07. Barriers to Engagement
Many organizations strive to make the most out of its customers and employees. Gallup (2006) ,in his studies ,determined barriers to engagement across many industries in many countries and found more than 200 barriers. After evaluating the root causes of each, he traced five primary causes regardless of the industry, function or geography of the company. (Gallup,2006,p.274).Further , Rothwel (2021) clearly explained under mentioned factors with related to barriers to engagement(BPI).
1. Lack of Clarity
It is evident that the engaged employees are satisfied with their jobs and what they do and motivated to perform better roles in the organization by being loyal to the job. Finally they are proud about their role in the work place. Further, if the employees are not certain about their job role, it will be a great barrier towards achieving stated goals of the organization as employees are unable to collaborate towards a common goal.
2. Cynicism.
This is another barrier because both management and employees are doubtful of engagement. Employees and managers are working on their own agendas and not pal with the organizational objectives and goals. These type of situations always hinder the positive employee engagement.
3. Bureaucracy
When an organization is having a bureaucratic system it may cause barrier to employee engagement. These type of systems always adhere rules and regulations and it will not adjust according to the situation. This will discourage and create ambiguity among the employees because of the system which always concerns about rules and regulations and not about employee participation. That may hurt employee commitment towards the organization.
4. Lack of work life balance
There are some organizations and management who think only about achieving organizational goals and objectives. They are not concerning about the employee’s personal life comfort and career. When they are only perseverating to achieve organizational goals and objectives without considering employees personal life comforts, it will create negative impact on employee commitment towards organization. Therefore balancing work life and career is very important factor.
5. Poor Management Decisions
Managerial decisions are the most important factors to achieve organizational goals. Long term plans, short term plans , productivity, cost of production , efficiency and turn over are the factors which depend on managerial decisions. Poor managerial decisions will lead to high turnover, high cost of production, less profitability and toxic culture which is negatively effect on employee engagement. (Abdullahi et al., 2020).
Video 01 : Barriers to employee engagement
Source : Youtube
Reference List
- Abdullahi, M.S., Raman, K. and Solarin, S.A., 2020. Talent management practices on employee performance among academic staff of Malaysian private universities: employee engagement as a mediator. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education.
- Best of the Gallup Management Journal 2001-2007,(2007), Gallup Press, New York.(Online)Available at https://books.google.lk/books?id=8dtDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA274&dq=barriers+to+employee+engagement,Accessed on 30th August 2021.
- Rothwel, W,(2021), Best Practice Institute available at https://blog.bestpracticeinstitute.org//5-barriers-to-employee-engagement/ , Accessed on 30th August 2021.
- (13) 5 Common Barriers to Employee Engagement - YouTube Available at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zHfSji9CE0, Accessed on 31st August 2021.
I agreed with you. Similarly, Robertson-smith and Markwick (2009) point out engagement barriers as Job insecurity, Unfairness, Highly stressfulness, lack of management behaviour with trust and Working for long periods. Those critical factors affect employee commitment.
ReplyDeleteYes Amila. Gallup 2006 found that there are many barriers to employee engagement. But organization has to make strategies to overcome them and lead employees towards its goals with higher level of engagement.
DeleteIt is highly considered by the organization about employee engagement factors and barrier identification(Joachim, 2020). Further he said, employee engagement dimensions have to be reviewed, analyzed and discussed thoroughly to improve engagement by removing barriers. Employee behavior also a main considerable factor of engagement which can be a barrier with bad behavior(Frankosky and Zbihlejova ,2016).
ReplyDeleteYes Thushari. The nature of work carried out by individuals and how they feel about their work is governed by the employment relationship and the psychological contract (Armstrong, 2009, p252). Organization has to overcome barriers and try more to engage employees towards their roles. When employees were highly recognized they will overcome barriers easily.
DeleteYes. Lack of engagement result in excess costs, under-perform critical tasks, and create widespread customer dissatisfaction in organizations all over the world Rampersad (2008).
ReplyDeleteThat's true. To avoid lack of engagement it is necessary to give time and recognition on employees. When they feel like they were being cared , employees will overcome barriers and perform well towards organizational goals.
DeleteAgreed. What the few studies confirm are the differences among employees to which employers must be mindful. While these classification, by themselves, are not fixed or stable, they offer a reminder to corporations who erroneously adopt a top-down approach in implementing CSR programs, thus potentially neglecting the needs, interests, and/or attitudes of employees (Bhattacharya, Sen, & Korschun, 2008).
ReplyDeleteYes Khalid, Top down approach will be beneficial in many scenarios. But with that too certain barriers may occur. To overcome all its required to care for employees. through that they may engage more towards their jobs.
DeleteAnd also engagement and leadership are closely related. It is leaders’ duty to nurture employees into their duties, encourage and motivate teams into great performance. But often the control and power that comes with leadership can turn the role sour. This often happens, when leaders start to treat employees disrespectfully (Bounti, 2019)
ReplyDeleteYes. Leadership plays a better role when engaging people towards their job roles. It is essential to make a positive background to engage employees more towards the organization.
DeleteYes Nimna, Lack of engagement result in excess costs, under-perform critical tasks, and create widespread customer dissatisfaction in organizations all over the world ampersand (2008). Organization has to identify the barriers and try to minimize all by developing efficient workforce.
ReplyDeleteTotally agreed with you. According to Hearn (2017), a toxic work environment is one of the other barriers to low employee engagement. Some employees leave the job due to toxic leader was my personal experience as a government employee.
ReplyDeleteTotally agreed with you. Employees leave the organization not because of the job role but because of the poor quality leader. 'Workload pressure along with poor management and poor communication were key barriers to engagement.' With bureaucracy and lack of time to achieve workload being the biggest de‐motivators, and workload being one of the biggest causes of stress (Sinclair et al., 2008).' In public organizations toxic culture remains mainly because of the bad thinking pattern of some leaders and bad attitudes of some employees.
DeleteAgreed with you. Right listening strategy inside the organization can identify the major barriers of the organization. HRM should ask right questions & develop right listening strategies( Gena, 2020).
ReplyDeleteYes Samuddhi. If employers have good and caring listeners who place trust on employees, at the end of the day they will engage more towards the organization. White (2008) found that a lack of trust may be a precursor to disengagement in organizations, particularly a lack of trust in senior leadership.
DeleteAgreed with your view, in addition to this Certain barriers may lead to low engagement at work, which, in turn, brings about complications for employees and challenges for leaders (Gatenby et al., 2009;Lockwood, 2007). Moreover, a decline in employee engagement levels can have an effect on productivity, customer service and performance
ReplyDeleteAgreed. The above mentioned barriers along with toxic culture make employees disengaged to their job roles. Finally disengagement or unsatisfied employees bring organization productivity, efficiency and effectiveness to a lower level by which organization has to make an extra effort by spending more to achieve its goals.
Deletewant to engage your remote workers to get in touch with us today; we’d love to help. We bring you some effective Online employee engagement activities to engage your work from home teams.
ReplyDelete