Driving Engagementfor HR Course Project

ILRHR525: Driving Engagement for HR

Cornell University ILR School

Driving Engagementfor HR Course Project

Part One—Conduct a Self-assessment

In this part of the course project, you will further your understanding of engagement and engagement behaviors by completing a self-assessment.

Instructions:

Choose a situation in which you were highly engaged. It may be your current job role and position or a previous one.
Contrast this experience with a situation in which you were neutral or actively disengaged.
Describe the two situations, highlighting how different they felt, as well as the different outcomes associated with the high versus low levels of engagement (for you, your workgroup, and/or the organization).

Complete the grid below: The Experience of Being Engaged
Engagement Indicator / In the spaces below, describe your experience with each indicator shown in the column at left.

What did you feel?
How did you behave?
Which of your actions demonstrated your engagement?

Employees who are engaged lookforward to going to work every day.
Employees who are engaged feel energized from doing something that they personally value.
Employees who are engageddon’t get discouraged whenconfronted by obstacles; they want to try harder.
For employees who are engaged, time seems to pass quickly.
During that period of engagement with your work, how engaged were the people around you? / Describe the behaviors you observed from your colleagues:
How do you know that others were engaged? / Describe the behaviors you observed from your colleagues:
What factors do you think contributed to your engagement in this instance? Try to identify as many relevant factors as you can.
Complete the grid below: The Experience of Being Disengaged (or Neutral)
Disengagement Indicator / In the spaces below, describe your experience with each indicator shown in the column at left.

What did you feel?
How did you behave?
Which of your actions demonstrated your disengagement?

When you are disengaged, you are robotic, apathetic, or detached.
When you are disengaged, you are withdrawn, burned out, or show no effort.
When you are disengaged, you go through the motions of work without giving of yourself.
When you are disengaged, you show a failure to develop close, constructive relationships at work.
When you are disengaged, you show a lack of vigilance for quality; you are satisfied with “good enough.”
When you are disengaged, you hide your true identity, perspective, capacity, and creative thoughts.
How disengaged were the people around you? How do you know? / Describe the behaviors you observed from your colleagues:
What factors do you think contributed to your disengagement in that instance? Try to identify as many relevant factors as you can.

Part Two—Conduct a Needs Assessment

In this exercise, you will reflect on the existing workplace factors that may be at the root of suboptimal levels of engagement.

Instructions:

Think about a work situation in which you yourself have been involved and experienced a low level of engagement (or even disengagement). Alternatively, identify a work group about which you have a lot of knowledge and that you have observed to be suffering from suboptimal levels of engagement.
Using the questions below as a guide, reflect on which issues associated with the three different drivers of engagement—psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety, and psychological availability—may represent potential explanations for the suboptimal levels of engagement.
At the bottom of the worksheet, summarize your hypothesis about the two or three factors you believe might be most important to address in an effort to increase engagement.

I. Briefly describe the work situation you have chosen to examine in this exercise:
II. Psychological Meaningfulness
Questions: / Describe your observations:
How meaningful or rewarding is the work itself? Is there significant variety, challenge, significance, and clarity associated with the tasks that make up the relevant job(s)?
How is the level of fit between employees’ (or your) knowledge, skills, and abilities and the demands of the job?
How strongly do employees (or you) identify with the values and mission associated with the job and with the broader organization?
Do employees (or you) have opportunities to make decisions that impact the way the job is done? What about input into decisions that impact the broader organization?
Do employees (or you) receive the feedback needed to understand how well they are doing on the job and which they can use to continually improve their performance and redirect their energies?
What is the quality of interactions among employees (or between you and your coworkers) like? Do people share information and coordinate well with each other? Do they help each other? Do they engage in meaningful interactions that are personally rewarding?
Do employees (or you) feel appreciated and valued for the work that they do?
III. Psychological Safety
Questions: / Describe your observations:
Do employees (or you) feel safe in expressing their views or ideas?
Are there risks associated with taking initiative by expressing disagreement or trying to make changes/improvements to the way that things are done?
Can employees (or you) rely on being treated fairly?
Does it seem certain employees have privileges (i.e., access to resources and opportunities) that others don’t?
Does the manager play favorites?
Does the manager trust employees (or you), for example to be able to make good decisions or to act in the best interest of the organization?
Do employees (or you) trust the manager? Do they trust management in general?
Do managers’ actions align with their words (i.e., do they do what they say they will do)?
Are some employees (or you) working against negative or erroneous stereotypes?
Is there a norm for people to be open to learning, especially from mistakes and each other?
IV. Psychological Availability
Questions: / Describe your observations:
Are employees (or you) under significant levels of stress resulting from long working hours, intense pressures to deliver (results, deadlines), being understaffed, or difficult working conditions?
Are employees (or you) experiencing strain on the job as a result of feeling like they lack the preparation, skills, or confidence to do what is being asked of them?
Are there any other significant sources of frustration or anxiety that may be causing emotional exhaustion among employees?
Are employees being supported to meet their non-work needs? For example, being given flexibility in when/where they do some of their work, or having a manager and coworkers who are sympathetic to the challenges associated with juggling multiple roles?
Do employees have the opportunity to experience meaningful sources of engagement in their non-work lives?

Part Three—Report Work Group Survey Results

Use the "Survey Your Work Group" tool within a particular work group to find out how engaged the employees say they are. Describe your results below.

Distribute the following survey questions to employees in any given team or work group. You may find it most appropriate to distribute it and collect responses anonymously. Add up the scores received from everyone. Consider that a 3 is a neutral score. In general, the higher the scores, the higher the level of engagement is indicated.

Survey Instructions:

Please answer the following questions on a scale of 1-5, where 1 indicates your strong disagreement and 5 indicates your strong agreement.

Statement / 1
Strongly Disagree / 2 Somewhat Disagree / 3 Neither Agree or Disagree / 4 Somewhat Agree / 5 Strongly Agree
1. Time goes by quickly when I am at work.
2. Performing my job is so absorbing that I forget about everything else.
3. I really put my heart into my job.
4. I don’t even get discouraged when I’m confronted by obstacles; they just make me want to try harder.
5. I look for ways to expand my skills.
6. I anticipate opportunities to take action.
7. I get so involved in what I’m doing that people can’t easily distract me.
8. I trust that I’m being treated fairly by my organization and my managers.
9. I trust my management team.
10. I feel energized from doing something that I personally value.
11. I look forward to going to work every day.
12. I’m so passionate about my work that it doesn’t feel like work.
13. I dedicate a lot of energy to my work, but it doesn’t feel like a burden.
14. I work hard and I perform well, but I am not exhausted by it.
15. I feel like I am investing my hands, my head, and my heart in my work.
Totals:
Complete the grid below
Summary: / Offer your summary:
What were the results of the work group that you chose to survey?
Were you surprised by your survey results?

Part Four—Choose Strategies for Improving Engagement

Management strategies based on the drivers of engagement are outlined below. They all relate to the conditions for engagement and are all within the sphere of influence of individual line managers. Which ones do you think will be most helpful to your efforts in improving engagement in your workplace?

Take note: One reason engagement efforts may be disappointing is that some companies try to transform a lot of cultural dynamics all at once. Professor Nishii recommends that managers will get better results when they start with a few smaller successes, which then provide a basis for expanding. Consider the management strategies listed below. Choose the ones that you think will yield the best results for your needs.

Complete the grid below.
Engagement-Driven Management Strategies / Is This a Good Choice for Us? / Notes:
Managers cantake time to understand their employees, such as by having informal conversations at the beginning of meetings and approaching conversations like they are valuable, not a waste of time. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can provide opportunities for people to interact informally. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can show concern when people are dealing with personal issues or working too hard; they can be human. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can pay close attention to the way that jobs are designed: do employees have meaningful opportunities and means to coordinate and support each other? / Yes ☐
No ☐
Engagement-Driven Management Strategies / Is This a Good Choice for Us? / Notes:
Highly engaged organizations implement highly visible mechanisms for recognizing and rewarding employees who demonstrate strategically focused behavioral engagement. Managers can implement these mechanisms. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can communicate to employees that the organization recognizes them as individuals and values their specific contributions. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can demonstrate they trust employees to put their full energy and commitment to work; without it, people spend energy protecting themselves. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Line managers can influence psychological safety by treating employees fairly, such that employees don’t feel vulnerable and unsupported by their manager and organization. / Yes ☐
No ☐
People care more about whether the process is fair than about the outcome. If they feel that the process is fair, then they can live with the decision. Managers can demonstrate the fairness of decisions being made. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Engagement-Driven Management Strategies / Is This a Good Choice for Us? / Notes:
Managers can build in resources for employees. The negative relationship between job demands (workload, stress-inducing physical environment) and work engagement is weaker when employees have many resources. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Managers can offer resources, such as supervisory support, opportunities to be innovative, appreciation and respect, and skill variety. / Yes ☐
No ☐
Conclusions
Summary: / Offer your conclusions:
Summarize your hypothesis about the two or three factors you believe might be most important to address in an effort to increase engagement.
What are your recommendations for improvements?

To submit this assignment, please refer to the instructions in the course.