An exploratory study of employee engagement in …

1 Page 1 of 80 An exploratory study of employee engagement in the financial services industry in Ireland Amie Doran A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for an MA in Human Resource Management. School of Business National College of Ireland September 2013 Page 2 of 80 Submission of Thesis and Dissertation National College of Ireland Research Students Declaration Form (Thesis/Author Declaration Form) Name: _____ Student Number: _____ Degree for which thesis is submitted: _____ Material submitted for award (a) I declare that the work has been composed by myself. (b) I declare that all verbatim extracts contained in the thesis have been distinguished by quotation marks and the sources of information specifically acknowledged.

2 (c) My thesis will be included in electronic format in the College Institutional Repository TRAP (thesis reports and projects) (d) Either *I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award. Or *I declare that the following material contained in the thesis formed part of a submission for the award of _____ (State the award and the awarding body and list the material below) Signature of research student: _____ Date: _____ Page 3 of 80 Abstract: Given the current difficulties experienced within in the financial services industry, the aim of this dissertation is to carry out a study of employee engagement within the financial services industry in Ireland.

3 The researchers aim is to discover the factors that financial institutions associate with employee engagement , the benefits and the implications of it. The researcher adopted an inductive approach and conducted interviews to gather the relevant data. These interviews were conducted within three well-known banks, and one that is globally recognised. The researcher decided to interview two managers from each institution meaning two branches from each financial institution were interviewed. This was to help the researcher get a better insight into engagement from each institution. Due to ethical considerations the names of the participants and the financial institutions will not be named and will be referred to as Company A, B, C, D, and each participant was known as participant 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

4 In consideration of the sample, the findings convey that the concept of employee engagement was clearly understood. It also outlined what factors financial institutions associate with employee engagement , the benefits they obtained from having employees engaged and the implications faced with employee engaged. The research begins with a brief introduction then discusses the literature associated with the area of study . This is followed by the researcher discussing the methodological approach which was adopted, a discussion of the findings, and the conclusion which includes the researcher s key findings, the limitations of the study and future research possibilities.

5 Page 4 of 80 Acknowledgements: I would like to express my appreciation to all those who all those who helped in the fulfilment of this research. In particular I would like to thank my supervisor Jonathan Brittain for all his support and guidance he provided throughout the year I am also extremely grateful to all those who participated and made themselves available to be part of this research. And finally I would like to thank all my family and friends, for their support and advice throughout this year. I am truly grateful. Page 5 of 80 Table of Contents Abstract: .. 3 Acknowledgements: .. 4 Introduction: .. 8 Research Title: .. 9 Research aim: .. 9 Research Objectives.

6 9 Structure of the Dissertation: .. 10 Literature Review: Chapter 2: .. 11 Defining employee engagement : .. 11 Figure : Levels of engagement outlined by the Leadership Council 2004 .. 13 Benefits of employee engagement : .. 13 Factors of employee engagement : .. 16 Rewards: .. 16 (Figure Adopted from Fomburn, et al, 1984) .. 17 employee involvement and Effective Communication: .. 19 Vision and Role Clarity: .. 22 Training and development: .. 23 Work-life balance: .. 25 Figure Factors that influence employee engagement .. 27 How is employee engagement measured? .. 27 How employee engagement links with Motivation: .. 30 Figure Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs 1943 .. 31 Chapter Three Methodology: .. 34 Introduction.

7 34 Figure : The Research Onion .. 35 Research Philosophies: .. 35 Positivism:.. 36 Realism: .. 36 Interpretivism: .. 36 Research approach: .. 37 Page 6 of 80 Research strategy: .. 38 Research choices: .. 39 Time Horizons: .. 40 Data Collection: .. 40 Ethical considerations: .. 42 Harm to participants: .. 42 Informed consent: .. 43 Invasion of privacy: .. 43 Deception: .. 43 Methodological Limitations: .. 44 Conclusion: .. 45 Chapter Four Findings: .. 46 Research Objective 1: To identify how financial institutions define employee engagement .. 47 Table : Outlining recurring themes for defining employee engagement .. 48 Figure : The frequency percentage of reoccurring themes in the characteristics of an engaged employee .

8 50 Research Objective 2: To outline what factors financial institutions associate with employee engagement : .. 50 Table : Recurring Themes of the factors financial institutions associate with employee engagement .. 51 Figure Percentage frequencies of reoccurring factors associated with and had the most impact on employee engagement .. 53 Research Objective 3: To discover what are the benefits of having high levels of engagement within this industry? .. 53 Table : Reoccurring themes in relation to the benefits of employee engagement .. 54 Figure Percentage frequencies of reoccurring benefits associated with employee engagement .. 55 Research Objective 4: What do financial institutions see as the challenges of employee engagement ?

9 56 Table : Recurring themes in relation to what financial institutions see as the challenges of employee engagement ? .. 56 Figure Percentage frequencies of what financial institutions see as the challenges faced by employee engagement .. 58 Chapter Five Discussion of Findings: .. 59 Research Objective 1: To identify how financial institutions define employee engagement .. 59 Page 7 of 80 Research Objective 2: To outline what factors financial institutions associate with employee engagement : .. 62 Research Objective 3: To discover what are the benefits of having high levels of engagement within this industry? .. 66 Research Objective 4: What do financial institutions see as the challenges of employee engagement ?

10 67 Chapter Six Conclusion: .. 69 Key Findings: .. 69 Limitations: .. 71 Future research: .. 71 Reference List: .. 73 Page 8 of 80 Introduction: employee engagement has become an area of interest over the last number of years; it has become a widely used and popular term (Robinson, et al, 2004). This can be seen to be down to the economic climate, as the current business environment has become unstable and is characterized by change and renewal (Mendes & Stander, 2011). In order for companies to maintain their competitive advantage, organisations are placing great emphasis on the management of human capital (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008). Sundaray, (2011), explain that if an organisation can attract, retain, engage and develop their human resources they can gain competitive advantage.