About the Book
Grounded in 25 years of research and practical experience, this book shows how to create engaging work environments and practices that harness employees’ energy and talents toward achieving organizational goals, while enhancing workers’ motivation and well-being.
Creating and sustaining high functioning work environments lies at the core of management practice, and employee engagement is a key element in shaping these workplaces – and a significant challenge for business leaders. Academic researchers and practitioners have tackled the topic, but a chasm exists between these perspectives: academics tend to emphasize theory over problem-solving, while practitioners tend to rely on formulaic approaches and experience, rather than empirically tested theoretical frameworks. Thought leader, accomplished CEO, and organizational development consultant Nicos Rossides bridges this gap, exploring the complexity and fragmented nature of the academic literature and offering insight into practitioner approaches used by research and consulting organizations. He also presents his own conceptual framework that he has built over the years and is meant to be customized to specific organizational contexts.
This insightful book will be of great interest to CEOs, board members and line managers across industries, as well as HR/OD practitioners and students, especially those who wish to learn how to apply time-tested intervention strategies to the workforce engagement challenge.
Table of Contents:
Part A: The "What" and "So What" of Employee Engagement 1. Introduction 2. The Evolution and Importance of Work 3. The Future of Work and the AI-Powered Revolution 4. The Human Side of Management 5. The Emergence of New Managerial Paradigms 6. Building Engagement: An Integrative Framework 7. Academic and Practitioner Perspectives on Engagement 8. Relevant Theoretical Frameworks 9. Research on the Drivers of Engagement 10. Research on the Consequences of Engagement 11. The Dysfunctions of Disengagement Part B: The "Now What" Around Engagement: A Practitioner Focus 12. Implications for Managers 13. Building Managerial Competencies 14. Practitioner Toolkits for Measuring and Managing Engagement 15. The ‘Now What’ of Engagement: Structuring the Process 16. The Importance of Context 17. Engagement Interventions and Strategies 18. Epilogue
About the Author :
Nicos Rossides is an accomplished CEO and management consultant. While running his own consultancy and acting as CEO of CREF Business Ventures (associated with the Cyprus Institute), he also serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of DigitalMR, a London-based digital marketing insights firm, which he co-founded. He is also joint owner of MASMI Research Group, an international marketing insights agency with head offices in London. Dr. Rossides is the author of a book on Japanese culture and is a frequent speaker on business and management topics, especially employee engagement, entrepreneurship, and bridging the academic-practitioner gap. He studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar, holds a doctorate in engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, and received his senior management training from MIT’s Sloan School.
Review :
"A successful organisation is like a successful sports team. Skill is important, but teamwork, commitment and - dare I say - fun will always beat isolated stars. I had the pleasure of working with Nicos for many years. He is a star, but certainly not isolated. He is a consummate team player with a management style that energised and motivated the diverse teams he led. That natural ability and practical experience shine through in this important contribution to better management and stronger, happier organisations. Engaging indeed."
—Adrian Chedore, Chairman, ABN Impact; Former Global CEO, Synovate
"With Dr. Nicos Rossides well-described as a "pracademic", let me profile myself as the "pragmatic practitioner" who has worked and partnered intensively with Nicos for many years in the marketing services industry.
This inspiring book balances beautifully between the art and the science required to successfully drive employee engagement in the fast-changing dynamic talent world we live in.
Working in a global business with over 45,000 passionate marketing communication professionals with an average age well under 30 years, the topics discussed in the book are keeping me busy every day and will have a significant impact on how successful businesses will be in the future.
In my environment, most of the great talent around the globe are GenZ and GenY and the relationship they want with their employer goes well beyond a transactional one. While recent COVID years have accelerated the pace of change, the direction of change was already set. Remote working, increased emphasis on employee well-being,s and faster adoption of all kinds of digital interactions have made us skip at least five years in a trend that was underway already.
For me, it’s now about "really understanding what’s behind this fast-changing dynamic". Trying to summarize my personal findings in six words, I would say it’s all about Purpose, Inclusion, Flexibility, Perspective, Autonomy and Trust. Each of these elements are fundamental and, although I am not naming them in any particular order, Purpose and Inclusion are crucial to defining the right Employer Brand and Employee Value Proposition that resonates with our new workforce. These values, applied with integrity and honesty, are what will drive sustainable employee engagement. Every day, I can see that many of our GenZ and GenY talents want to actively drive Social Impact and "growth for good" through diverse and engaged teams.
In this context, it’s important that leaders and managers realize that they will need to lead and manage very differently to be successful in this new world. Openness, Transparency, Vulnerability, and Generosity are all critical to mastering these new relationships. For many, this is an important "reset" in how they work, and leaders may benefit from some "reverse mentoring", helping them understand what really drives their partners in the workforce.
Coming from this background and with this experience, I have very much enjoyed and valued reading "Engaging the Workforce" and thank Dr. Nicos Rossides for offering several new perspectives which will help to further strengthen relationships and ultimately drive talent competitiveness."
—Peter Huijboom, Global CEO Media & Global Clients, Dentsu International
"As an author, Nicos gives us a masterpiece to guide managers and human resource advisors. As an academic, Nicos gives us an anthology of scholarly research about the history of work and the people who do it. As a practitioner, Nicos gives us models, frameworks, and typologies to design our interventions. As a realist, Nicos gives us foundational knowledge so we can ask new questions as we engage the workforce in a post-Covid world."
—Bud Taylor, Practitioner and author of Customer Driven Change, Virginia, USA
