Entec Corporation has been conducting employee engagement surveys for the past 11 years. During that time it became apparent that many clients have had some difficulty understanding the term employee “disengagement”. At the same time, I noticed other organizations that conduct employee engagement surveys like Entec Corporation, have also run into difficulty explaining employee disengagement to their clients. Some firms now use the term “disinterested” instead of disengaged. In conversation with one of our clients we agreed on the term passively disengaged.
Leadership plays an important role in affecting employee engagement and employee performance. Kuoppala et al, found weak evidence linking leadership to performance.
Leadership behaviour has a limited impact on employee well-being in that only a few individual leadership behaviours affect mental and physical energy. There is no evidence that leadership behaviour can directly affect employee depression. Kuoppala et al, indicate a moderate impact of leadership on well-being. But they don’t indicate which leadership behaviours specifically and leadership behaviours have different affects. In addition, they combine exhaustion, anxiety, stress (mental and physical energy) and depression into their definition of well-being. Our research indicates that neither leadership behaviours nor organizational practices correlate with depression.
The most significant factors impacting employee mental and physical energy at work are organizational design and individual job design. Since Kuoppala et al limited their research to leadership they missed the most important factors affecting a part of an employee’s well-being.
The research that Entec Corporation cunducted over a number of years and that is described in our book, Energizing Organizations, indicates that employees will give their manager some “slack” when it comes to performance management, as long as they trust their manager. They will overlook a manager’s failings and weaknesses, as long as the manager keeps promises, is fair, treats everyone equally and treats everyone with respect. This is not to say that performance management is not important. It says that character and ethics trump performance management.
The first step in writing a good survey question is to identify exactly what kind of information you want respondents to provide. Virtually all questions that might be asked in a survey fit into one of 4 categories: open-ended, closed-ended with ordered choices, close ended with unordered choices and partially closed-ended. Each category tends to be better suited for obtaining certain types of information than others. Let’s look at each one closely.
Submitted byEntecCorp on Tue, 2004-10-26 09:14. Employee Engagement
Recently my clients have mentioned that they have read some of the articles and research published by Dr. Linda Duxbury and others on work/life balance and have asked me "how do we operationalize this?" The question arose out of our work with companies in measuring employee engagement and organizational health.
My response to the question was that the first thing employers must realize is that work/life balance is different for everyone. For example, a young married mother with two children is facing different pressures and challenges than a middle aged employee with young adults in high school or university and aging parents. Work/life balance for a young single employee would look completely different again.
Submitted byEntecCorp on Fri, 2004-11-05 13:39. Administration
Universities are complex, ambiguous, paradoxical and at times infuriating places. They also have a nobility of purpose and offer a richness of experience – intellectual, cultural and social – that are found in few organizations. In this environment the university administrator, especially one not from the academic ranks, is constantly struggling with a difficult, dynamic balance. The academic community is a primary source of the very richness we value, but many of its members tend not to embrace "corporate" priorities and perspectives. The administrator is expected to protect the particular interests of the members of this community, and at the same time serve the goals of the institution as a whole. This requires the achievement of a complex equilibrium in the face of unrelenting budget pressures, the uncertainties and upheavals associated with a much more competitive world, and the ever sharpening focus of public accountability. Self-fulfillment also demands a balance in personal life if one is to avoid succumbing to the enormous pressures that arise. Consequently today’s university administrator faces unprecedented personal and organizational challenges.
Submitted byEntecCorp on Mon, 2004-11-15 02:28. Employee Engagement
Stress-Related Illness At Work Can No Longer Be Ignored By Organizations Striving To Be Competitive. Why Does Health Matter?
Workplace stress, anxiety and burnout are becoming more and more pronounced and widespread throughout the workforce. In July 20, 2000 the Economic and Business Roundtable on Mental Health published a study, "The Unheralded Business Crisis in Canada - Depression at Work" [1] that showed that the cost of these and other mental illnesses at work is growing exponentially. Unfortunately there are many other hidden costs that can also be ascribed to this source of unhealth or "dis-ease". Organizations where staff are working under conditions of debilitating stress or along side others who are over-stressed experience:
Submitted byEntecCorp on Mon, 2004-11-15 02:38. Employee Wellness
I read two unrelated articles in the November 11, 2004, issue of the Globe and Mail. The first article was reporting on the most recent study by Professor Linda Duxbury of Carleton University and released by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The study is intended as a discussion paper between work-life conflict and the demands on the public health care system. Dr. Duxbury has done an excellent job of mining the database she and her colleague Chris Higgins from the University of Western Ontario developed from survey results of some 31,500 Canadian employees.
Submitted byEntecCorp on Sun, 2004-11-21 08:27. Employee Engagement
If I Show You The Money, Can I Talk To You About The People? How Local Leadership Affects Your Bottom Line?
Professor Dalton Kehoe, York University and Entec Corporation Associate Walking the Talk on "Human Assets" - NOT!
It is widely proclaimed that we are in a knowledge-based economy where highly-skilled individual employees are vital to organizational success. In fact, many organizations find themselves competing for the top talent and seek to be "employers of choice." As a result, some variation on, "People Are Our Most important Asset." is commonly pronounced. Despite these statements of good intention, the research tells us many companies still see their "valuable human assets" as either instantly expandable or simply expendable.
"The budget is a relic from an earlier age. It is expensive, absorbs far too much time and adds little value", comments Mitch Max of the specialist management consultancy The Performax Group. At a recent SLF research briefing entitled "Slaying the Dragon: Managing Performance Better Without Budgets", Mitch Max shared stimulating research findings from the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, of which The Performax Group is an associate member.
The first step in writing a good survey question is to identify exactly what kind of information you want respondents to provide. Virtually all questions that might be asked in a survey fit into one of 4 categories: open-ended, closed-ended with ordered choices, close ended with unordered choices and partially closed-ended. Each category tends to be better suited for obtaining certain types of information than others. Let’s look at each one closely. 
Recently my clients have mentioned that they have read some of the articles and research published by Dr. Linda Duxbury and others on work/life balance and have asked me "how do we operationalize this?" The question arose out of our work with companies in measuring employee engagement and organizational health.