Sayat Demissie, Henok Dinku and Hanan Tariq

The origin of the term “employee engagement” lies in research into the extent to which people employ, or leave out, their personal selves when performing their work roles. When people are engaged, they tend to express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances (Kahn,1990:692).

Engagement is a controversial subject and there are various definitions for this term.

According to Schneider et al. (2009:23), some of the definitions are:

•        The individual’s involvement and satisfaction as well as enthusiasm for work 

•        A result that is achieved by stimulating employees’ enthusiasm for their work and directing it towards organizational success 

•        The extent to which people value, enjoy and believe in what they do 

•        The capability and willingness to help the company succeed, i.e., discretionary performance