alignment on strategy implementation. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 104–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padilla, A., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2007). The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, vulnerable followers, and conducive environments. Leadership Quarterly, 18, 176–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker-Follett, M. (1933). The essentials of leadership. In Graham, P. (Ed.), Mary Parker Follett prophet of management: A celebration of writings from the 1920s. (pp. 163–176) Washington, DC: Beard Books.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. Jr. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation and control (11th International ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Peteraf, M. A., & Barney, J. B. (2003). Unraveling the resource-based tangle. Managerial and Decision Economics, 24(4), 309–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Pretorius, M. (2016). Crooked strategy implementation: Covert tactics fill the gaps. Journal of Business Strategy, 37(4), 24–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purcell, J. (2014). Provocation series paper: Disengaging from engagement. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(3), 241–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reijseger, G. M., Peeters, C. W., Taris, T. W., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2017). From motivation to activation: Why engaged workers are better performers. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(2), 117–130. doi:10.1007/s10869-016-9435-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 617–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robert, M. M. (1991). Why CEO's have difficulty in implementing their strategies. Journal of Business Strategy, 12(2), 58–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Self-regulation and the problem of human autonomy: Does psychology need choice, self-determination and will? Journal of Personality, 74(6), 1557–1585.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandy, W. (1991). Avoid the breakdowns between planning and implementation. Journal of Business Strategy, 12(5), 30–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaap, I. (2012). Strategy implementations – can organizations attain outstanding performance? Strategic Management Review, 6(1), 98–121.Google Scholar
Schaufeli, W. B., & Salanova, M. (2011). Work engagement: On how to better catch a slippery concept. European Journal of Work and Organization Psychology, 20(1), 39–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A confirmative analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, R. J., Cavana, R. Y., & Cameron, D. (2015). Interpersonal success factors for strategy implementation: A case study using group model building. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 66, 1023–1034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skivington, J. E., & Daft, R. L. (1991). A study of organizational ‘framework’ and ‘process’ modalities for the implementation of business-level strategic decision. Journal of Management Studies, 28(1), 45–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stergiou, D. P., & Airey, D. (2018). Understandings of tourism theory. Tourism Review, 73(2), 156–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tait, A., & Nienaber, H. (2010). Exploring the strategy-to-performance gap: The case of four South African life insurers. Journal of Contemporary Management, 7(1), 271–289.Google Scholar
Teece, D., Peteraf, M., & Leih, S. (2016). Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: Risk, uncertainty and strategy in the innovation economy. California Management Review, 58(4), 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Merwe, M. M., & Nienaber, H. (2015). Factors hindering strategy implementation as perceived by top, middle and frontline managers in a South African electronics organization. Journal of Global Business and Technology, 11(2), 45–57.Google Scholar
Viljevac, A., Cooper-Thomas, H. D., & Saks, A. (2012). An investigation into the validity of two measures of work engagement. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(17), 3692–3709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66(5), 297–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization. (2014). Available at: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/topics/stressatwp/en/ (Accessed March 2014).Google Scholar
Wren, D. A. (2005). The history of management thought. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Yang, L., Guohui, S., & Eppler, M. J. (2008). Making strategy work: A literature review on the factors influencing strategy implementation, ICA working paper 2/2008, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Faculty of Communication Sciences.Google Scholar