Bologna, Daniele A., Carameli, Kelley, Furst-Holloway, Stacie, Howe, Steven, Weiskircher, Kathryn, and Cominsky, Cynthia
Recently, employee engagement has emerged as a topic of great interest to both practitioners and academics, likely due to its association with numerous positive individual and organizational outcomes. While these associations are informative, leaders require specific practices, which they may enact in order to maximize the engagement levels of their employees. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this study investigates specific practices that may foster employee engagement. First, 32 key informant interviews were conducted across the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administrations (VHA) to understand what practices lead to a more engaged workforce. Seven categories of practices emerged, including modeling engagement, information sharing, acquiring resources, promoting psychological safety, employee recognition, building a team orientation, and taking a personal interest in employees. Second, these seven practices were quantitatively tested and validated on a sample of 183 VHA medical facilities. Using multi-source, all seven practices correlated significantly with engagement and its three subfactors (i.e. cognitive, physical, and emotional engagement), with the exception of acquiring resources and employee recognition with emotional engagement. Findings are discussed, along with practical and scientific implications, limitations, and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]