New Conceptual Model of Employee Engagement in Formal and Informal Organizations of Japanese Companies

Abstract

Like European and U.S. companies, Japanese companies are also receiving human capital disclosure requirements from institutional investors. Employee engagement is an indicator of human capital. The government and Japanese companies consider this important. However, engagement is a relatively new concept that has not yet been defined by researchers. Ac-cording to a survey by a research firm, the employee engagement scores of Japanese companies are very low compared with those of other countries. Therefore, it is unclear whether the concept of engagement fits the corporate culture of Japanese companies and the characteristics of the Japanese people. Using the previously studied concepts of employee engagement and Barnard's organizational theory of formal and informal organizations, we developed a new conceptual model of employee engagement. The characteristics of Jap-anese companies and culture, as shown in other studies, are applied to the new conceptual model and are considered valid.