Introduction
We have all heard the saying ‘People don’t
quit the job but quit the boss’. This portrays the significance, managers have
on their team members and managers role for the organization’s success.
Managers are the face of employee voice to the leaders as they work day in, day
out with their team members and play the largest role in an organization for
driving employee engagement (Baumgartner, 2019).
Manager’s Role in Engagement
The
Cambridge Dictionary defines manager as, ‘the person who is responsible for managing
an organization’. There are many descriptions given to managers in literature,
Rouleau and Balogun (2011), stated ‘manager as a role who needs to influence
upwards as well as downwards’. Chun et al. (2009), stated ‘managers are
responsible for the day to day tasks and drives the goal of top-level leaders. Caughron & Mumford (2012) sated ‘managers
are second tier leaders who follow as well as lead (Rezvani Z 2017).
There
are 8 drivers of engagement identified by Gibbons (2006), that would
proactively drive engagement in an organization. The relationship a team member
has with his manager is one of them and a positive and good working correspondence
with the immediate supervisor will tend to boost the engagement levels of an
employee (Radda, Majidadi & Akanno,2015). This is further established by the research
conducted by Gallup that identified, managers account for 70% of variance in
employee engagement scores (Robison,2020). Managers must be able foster a
culture where employees are trusted, respected and expected to achieve their
work goals though nurturing positive relationships with the team members (Son,
2020).
Stated
below key behaviors/points managers can build into their day to day life to
enhance engagement of their team members.
1. 1. Give
up Bossing and take up Coaching - Do not only supervise the work but engage
with the team to understand the difficulties in performing their work. Talks to
the team on how to meet the set expectations and performance goals through
optimization of their strengths (Robison, 2020).
2. 2. Communicate Richly – Communication is the key to any healthy relationship. Have conversations with you team members regularly; daily would be the best even if not face to face, through a call at least. Get to know the team members not only work related but on other subjects too (Harter & Adkins, 2015).
3. 3. Provide Opportunities to Develop – No one wants to be stagnated in their position, hence develop team member skills to take new challenges. Make them a part of decision making that will expand their capabilities (Son, 2020).
4. 4. Care on a personal Level – If an employee feels, loved, respected and appreciated then they are more likely to stay on with the job (Son, 2020).
In
video 3.0, CEO of DecisionWise, Tracy Maylett, shares 3 ways, a manager can have
an impact on engagement with their employees: Hire people who choose to engage
in your culture, Engage yourself as a manager and Step back and let the
employees to engage (DecisonWise, 2019). Listen to the video for more insights
on these 3 points.
I
Video
3 - What Role Does a Manager Play in Employee Engagement
(Source:
DecisonWise, 2019)
Conclusion
For teams to achieve outstanding performance managers play a vital role in creating a culture and environment, where their team members are engaged and managers take the responsibility for the team and their engagement and build workplaces that are engines of productivity and profitability (Harter & Adkins, 2015). Therefore, it could be stated that managers are the first contact point for the team members in any organization and without them there would be no engaging the team members.
References
Baumgartner, N 2019,
Managers: The Engagement Drivers, Forbes, published 18th December
2019, viewed 2nd December 2020, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2019/12/18/managers-the-engagement-drivers/?sh=7f9d694b8ba7>
Cambridge Dictionary,
viewed 2nd December 2020, < https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/manager>
DecisonWise, 2019, What
Role Does a Manager Play in Employee Engagement?, Online Video, viewed 2nd
December 2020, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZyj7mXuzlg&feature=youtu.be>
Harter, J & Adkins, A
2015, What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees, Harvard Business Review
Digital Article, Published 2nd April 2015, pp. 2-5, viewed 2nd
December 2020, < http://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?EbscoContent=dGJyMNXb4kSeprA4wtvhOLCmsEiep7BSrqe4S7WWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGttlGvp7JJuePfgeyx9Yvf5ucA&T=P&P=AN&S=R&D=bth&K=118666751>
Radda, A, Majidadi, MA
& Akanno, SN 2015, Employee Engagement : The New Model of Leadership,
Indian Jornal of Management Science, Vol. -V, Issue, 02, viewed 13th
October 2020, < https://www.academia.edu/26012641/Employee_Engagement_The_New_Model_Of_Leadership>
Rezvani, Z 2017, Who is a
Middle Manager: A literature Review, International Jornal of Family Business
and Management, viewed 2nd December 2020, < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323573857_Who_is_a_Middle_Manager_A_literature_Review>
Robison , J 2020, Give Up
Bossing, Take Up Coaching: You'll Like the Results, Gallup, Published 17th
January 2020, viewed 2nd December 2020, < https://www.gallup.com/workplace/282647/give-bossing-coaching-results.aspx>
Son, H 2020, How Great
Managers Can Drive Employee Engagement, Pro Sky, Published 27th
August 2020, viewed 2nd December 2020, < https://talkingtalent.prosky.co/articles/how-great-managers-can-drive-employee-engagement>
Sirisetti (2012), stated that improved engagement arises when there are positive working relationships, employee input in decision making, and assist to growth and development with learning opportunities. Workplace aberration that is aspects that destruct an organization, will decrease as employee engagement increases (Johnson, 2011). Positive mindset can turn into benefits for companies, management and workers (Rousseau, 2006).
ReplyDeleteYes, a positive working relationship is a must between employee and manager to have an employee engaged. However, organizations must also ensure to make the mangers engaged, because if the manager is not engaged then how would it be possible to engage an employee (Roper, 2017).
DeletePeople don’t quit a job, the saying goes — they quit a boss. But that’s not what Facebook found in a recent engagement survey according to Harvard Business Review. When the company wanted to keep people and they left anyway, it was because they didn’t like the work, their strengths were underused, or they weren’t growing in their careers. So people at Facebook do quit a job. But who’s responsible for what that job is like? Managers. If you want to keep your people — especially your stars — customize their experiences in three ways. First, craft roles that they’ll enjoy. This can involve hiring impressive candidates and then writing their job descriptions, for instance, or rotating current employees out of roles where they’re excelling but not feeling motivated. Second, allow them to draw on a wider range of their skills and passions. And third, minimize work-life trade-offs by carving a path for career development that accommodates their personal priorities (Goller, L. 2018)
ReplyDeleteThe point you are highlighting is unique to Facebook and talks about Facbook as a company only. While this could be true to Facebook it’s not universal (Goler et al, 2018). There are many factors that lead, an employee to quit his job and not just one. In the study conducted by Mercer, the top reasons were for better pay, career advancements or changes. In secondary its issues related to benefits, fit with the organization or the job, and relationship problems with direct supervisors or managers. The study conducted by Work Institute found that career development, work/life balance and bad managers consistently tops the list on why employees quit the job. Therefore, it could be safely stated that mangers do play a role in engagement of the employees and a bad relationship could lead, an employee to quit (Maurer, 2018).
DeleteRobertson-Smith and Markwick (2009) define on what engagement is and uncovers that it is a vital yet complex test, and there remains a lot of extension for examining the different methodologies. Employee engagement, the level of a worker is emotionally attached to his organization and enthusiastic about the work. Organizations trust that commitment is a predominant source of competitive advantage (Sarangi and Nayak 2016)
ReplyDeleteInstitute of Employment Studies introduced a model for engagement (2010), which stated 3 main components that had to be fulfilled for an employee to engage and one component of this is commitment. The other 2 are organizational citizenship and motivation (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
DeleteManagers who hold daily meetings, assist team members to understand and set priorities and duties are more likely to improve the commitment of their employees. It is important to dedicate a good manager to their job and inspire their employees to feel the same and offer their best results (Berry & Morris, 2008).
ReplyDeleteWhat you have stated are activities that managers can take up to engage their team members. In addition managers can also focus on each team members strengths over weaknesses and create a strength based culture, that would impact positively to engagement (Harter & Adkins, 2015).
DeleteWithout any doubt it can be said that organization with engaged employees have higher employee retention as a result of reduced turnover and reduced intention to leave the company, productivity, profitability, growth and stakeholder’s satisfaction. On the other hand, companies with disengaged employees suffer from waste of effort and bleed talent, earn less commitment from the employees, face increased absenteeism and have less customer orientation, less productivity, and reduced operating margins and net profit margins (Markos & Sridevi, 2010).
ReplyDeleteAs rightly sated these are the benefits of having an engaged workforce and disadvantages of not having an engaged workforce. Therefore if a company wants that competitive edge over other companies, having an engaged workforce would be a added advantage (Baran & Sypniewska, 2020).
DeleteTo assist managers, manage, different scholars, researchers and consultants have been contributing implementing their part showing the best paths they think are useful to managers. Among those suggested techniques, concepts like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) made recognition in increasing organizational performance by focusing on operational and process improvements (Sridevi and Markos, 2010).
ReplyDeleteConcepts like TQM or BPR will simplify processes ease the workload of the employee or bring in a method to the madness. The manager will play a crucial role at implementation of such a change within the organization, because change is not a concept which is welcomed by most employee. Manager must play the role of the mediator and ensure that the team welcomes new concepts without damaging the motivation and engagement levels (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008).
DeleteFurther, we understand when the relationship between a manager and subordinate lacks trust, they are unlikely to have productive performance conversations that generate positive results (Pulakos, Mueller-Hanson, & O'Leary, 2008).
ReplyDeleteTrue. Trust is a an integral part of any relationship. To build trust, having a good two way communication established will go a long way (The insights Group, 2014).
DeleteLeader and the leadership is on trust and teamwork. Boss concern not only on organizational goals but also do care on employees (Mickan, Rodger, 2000). Since the team members have different competencies, the employees could gain and share the knowledge and work towards better and to improve their self-confidence.
ReplyDeleteManagers caring on a personal level is a great way to build a positive relationship with the employee. If employees feel that they have a boss who cares, is interested in their development and has their best interests at heart will do wonders for employee engagement (Son, 2020).
DeleteFurther to mention that, Manager’s self‐efficacy can lead to rises in the engagement and effectiveness of their assistants. This assurance may be picked up on by employees who, as a result, feel confident in their leadership allowing them to engage with their organization(Luthans and Peterson 2002).
ReplyDeleteThis is basically autonomy. If a manager inspires confidence in individuals, giving them
Deleteautonomy to make decisions with clear goals and accountability that will enable engagement in the team (Smith & Markwick, 2009).
Employee engagement has been identified by The U.S. Department of Labor (2015) as a challenge with a negative percentage of 35% or more for organizations, thirty percent of U.S. employees are engaged at work and less than 13% worldwide (Beck and Harter, 2015) and these percentages have changed minimally over the past 12 years, which means that a large number of employees around the world are failing to work and contribute and therefore Organizational leaders are rapidly finding ways to engage employees for long-term employment (Osborne & Hammoud, 2017).
ReplyDeleteThe latest Gallup survey report(2017) states only 15% of employees are globally engaged. And as you have rightly states there has been no drastic improvement in these figures over the years. Hence it's important for all employers to look into specific reasons and take necessary action ( Gallup, 2017).
DeleteEmployee engagement is only meaningful if there is a more genuine sharing of responsibility between management and employees over issues of substance (Purcell et al,2003)
ReplyDeleteThis could be described as 'Social Engagement', which is actively taking opportunities
Deleteto discuss work-related improvements with others at work. having such a discussion with your manager on a continuous basis could improve the levels of engagement (The Insights Group, 2014).
Managers have the most direct and consistent contact with employees, and the behavior they exhibit directly affects employees. Skills such as perseverance, decision making, motivation, accountability and competence to build relationships are very important to managers. Providing authority, setting goals, caring on a personal level, and empowering employees are some of the main objectives of their role.(Son,H.2020)
ReplyDeleteAs you have rightly stated, managers are the face of the organization for employees and therefore the personality and character of a manger plays are an important factor for engagement of an employee (Baumgartner, 2019).
DeleteAccording to CIPD Research Report (2010), Senior managers have an important role to play in • creating a vision for the organisation and sharing this with employees, and in being open, transparent and approachable. Moreover, Line managers act as the interface between the organisation and the employee, and can do much to impact on engagement. Another key HR role is therefore to pay close attention to the selection, development and performance management of line managers to ensure they maximise their potential to be engaging leaders.
ReplyDeleteAs you have rightly stated, not all managers are great managers who can engage their team. Therefore HR has the role to promote the right people to manage a team. A good performer does not necessarily mean, they are good managers (Wandler, 2016).
DeleteInformative Blog! Employee engagement activities help address this problem by bringing office colleagues together in the virtual space. Check out our list of top 50 Online employee engagement activities that your work from home employees will enjoy!
ReplyDeleteEmpower your employees and drive business growth with our customizable engagement strategies. Trust our expert team to create a workplace culture that inspires and motivates your employees to do their best work. For more details about our best Employee Engagement Company in India, visit our website!
ReplyDelete