Launching the dynamic employee engagement framework: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

Abstract

Purpose The dynamic employee engagement framework visually delineates employee engagement from its antecedents and responds to the debates regarding how employee engagement is positioned within the academic literature.Design/methodology/approach A narrative literature review was conducted.FindingsThe new framework visually demonstrates the impact of contextual changes on employee engagement. Additionally, it positions employee engagement as a psychological state (psychological presence) and as a behaviour.Research limitations/implicationsThe new framework promotes the study of behavioural engagement when the incorporation of context and/or multiple voices is required. Accordingly, studying behavioural engagement may help scholars understand more about the dynamics of employee engagement within and across different settings, reduce the reliance on self-reported studies and help bridge the employee engagement academic and practitioner discourses.Practical implications Human resource management/development practitioners and line managers may use the new structured framework in several ways to help them foster employee engagement.Originality/value The new framework extends five integrated employee engagement models by incorporating the macro and micro external context, and repositioning trust and feedback. In doing so, it more accurately conveys diagrammatically the dynamic nature of employee engagement following significant contextual changes. It also visually separates out the antecedents to employee engagement thus respecting construct boundaries and positions employee engagement as a multi-dimensional construct comprised of psychological state (psychological presence) and behavioural engagement. Building on this, we also argue that double-loop learning is an example of behavioural engagement.