The Employee Engagement Landscape and HRD

Abstract

The Problem.Employee engagement strategies are widely applied in practice, yet the construct remains underdeveloped in the human resource development (HRD) literature. This underdevelopment in the HRD scholarly community, combined with high levels of interest in the HRD practitioner community, highlights the need for closing the gap in theory, scholarship, and practice. To develop and support possible engagement-related interventions, HRD researchers and practitioners must be at the forefront of the emerging engagement conversation.The Solution.This article provides a definition and framework of employee engagement within the context of HRD, specifically in the areas of theory, scholarship, and practice. In addition, this article provides an overview of articles related to the latest thinking, research, and strategy development for generating employee engagement in practice found within this special issue.The Stakeholders.The intended audience for this article includes HRD scholars, scholar-practitioners, and practitioners interested in the development and use of employee engagement as an organizational performance and workplace culture -building strategy.