Overview

Engagement relates to employee positive emotions toward their workplace, for example: an employee's willingness and ability to help their company succeed, largely by providing discretionary effort on a sustainable basis (Towers Perrin's Global Workforce Study 2012). Organizational commitment is often considered a key part of engagement and is measured by questions related to intent-to-stay, net promoter score, and pride/values/mission.

Key Components

• Shared mission and motivation

• Intent to Stay

Overview

These questions are focused on learning processes and practices and leadership that reinforces learning. The goal of a learning organization is to be one that is comprised of people who "cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could” (Garvin, Edmondson and Gino 2008).

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Opportunity for Growth & Innovation."

Overview

Many authors agree that a sense of progress at work is a key motivator for employees. This is sometimes called “mastery” or “competence” as well. According to Daniel Pink, we are driven by a need for mastery and that requires a sense of progress in our capabilities. Employees need space and support to foster improvement and growth (Pink 2009). Similarly according to Self-Determination Theory, employees want competence, which means having suitable challenges and receiving feedback (Deci & Ryan 2000). Amabile and Stevens in The Progress Principle (2011) also defined progress theory as consistent small wins in work, and said these are key to an employee’s positive inner work life. Progress involves clear goals, autonomy and interpersonal events such as encouragement, respect and collegiality.

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Opportunity for Growth & Innovation."

Overview

Knowledge transfer in organizations is “the process through which one unit is affected by the experience of another.” Empirical evidence shows effective knowledge transfer helps lead to new “interconnected” organizational forms that leads to performance advantages (Argot, Ingram and Moreland 2000). 

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Opportunity for Growth & Innovation."

Overview

Burnout is often conceptualized broadly and was once considered the inverse of engagement. Our survey constructs are organized similarly to the Areas of Worklife Model which defines burnout as the mismatch between the person and the job along workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values (Leiter and Maslach 2006).

Burnout is often characterized by exhaustion, lack of professional efficacy and cynicism (mental distance from the job and depersonalization) (Maslach and Jackson 1984). The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) focuses on measuring exhaustion and disengagement (Demerourti Bakker, Vardakou & Kantas 2003). 

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Work-Life Harmony."

Overview

Many authors align on the importance of autonomy. It is one of three components of drive according to Pink (2018), who built upon the work of Deci & Ryan (2000). Schaufeli (2017) has autonomy questions as part of the ‘engaging leadership’ scale, where supervisors encourage freedom, responsibility, and individual strengths. We follow seminal author Breaugh (1985) who defined:

• work method autonomy as the discretion in choosing the procedures/methods to go about one’s work

• work scheduling autonomy as the feeling of which one could take control of the sequencing or timing of his or her tasks, and 

• work criteria autonomy as the discretion in making changes to indicators/standards used to evaluate one’s own performance. 

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Work-Life Harmony."

Overview

Successful conflict resolution is important for positive team and workplace dynamics. Conflict is an awareness of discrepancies, incompatible wishes or irreconcilable desires. Work group conflict can be positive or negative for productivity depending on the situation. It’s most often positive if it is focused on the task rather than relationships or process (task responsibilities, resource allocation). It can also be the most beneficial at the start of a process to help clarify roles and responsibilities (Jehn and Mannix 2001).

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Protection from Harm."

Overview

Psychological safety is the feeling of safety in interpersonal risk taking and the ability to speak up without being punished or humiliated (Edmondson 1999). We also include questions on access to work accommodations - an especially salient issue given the rise of reported mental health conditions post-COVID generally and in the sciences specifically - and questions related to physical safety. 

Key Components

• Psychological Safety - This construct is related to the cultural themes of "Mattering at Work" and "Opportunity for Growth & Innovation."

• Physical Safety  - This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Protection from Harm."

• Mental Health - This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Protection from Harm."

Overview

Geoffrey Cohen in his book ‘Belonging’ defines belonging as the feeling of being part of a group that values, respects and cares for us (2022). It relates to feeling valued in the eyes of others (Jena and Pradhan 2018). It also includes having mutual respect, gratitude and interpersonal communication (Albrect 2013). It also overlaps with appreciative leadership (acknowledgment, recognition and appreciation (Rafferty & Griffin 2004) and psychological safety (Edmondson 1999). According to Self-Determination Theory, employees have a psychological need for relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This work builds on Claude Steele’s seminal literature on stereotype threat and how employees do worse at work when their identity is made salient, and that identity is tied to negative stereotypes.

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Connection & Community."

Overview

Employees’ perceptions of fairness in their workplace and organizational justice is a factor that influences retention (Colquitt, Greenberg, & Zapata-Phelan, 2005). An inclusive climate means that identity group status does not correlate with access to resources, there is opportunity for individuals from different identity groups to establish relationships, and people from different identity groups integrate ideas from multiple perspectives when problem solving. This construct also relates to valuing diversity, voice in one’s organization, and satisfaction from equitable work factors such as pay equity (Nishii 2013). 

Note: we considered questions on pay equity, but given union and non-union representation for some jobs that is not a feasible goal in all cases. We also considered a question on promotion, but stakeholder group feedback was that some sets of employees do not pay attention to promotions and would not answer a question on it. We also considered a question on the transparency and fairness of the PMP process but decided it would be redundant to a parallel survey that is being administered.

This construct is related to the cultural themes of "Connection & Community" and "Mattering at Work."

Overview

Employee participation in decisions leads to successful implementation of new management strategies (Harber and Marriot 1991). It also can increase performance (Daniel 2019) and creates trust that leads to intrinsic rewards (Appelbaum et al., 2000).

This construct is related to the cultural theme of "Mattering at Work."