Employee engagement in Borealis: case study
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Author
Date
2017
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
122
Series
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the real-life practices and methods of developing employee engagement in the case company Borealis during a six-year period. Furthermore, the objective was to understand the perception of the employees towards these actions and the meanings the employees gave to employee engagement. The methods of data collection used to achieve these goals were to utilize pre-existing documentary data, such as work-related survey results, instructions, presentations, and personnel reports from the past six-year period from Borealis and the thematic interviews of voluntary employees of two departments within Borealis, the Materials Handling and the Administration. Firstly, the data analysis was focused on the pre-existing documentary data to describe the methods consisting of regular practices and special campaigns used to develop employee engagement during the six-year period. Then the work-related survey results, consisting of the People Survey and the Work Place Survey were analysed from the past six years to comprehend the progress on the level of employee engagement that can be identified from the results. The methods used to analyse the interviews were the verbatim transcriptions of the recordings and a thematic analysis to reveal the recurring themes from the interviews. The themes were then grouped and categorized to combine themes with similar features in them. The results of this analysis naturally followed the job demands-resources model, so a synthesis was formed that follows the main elements from the job demands-resources model with the findings from this case study of Borealis. The main findings of this case study indicated that the development practices and methods of employee engagement used in Borealis are multiple and they are a combination of regular practices and special campaigns. However, there seems to be such a number of development activities, that there isn’t enough time to implement them properly, and the results of some of the practices appeared unclear to the employees. The conclusion is that the tools are already there but there is a need to brighten the message, bring the actions closer to the everyday lives of the employees before embarking into new ones. The main findings regarding the meanings the employees gave to employee engagement could be understood through the antecedents to employee engagement. These antecedents could be categorised into work demands and job and personal resources. The job demands consisted of emotional demands and environmental stressors, the job resources entailed aspects of work, career and the organization and the personal resources were the professional capabilities and personal lives. The main antecedents in Borealis were the possibilities for learning and development and efforts invested by Borealis into the wellbeing. The main job demands in Borealis were hurry and workload, bureaucracy, and challenges in working relationships. The main outcomes in Borealis was the overall high level of employee engagement and high work morale.Description
Thesis advisor
Vuorenmaa, HerttaKeywords
employee engagement, job resources, personal resources, job demands, organisational development, wellbeing, job demands-resources model