Engagement Theory
1) Engagement in Maslow:
In Maslow’s philosophy, there are 5 needs: Self-Actualization: Realizing one’s potential to the fullest. Importance: A sense of achievement, independence, and respect for oneself. Friendship, love, affection, and intimacy all define belonging. Safety is a combination of stability, security, legality, and protection from the elements. Survival: The need for food, drink, shelter, and sleep.
Employee engagement at work can also be analysed using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: An employee who is highly engaged is willing to stick around and encourage their co-workers. Someone who is engaged is more likely to succeed since they believe they play a crucial and important part in the company. Some are almost engaged and are aware that they are a part of a larger enterprise, but they might leave if given a better opportunity. Not engaged employees are seeking new employment prospects, dissatisfied with management, and perhaps also with working conditions. Disengaged individuals are simply working for their pay, are unhappy at work, and are soon to depart the organisation.
Similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy, an employee must have their basic requirements, such as their income and working conditions, covered before moving on to higher-level wants, like feeling like a vital part of the organisation. Increased employee engagement also results in higher employee retention and lower staff churn, which lowers the cost of hiring new employees and providing them with training. The employee engagement hierarchy of needs can be met by increasing the number of employees through reward and recognition programmes.
2) Engagement in McGregor:
Douglas McGregor, a management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s and 1960s, was the one who first put up the theory that a manager’s attitude affects employee motivation. McGregor offered two hypotheses in The Human Side of Enterprise, published in 1960, that explain how managers should view and deal with employee motivation. These contrasting motivational strategies were referred to by him as Theory X and Theory Y management. Each presupposes that the manager’s job is to allocate resources, including people, in a way that is most advantageous to the business. Beyond this similarity, though, their mindsets and presumptions differ greatly.
McGregor asserts that Theory X management makes the following assumption: Since most people find labour to be intrinsically unpleasant, they will make every effort to avoid it. Most people like to be led and lack ambition and desire for responsibility. Most people struggle to think creatively while trying to solve organisational difficulties. Only at the physiological and secure stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs does motivation take place. The majority of people are egocentric. They must therefore be tightly managed and frequently compelled to accomplish organisational goals. Most people dislike change. Most people are stupid and easily duped.
In essence, Theory X presupposes that money is the main driver of employee motivation, with security coming in strongly second. According to Theory X, there are two ways to approach achieving goals: hard or soft. In order to motivate people, the hard approach depends on intimidation, subliminal threats, micromanagement, and stringent controls—basically, a command-and-control environment. However, the soft approach is to be tolerant and look for harmony in the hopes that, in exchange, staff members will comply when requested. Both of these extremes are undesirable, though. The aggressive approach produces animosity, deliberately low output, and high union demands. The soft approach causes people to become more eager to accept lower labour production in exchange for higher rewards. It could appear that a middle ground would be the best strategy for human resource management. Both strategies, according to McGregor, are inappropriate since Theory X’s fundamental tenets are false.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs serves as the foundation for McGregor’s claim that a need that has been met no longer motivates. The corporation satisfies lower-level wants of employees via monetary rewards and benefits. When those requirements are met, the incentive vanishes. Because Theory X management denies that these requirements are pertinent in the workplace, it makes it more difficult to satisfy higher-level demands. Therefore, the only way employees may try to meet higher-level needs at work is to ask for more money, therefore it is only natural that they concentrate on monetary rewards. Although having money may not be the best path to contentment, it might be the only one that is open to you. People will utilise their jobs to meet their basic requirements and use their free time to try to meet their higher wants. However, employees can be most productive when their work goals align with their higher-level needs.
According to McGregor, a command-and-control atmosphere is ineffective because it relies on lower needs for motivation, which are no longer motivating in contemporary society because they are largely supplied. Employees would be expected to detest their jobs in this circumstance, avoid taking on responsibility, show no interest in company goals, reject change, etc., which would result in a self-fulfilling prophesy. McGregor believed that Theory Y management was more likely to produce a consistent flow of motivation.
For the majority of humans, the higher-level needs of esteem and self-actualization never fully materialise. As a result, the best way to inspire people is through these higher-level requirements. The following assumptions are made by Theory Y management in stark contrast to Theory X: If the circumstances are right, work can be as natural as play. If they are dedicated to them, people will use their own initiative and creativity to accomplish their personal and professional goals. If rewards are in place that meet higher demands like self-fulfillment, people will be dedicated to their quality and productivity goals. Creativity permeates all aspects of businesses. Because creativity and ingenuity are prevalent in the public, the majority of people are capable of handling responsibility. In these circumstances, people will look for responsibility.
Under these presumptions, there is a chance to use the employee’s own need for satisfaction as a motivation in order to match personal aspirations with organisational aims. That Theory Y management does not entail a soft approach was emphasised by McGregor. According to McGregor, some individuals may not have attained the level of maturity posited by Theory Y and may initially require stricter controls that can be loosened as the employee matures.
If Theory Y is accurate, a business can use the subsequent scientific management concepts to raise employee motivation: Decentralization and delegation: If businesses lower the number of levels of management and decentralise control, managers will have more direct reports and will need to assign some authority and decision-making to them. Job growth: An employee’s employment might be made more varied and offer more opportunity to fulfil their ego. Management with participation will entail e employee participation in decision-making which encourages creativity and gives workers a sense of agency over their workplace. Performance evaluations: Engagement and dedication are raised when the employee sets goals and takes part in the self-evaluation process. If done appropriately, such a setting can boost and sustain motivation as workers strive to meet their higher-level personal goals at work.
3) Kahn’s Engagement Theory:
One subject that many business leaders discuss is employee engagement. In order to increase motivation, passion, and buy-in to their overall goals, objectives, and strategy, organisations want to get employee engagement right. The general view is that a good employee engagement programme will boost work performance and the bottom line of the organisation, according to research conducted during the 1990s. The concepts and insights about employment engagement that exist now are the result of years of labour. William Kahn, a psychologist who was interested in studying the components involved in people engagement, was one of the first scholars to define the notion of employee engagement.
Following his research, Kahn wrote a paper titled Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement (Academy of Management Journal, December 1990, Vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 692–724) to test the idea that people not only bring different levels of themselves to their work—physically, cognitively, and emotionally—but that those levels also have an impact on their experiences at work and, consequently, their performance.
Kahn defined the physical, cognitive, and emotional characteristics as the three main components of employee engagement in his study. The following defines them: Physical involvement refers to how much effort individuals put forth when performing their duties, both physically and mentally. Kahn gave examples of workers who described their work as “flying around” and who had high levels of personal engagement at the time. He made the connection between the capacity to exert both physical and mental energy at work and elevated sentiments of confidence.
Cognitive engagement – To be engaged at this level, employees must be aware of the goals and strategies of their company as well as the degree of performance required to make the greatest potential contribution to those goals. Kahn also drew attention to the significance that individuals ascribed to their profession, postulating that increased knowledge promoted greater creativity and self-assured judgement.
Emotional engagement is built on the emotional connection workers have with their employer. In order to foster a positive relationship, an organisation must figure out how to help workers feel like they belong at work, which will inspire them to believe in and support the vision and values of the business. Positive interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, and management styles are a few examples of techniques that Kahn listed as helping people feel safe and trustworthy.
By connecting three psychological factors—feeling safe, having significance, and having the necessary energy and resources—to the three dimensions of engagement, Khan made a significant contribution to the field (physical, cognitive and emotional). In summary, he thought that involving people in all three aspects would give them a sense of security in their jobs, a sense that the efforts they were making were worthwhile, and a sense that their physical and mental efforts would be supported.
4) Engagement Theory in Education:
A two-decade-old idea in education technology, the engagement theory of learning, is still tremendously relevant today. Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman created it and released it in 1999. By interacting with people and doing valuable tasks, students can be meaningfully engaged in learning activities, according to the engagement theory’s central tenet. It serves as a framework for technologically enhanced teaching and learning. Technology, according to Kearsley and Schneiderman, can be utilised to encourage interaction in ways that would otherwise be challenging. This paradigm encourages project-based learning, collaborative labor, and an authentic orientation.
You must understand the underlying assumptions of any theory in order to comprehend it more fully, and engagement theory is no exception. Relate: Gaining knowledge through teamwork. Create: Choosing a project-based learning strategy. Donate knowledge with a distinct external focus. By putting pupils in meaningful settings, these ideas aim to develop their cognitive abilities in problem-solving, decision-making, and evaluating. The purpose of each of these three guiding principles is to foster the learner’s own intrinsic motivation.
Engaged Learning by making pupils relate to one another involves getting them to exchange ideas with their classmates and relate to both what they provide and receive. Students working together actively and purposefully can help with this. Interactive tutorials may be a key component of this strategy. Teachers should get students involved in group projects that emphasise communication, management planning, and social skills. Students should hear, observe, and relate to how their classmates approach the subject at hand and what they learn from it in a perfect world. Being able to defend ideas is another crucial component of learning through relation. Multiple ideas can become prevalent in a classroom where students are engaged in active conversation. An inner urge to study will be sparked in their thoughts when given the chance to comprehend these ideas, probe what they don’t grasp, and support their positions.
Approaching the learning process in a project-based manner will help students’ creativity. It necessitates that teachers provide unique and functional activities. A student can gain a sense of ownership over their learning when they approach the learning process through an original project that requires them to define concepts in their own words, organise, and create something that aids in communicating what they have learned. A learner becomes intrinsically motivated when they feel accountable for their education.
Engaged Students who are compelled to donate to charity must have an authentic or external focus. That entails taking part in endeavours that benefit a third party. The teacher can assist their students in undertaking relevant initiatives that are concerned with the requirements of a third party who serves as the customer. These might be university clubs, local businesses, museums, or governmental organisations. These kinds of activities and projects have a realistic feel to them since they are concerned with the needs of others rather than their own. They would have to consider other people’s perspectives in order to do this. This method encourages students to learn more effectively and equips them to enter the workforce in a certain field.
In order to communicate, challenge, and defend ideas, students must work together with their classmates and teachers while using technology to foster connections. Only a wide range of in-class activities and those that demand a significant amount of time and effort outside of the classroom may accomplish this. Communication systems are a crucial example of how technology is being used in this situation. Students can share their thoughts through messages or presentation tools with the aid of communication systems like email, chat rooms, or video conferencing tools.
Another essential necessity is the availability of means of expressing ideas through tangible examples. In order to do this, design and 3D printing are used. Now that 3D printers are widely available for purchase or 3D printing shops are progressively becoming a familiar sight in cities, technology has advanced to this point. As audio-visual and tactile signals aid in the efficient communication and interpretation of concepts, 3D printing lets students build models and figures to better explain their thoughts.
Kids must be involved in creative projects that have a purpose if technology is to be used to assist students in creating. Anything could be referred to as creation. It might be developing a novel idea. What better approach is there to experiment with fresh concepts than to employ technology? New concepts can be conceived, developed, tested, and presented using technology. Students could learn from people and places they are physically and temporally isolated from if they were connected via the internet. Designing and 3D printing are important in this sector as well. Using 3D printing and designing software like SelfCAD, physical tools that might not have been available otherwise could be efficiently developed and made.
5) Managing Researchers:
The first step in answering the question of “how to form a research team” is to select the team’s members. Building a research team and putting one in place can help you accomplish the objectives set by your lab or institute. This is one of your main duties as an effective team leader or manager. Finding individuals who can not only successfully complete tasks that have been given to them but also easily fit into your institute’s culture is the first step in achieving this. When assigning duties to members of a diverse research team that includes technicians, interns, graduate students, and postdocs, it is crucial to take into account their individual qualifications and time constraints. Once you have assessed the abilities of your co-workers, it will be easier to respond to the topic of how to manage a research team.
Managing research teams involves more than simple management. Having a deep awareness of the fundamental traits of each member of the research team is essential for effective team management. You can better understand team members and assist them in achieving their best performance by developing one-on-one connections with them. Others function better when they can go at their own pace, while some people perform well under pressure and under tight deadlines.
In the research team, some people thrive in a competitive climate while others prefer a collaborative one. Your research team’s more extroverted members may be better at handling assignments involving other people, whereas introverted individuals thrive when left alone. Delegating tasks more effectively and creating a better research team structure with the aid of each team member’s core competencies will improve performance and research team collaboration. Setting your team’s development as a top priority is the finest advice for managing a research team. A successful manager thrives most when the research team’s capacity is built through mentoring.
Taking the effort to learn about each team member’s unique long-term objectives and occasionally offering them helpful direction can help build trust. As a result, each member’s fundamental strengths are enhanced, which also results in a robust research team structure. A research team manager must also create a work environment that supports ethical research procedures and promotes an upright mindset.
The research team’s performance may suffer directly from the manager’s lack of availability. If your team is heterogeneous in character, you must first evaluate how to manage a research team because the younger and less experienced team members will need your ongoing direction and support. It’s important to be receptive to suggestions on how to support the team more effectively. This will contribute to the team’s growing confidence and trust in you. Hosting frequent lab meetings, even if they are brief, to talk about pressing topics can help to keep the lines of communication open. Promoting open communication can also be a very efficient way to spot conflict among team members and deal with it appropriately.
Recognize the time, effort, and dedication put in by each member of the research team, regardless of the results of their work. Each unsuccessful experiment can be used to improve one’s learning curve in academia, and allowing research team members to learn from their errors will assist to increase their self-confidence. Since the system is set up to reward individual performances more than collaborative research teamwork, academicians invariably develop a competitive mindset. Both undertakings involving many people and individual well-being may suffer as a result of this. The enhanced wellbeing of your research team will be aided by encouraging a collaborative mindset, planning team-building exercises, and establishing a secure and inclusive workplace for researchers from all backgrounds and with various opinions.
