The Meaning of Employee Engagement

TLDR

Employee engagement is ambiguously defined across academia and practice. The study proposes a framework distinguishing psychological state, behavioral, and trait engagement, and examines how job attributes and leadership influence these facets. Drawing on diverse literature, the authors formulate propositions linking engagement facets to antecedents and outcomes. They find that the term encompasses states, traits, behaviors, antecedents, and outcomes, and recommend survey‑based measurement of the three facets.

Abstract

The meaning of employee engagement is ambiguous among both academic researchers and among practitioners who use it in conversations with clients. We show that the term is used at different times to refer to psychological states, traits, and behaviors as well as their antecedents and outcomes. Drawing on diverse relevant literatures, we offer a series of propositions about (a) psychological state engagement; (b) behavioral engagement; and (c) trait engagement. In addition, we offer propositions regarding the effects of job attributes and leadership as main effects on state and behavioral engagement and as moderators of the relationships among the 3 facets of engagement. We conclude with thoughts about the measurement of the 3 facets of engagement and potential antecedents, especially measurement via employee surveys.