Meaningful Workplaces: Reframing How and Where We Work

8

Employee Engagement and Commitment

THE “SO WHAT?” QUESTION

 

THERE’S AN OLD JOKE about a CEO who is asked how many people work in his organization. His answer: “About half of them.” According to the major consulting companies (Gallup, Blessing White, Watson Wyatt, and others) that have conducted research on engagement with their clients, about one-third of employees are fully engaged and about 20 percent are fully disengaged, with the rest somewhere between the two extremes. Although these companies, as well as academic researchers, all have slightly differing definitions of engagement, one that seems to cover all the others is that of the Conference Board: “A heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, ...