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Issue 6
Employee engagement
August 2011
Issue 6
Employee engagement
August 2011

APS Human Capital Matters: Employee engagement
August 2011, Issue 6
Editor’s note to readers
Welcome to the sixth edition of Human Capital Matters—the digest for time poor leaders and practitioners with an interest in human capital and organisational capability. This edition focuses on the concept of employee engagement and its application to the public service workforce.
The contribution of employee engagement to organisational performance is central to many of the human capital reform initiatives advocated in Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration. Importantly, there is an open question on whether the features of employee engagement in the public service differ from that of other organisations. The Australian Public Service Commission is working with other agencies on clarifying not only the key features of APS employee engagement but also what contribution engaged employees make to enhancing organisational capability.
The concept of staff engagement has an enormous amount of currency in the business world today; for many the pursuit of ‘engaged’ staff is seen as an end in itself. But there are a broad range of definitions and interpretations of employee engagement in the literature: some are heavy with psychological theory while others link employee views and organisational strategy. However, there are common themes: for example, engagement is seen as a two-way interaction between the employee and their workplace, engagement is believed to lead to positive organisational outcomes, and finally, it is considered to be measurable through an employee survey. These themes are consistent across a literature that ranges from pamphlets produced by management consultants through to refereed articles in scholarly journals.
However,

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