New Programme

Postgraduate Certificate in Employee Engagement

 

PG Certificate in Employee Engagement

Why not find out about the University of Kent's Postgraduate Certificate in Employee Engagement?

To find out more, click here

An ESRC-Funded Seminar Series 2011-2012

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Employee engagement, Organisational Performance and Individual Wellbeing:
Exploring the Evidence, Developing the Theory

 

The Seminar Series


The series comprises four one-day seminars.

ESRC Seminar Series
Employee engagement, Organisational Performance and Individual Wellbeing: Exploring the Evidence, Developing Theory
1. Defining and measuring employee engagement: old wine in new bottles?

8th February 2011 at Kent Business School, Medway
Discussant: Professor Katie Truss

This event will focus on exploring how engagement differs from other, related constructs such as involvement or commitment in order to identify what is distinctive about engagement and set the agenda for the development of future studies. A particular focus will be on critiquing the unitarist underpinnings of engagement, and exploring the light that critical management approaches can shed on the engagement construct.

To view the seminar videos, click on the relevant links below:

Part 1: What is Engagement?
  • Keynote address: Work engagement: a Unique Construct?
    Professor Wilmar B. Schaufeli
    Video presentation
  • Keynote address: Fad, fashion or significant innovation: a sceptical look at enmployee engagement
    Professor David Guest, King's College, University of London
    Video Presentation
  • Round Table discussion: What is special about employee engagement?
    Video Presentation

Part 2: Practitioner and Policymaker Perspectives

Part 3: Operationalising and researching employee engagement
  • Employee engagement in multinational companies operating in Europe, India and China: a comparison of antecdents and definitions
    Dr Clare Kelliher, Cranfield School of Management
    Video presentation
  • The concept of employee engagement and its relevance to organisations
    Dr Emma Soane, London School of Economics
    Video presentation
  • Round Table Discussion: What's the use of employee engagement
    Video presentation

2. Employee engagement and the individual: the psychology and experience of engaging

6th June 2011, LSE
Discussant: Dr Emma Soane


Hosted at LSE, the second seminar focuses on the psychological process of employee engagement and seeks to explore what engagement means to the individual, particularly in light of studies showing an association between engagement and individual wellbeing. We will also explore the theoretical underpinnings of the engagement process, for instance, social exchange theory, to develop a shared awareness of how, why and under what circumstances individuals might be engaged or disengaged with their work.

To view the seminar flyer/agenda, click here

To view the seminar presentations, click on the relevant links below:

Part 1: The Relevance of Engagement to Organisations

Part 2: Practitioner and Policymaker Perspectives

Part 3: Researching Employee Engagement: Implications for Organisations

3. Workplace employee engagement strategies and leadership interventions: do they make a difference?

24th October 2011, Cardiff University
Discussant: Professor Rick Delbridge

Venue: Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University

Hosted at Cardiff University, the focus of this third seminar is on organisational strategies and interventions to manage engagement, with a particular focus on leadership. Various studies have suggested that leadership style, experiences of organisational HR practices, and employee voice can all impact on engagement . Here, we will explore the underlying processes by which this can occur, and make links with established theoretical perspectives.

Click here to download the seminar agenda »

Seminar schedule

Challenges in Leading and Delivering Employee Engagement
Professor Rick Delbridge
Cardiff Business School

    Biography


    Rick Delbridge is Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Organizational Analysis at Cardiff Business School.

    His research interests include employment relations and workplace relationships.

    He is associate editor of Academy of Management Review, an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Senior Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research.


Is employee engagement a necessary but insufficient response to challenges in the UK workplace in the 21st Century?
Veronica Hope-Hailey
Cass Business School
Forging an Employment Value Proposition: tensions and opportunities
Professor Helen Francis
Napier University

    Biography


    Helen Francis is Director of the People Management and Organisational Development Division within the Edinburgh Institute (EI) at Edinburgh Napier University. Since her early practitioner experience in personnel management, she has developed a strong profile in the area of HR transformation, organisational change, learning and critical discourse analysis, and has published extensively in these areas.

    Helen has and played key roles in commercial developments within the University including the creation of the Edinburgh HR Academy, and the more recent establishment of the People and Organisation Development Division of the EI. She spearheaded an approach to OD and HR consultancy that effectively blends consultancy and academic skill-sets and knowledge, and which underpins current projects within her Division. This includes leading the development of a forthcoming CIPD-commissioned textbook on organisational effectiveness with Dr Linda Holbeche and Dr Martin Reddington. Her most recent research/consultancy work centres round the application of a new approach to the study and design of employment value propositions developed with Martin, and which is being applied across public and private sector organisations.


Dr Martin Reddington
Martin Reddington Associates

    Biography


    Martin Reddington runs his own consultancy and is an Associate of the Edinburgh Institute, Edinburgh Napier University.

    Formerly Global Programme Director, HR Transformation, at Cable & Wireless, Martin now blends academic research with consultancy. He is a member of the CIPD’s national advisory group on technology and HR, and an expert adviser on HR transformation to the Public Sector People Managers’ Association (PPMA). In 2009, he co-authored a CIPD Research Report which examines the impact of Web 2.0 in organisations and offers guidance to the HR profession on how best to utilise these new technologies.

    Martin’s co-authored book, HR Transformation: creating value through people (2nd edition), was published in 2010 and he is now co-editing a forthcoming work, commissioned by the CIPD, which re-imagines the role of HR and OD in support of organisational effectiveness (scheduled to be published in late 2011/early 2012).


Developing and sustaining employee engagement for better business performance - key findings from the Acas Innovative Workplace project
Lynette Harris
Nottingham Trent University

    Biography


    Lynette Harris is Professor of HR and Professional Practice at Nottingham Business School.

    Prior to joining the University, she was a Personnel Director and she has experience of working in employment relations in both the public and private sector.

    Lynette is an active researcher and the author of texts and articles in both the academic and practitioner literature on contemporary human resourcing issues. In recent years she has conducted research into talent management, dispute resolution, employment policies and older workers the evaluation of the Acas innovative workplace project resulted in the report by Harris, Tuckman, Watling, and Downes, (2011) ‘Unlocking Engagement: A Review of the ‘Innovative Workplaces’ Initiative published in the Acas Research Series.

    Lynette’s particular interest lies in exploring issues of fairness and organisational justice in the employment relationship and this is reflected in her various dispute resolution roles.


Derek Watling,
Nottingham Trent University

    Biography


    Derek Watling is a Principal Lecturer in HRM and the Programme Leader for the MSc in Human Resource Management (Full-time) at Nottingham Business School.

    His teaching contribution is in the postgraduate field in the areas of employee relations, employment law and management development.

    Derek has extensive expertise in the development, design and delivery of both Executive and Young Professional Development interventions for a diverse range of blue-chip organization in the private, public and third sectors.

    He is a member of the Nottingham Trent University Evaluation Team commissioned to evaluate the Acas led, emda funded, ‘Innovative Workplaces Project’ which took place in the East Midlands.


Alan Tuckman,
Nottingham Trent University

    Biography


    Dr Alan Tuckman is Senior Lecturer and has research widely across the Sociology of Work, Industry and Employment Relations.

    He has published work in critical management, with recent work around employee representation and industrial conflict as well as a study of migrant workers in the East Midlands for Acas.


Bernadette Downes,
Nottingham Trent University

    Biography


    Bernadette Downes is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Resource Management.

    She teaches on a range of undergraduate and post-graduate and corporate programmes, including Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management, and CIPD accredited programmes.

    She is particularly interested in Learning and Development and Selection and Assessment and is a qualified and practising Business coach in a range of organisations.

    She has recently undertaken research in Performance Measurement and Management Research in the NHS, an evaluation of the Acas ‘Innovative Workplaces Project ‘ and is currently researching dysfunctional leadership behaviours raised in coaching.

Evidence on Leading and Delivering Employee Engagement
Simon Seaton,
Halliburton

    Biography


    Simon Seaton is Halliburton’s Senior Director of Deepwater Solutions based in Houston, Texas.

    Prior to his current role, Mr. Seaton served as country vice president for the United Kingdom based in Aberdeen. Since joining Halliburton in 1990 as a drilling fluids engineer working in the North Sea, he has held technical, business development and management positions in Aberdeen and Houston, as well as in Port Harcourt and Lagos, Nigeria.

    Mr. Seaton graduated from the University of Wales in Cardiff with a degree in chemistry. He is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and, over the course of his career, has authored more than 18 technical papers and trade journal articles on diverse subjects such as drilling fluid technology, environmental issues and knowledge management.

    He is also a 2006 graduate of Halliburton’s President’s Leadership Excellence Program, Halliburton’s yearlong leadership development event in which a select group of high-potential senior managers, directors and first-time executives participate each year.


    Sarah Jenkins,
    Cardiff Business School

    Rick Delbridge
    Cardiff Business School

To register for this event, please complete the following form click here (or click here for a WORD format of the registration form)
For further information, please contact Professor Rick Delbridge
4. Employee engagement: outcomes and impact

17th April 2012, Kent Business School, Medway
Discussant: Professor Katie Truss

    Biography


    Katie Truss is Head of Kent Business School at Medway and Director of Studies of the Postgraduate Certificate in Employee Engagement at the University of Kent. Previously, she was Head of Department, Leadership, HRM and Organisation and founder and Director of the Centre for Research in Employment, Skills and Society at Kingston University. She has directed several research projects focusing on employee engagement, and has co-authored three reports on engagement published by the CIPD. Katie’s research has been funded by the ESRC, industry, and the CIPD, and she has published over 180 articles, books, papers and reports on engagement, strategic HRM, change management, and gender and employment and she has raised over £800,000 in research funding. Her latest book, ‘Strategic HRM’ was published by Oxford University Press in January 2012. Katie is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the RSA and an Academic Fellow of the CIPD. She has been a member of panels and advisory groups for organisations such as the ESRC, UKCES and UKWON, a member of the judging panel for the Institute of Customer Service Employee Engagement Strategy award, and has twice been a member of the Expert Group on engagement convened to support the work of the MacLeod Review. She has worked with numerous organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and Europe.


The final seminar in the ESRC seminar series: Employee Engagement, Organisational Performance and Individual Wellbeing: Exploring the Evidence, Developing the Theory, will take place at the University of Kent's Medway campus on 17th April 2012.


To download the Seminar Agenda, please click here


We will be linking in with the work of the Employee Engagement Taskforce. Professor Paul Sparrow of Lancaster University will be one of our keynote speakers, and we will be holding a doctoral students' workshop on 16th April.

To download the Doctoral Symposium Agenda, please click here

To reserve a place please contact Margaret Sargeant M.J.Sargeant@kent.ac.uk

Seminar schedule


9.30-9.45am


Registration


9.45-9.50am


Welcome and Introductions


9.50-10.30am


Putting Employee engagement into context: Matching the HR Strategies to the Performance logics
Professor Paul Sparrow, Lancaster University

Video presentation

    Biography


    Paul Sparrow is the Director of the Centre for Performance-led HR and Professor of International Human Resource Management at Lancaster University Management School. His research interests include cross-cultural and international HRM, HR strategy, cognition at work and changes in the employment relationship. His research in the Centre focuses on eight areas: the nature of strategic competence; HR leadership and boardroom engagement; performance drivers, such as customer service; business model change; the employee engagement-performance link; changing ways in which talent is managed; evaluating and benchmarking the ways in which people improve the capital of an organisation; and future HR trajectories. He has consulted with major multinationals, public sector organisations and inter-governmental agencies. In 2011 he was voted amongst the Top 12 Most Influential HR Thinkers by Human Resources Magazine.


10.30-11.00am


Managing the disengaged employee
Dr Amanda Shantz, York University, Canada

Video presentation

    Biography


    Amanda Shantz is an Assistant Professor at York University, Canada. Her principal research interests are employee engagement, alienation, and motivation. She was previously Assistant Director of the Kingston Employee Engagement Consortium, and Director of the MSc in Human Resource Management at Kingston University. Amanda is currently working on a number of projects related to employee engagement, and is also an Assistant Editor of a special issue in employee engagement for the International Journal of Human Resource Management. Amanda has also been invited to speak to both practitioners and scholars in the field of employee engagement. She has published scholarly papers in a number of outlets, including Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Gender Work and Organization, and Equality Diversity and Inclusion. Amanda is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Academy of Management.



11.00-11.15am


Coffee


11.15-11.55am


Just how bad an idea is employee engagement? On multiple meanings, muddled measurement and management myths
Professor Rob Briner, University of Bath

Video presentation

    Biography


    Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology in the School of Management, University of Bath. He previously worked at Birkbeck College, University of London for 19 years after completing his PhD at the Social and Applied Psychology Unit (now the Institute of Work Psychology) at the University of Sheffield. His research interests including well-being, emotions, stress, ethnicity, the psychological contract, absence from work, motivation, and everyday behaviour at work and has published in many academic journals and annual series including Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Academy of Management Perspectives and International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Rob has also co-authored two books: one on mood and mood regulation and the other on the psychological contract. One of his current main interests is in evidence-based practice in organizational psychology, HRM and management more generally. He also has a strong interest in writing for practitioner and more popular publications and has published pieces in many HR magazines and newspapers and was a regular columnist for HR magazine People Management.



11.55-12.25pm


Employee engagement and individual-level outcomes: What impact can we expect?
Dr Brad Shuck, University of Louisville, USA

Video presentation

    Biography


    Brad Shuck is Assistant Professor of Workforce and Human Resource Education in the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Human Resource Education at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A. His research agenda is focused on the use of employee engagement and positive psychology in human resource development, workplace climate, non-traditional methods of instructional design, and experientially based leadership development. Additionally, his work has recently appeared in publications such as Human Resource Development Review, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Human Resource Development International, and the Journal of European Industrial Training, among others.



12.25-12.45pm


Questions and Answers
Speaker Panel

Video presentation


12.45-1.45pm


Lunch


1.45-2.30pm


Is embedded employee voice an essential pre-requisite for engagement?
Professor John Purcell, Warwick University

Video presentation

    Biography


    John Purcell is an Associate Fellow of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He is a Deputy Chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) and an Acas arbitrator. Between 2007 and 2010 he was the Strategic Academic Adviser, Employment Relations, at Acas. He was also a research professor at Warwick Business School. He was Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Bath and Director of the Work and Employment Research Centre in the period 1995-2006. Prior to that he was at Oxford University and Templeton College between 1981 and 1995. His main publications include Human Resource Management in the Multi-divisional Company (OUP 1994) and Strategy and Human Resource Management (written with Peter Boxall)(Palgrave3rd edition 2011) and the Oxford Handbook of HRM (OUP 2007) edited with Peter Boxall and Patrick Wright. Recent research has been on the effect of people management practices on business performance, the role of front line managers in the delivery of effective people management especially in the NHS, contingent workers and temporary work agencies and the impact of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations of 2005 on the practice of employee voice. This latter five year study conducted with colleagues at Warwick and UWE was published on line by BIS in December 2010 and BJIR will publish a paper on it in 2012. His book, written with Mark Hall, Consultation at Work: Regulation and Practice will be published by OUP in 2012.


2.30-3.15pm


The Employee Engagement Taskforce: Taking the engagement agenda forward
David MacLeod, Chair of the Engagement Taskforce

Video presentation

    Biography


    David MacLeod has a portfolio of responsibilities. This includes being a Non Executive Director of the Ministry of Justice. He is a visiting Professor of the Cass Business School, a Fellow of the Ashridge Business School and Sunningdale Institute. He is also an associate of the Institute for Government. He is a fellow of the Institute of Marketing. He has co-authored a book called The Extra Mile on the theme of how to engage your people to win and is co-author of the MacLeod Report to Government called Engaging for Success. David is Chair of the Government sponsored, employer led Task Force on Employee Engagement launched by the Prime Minister at Number 10 in March 2011.


Nita Clarke, Chair of the Engagement Taskforce

    Biography


    Nita Clarke is the Director of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), Britain's leading organisation delivering workplace support for good employment and industrial relations. She was vice-chair of the MacLeod Review on employee engagement and continues to work with David MacLeod on the new national Employee Engagement task force, launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in March 2011.
    She was appointed as Vice-President (employee relations) by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development in January 2012, and is a visiting Fellow at Kingston University Business School. She is also a member of the Mutuals Task Force established by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude in 2011.
    She was formerly the adviser on trade unions to Prime Minister Tony Blair, working as assistant political secretary in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street from January 2001 to June 2007. Her role included liaison with individual unions and the TUC, developing national policy in areas such as the two-tier workforce and work-life balance, supporting ministers by trouble-shooting in industrial disputes. Nita was a senior official with public services union UNISON from 1992 -2001. She is the author of the report, The way forward: trade unions and the third sector, commissioned by ACEVO.


3.15-3.30pm


Tea


3.30-4.00pm


Questions and Answers: Where next for engagement?
Speaker and Seminar Series Organiser Panel

Video presentation

 

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