Exploring employee engagement through communication |
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| Authors: | Shelby Schroeder Daniel P Modaff |
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| Institution: | 1. Shelby Schroeder is an Independent scholar.;2. Daniel P. Modaff (PhD, The University of Texas at Austin 1995) is an associate professor in Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, WI, US |
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| Abstract: | Employee engagement has been shown to be related to higher organizational productivity and profitability, among other favorable outcomes; however, there is disagreement in the literature regarding the definition of employee engagement and how employees enact their engagement. The current study explored how employees of a cooperative communicatively displayed their own engagement to others inside and outside of the organization. Fifteen semi-structured interviews with employees were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results showed that employees displayed their engagement to others through external displays, which contradicts past research done on employee engagement. The study also revealed that social exchanges occurred between the organization and the employees. The ways in which employees communicated their engagement was a direct response to the exchanges occurring between these multiple stakeholders. |
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| Keywords: | employee engagement social exchange theory roles |
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