In this thought piece, Katie Truss explores the differences in the way that academics and practitioners conceptualise and approach engagement – differences that do not seem to be lessening over time. She poses seven key areas that are ripe for future engagement research, starting with the fundamental question, ‘what is engagement?’. Employee engagement is a fascinating area for both quantitative and qualitative research, and it will be interesting to see if there will be greater convergence between academics and practitioners in the future.
Katie Truss is Professor of Management and Director of Knowledge Exchange in the Department of Business and Management at Sussex University. Before her recent appointment at Sussex, Katie was Professor of HRM and Head of the People, Management and Organisation Group at Kent Business School. She is lead editor of ‘Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice’, published by Routledge in October 2013, which won the Employee Engagement Network ‘Employee Engagement Book of the Year 2013’, and has written extensively about employee engagement and strategic human resource management in outlets such as the Harvard Business Review and Human Resource Management. She is Principal Investigator of the NIHR-funded project ‘Employee Engagement: An Evidence Synthesis’, collaborating with colleagues at the IES, Tilburg and Warwick Universities.
Read the full thought piece here.
Katie’s thought piece is from a series of thought pieces launched by the Engage for Success Special Interest Group – Future of Employee Engagement, the full series of thought pieces can be found here.
