Antecedents and Outcomes Associated with High Levels of Engagement

Abstract

Employee engagement is an emerging concept in the literature which demonstrates organisational benefits, yet little is known about the antecedents of engagement in a unionised environment. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the researched and validated antecedents of, and outcomes of, engagement through a systematic review of the literature that will have the greatest potential to increase the levels of engagement in a unionised environment. The synthesis of the results shows that engagement is considered a mediating variable in which antecedents influence engagement levels and engagement in turn leads to individual and organisational outcomes (Saks and Gruman, Hum Resour Dev Q 25(2): 155–182, 2014). Job resources, individual psychological states, leadership and a positive perception of the organisation have emerged from the synthesis as having a strong impact on the outcomes of engagement (Bailey et al., The meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: A narrative synthesis. Int J Manag Rev 00: 1–23. doi:10.1111/ijmr.12077, 2015).