Measuring Work Engagement: Understanding the Drivers in a Software Company - Case Futurice

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Journal Title

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

Date

2017

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Information and Service Management (ISM)

Language

en

Pages

93

Series

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine work engagement as a phenomenon in a software business domain through a qualitative case study. In the case study, a profound overview on the relationship between the case company’s working environment and drivers of work engagement is provided, and measuring possibilities for such phenomenon is discussed. Moreover, in this thesis more insights in to the research gaps in the antecedents of job resources in IT and in measuring work engagement by utilising defined drivers are being provided. In this thesis, I focus on studying the digital service company Futurice’s 16 employees’ perceptions. A semi-structured theme interview pursues to understand how Futurice’s employees perceive their working environment and perceive work engagement. A selected sample reflects Futurice’s diverse working environment, and enables the examination of the phenomenon in this specific context. The findings suggest that six antecedents drive work engagement in the IT-field: a team level sense of communality and engagement, performance feedback, skill variety, learning and development opportunities, job crafting and job control. The unique working environment affects the selected antecedents through an emphasized need for one’s own control and development. In addition, in the study I revealed divergence in the employees’ perceptions on their working environment, which indicates a need for a measuring method enabling insights in to individual and personal differences. Through a clear relation between the working environment and the defined drivers, in the study I demonstrated an importance of field specific work engagement in accordance with the current scientific consensus and previous studies.

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Thesis advisor

Tuunainen, Virpi

Keywords

work engagement, drivers of work engagement, measuring work engagement, job resources

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