ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the history of worker engagement. It shows that, much earlier, engagement in the workforce was the norm. But since the days of the cottage industries, engagement levels in the workplace have significantly diminished. The chapter looks at the actual levels of engagement in the workplace and focus on engagement levels in the world of manufacturing. William Kahn said “the harnessing of organizational member’s selves to their work role. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally”. Two things have changed dramatically that have literally driven the sense of engagement out of most of the workforce. These two changes are directly related to the Industrial Revolution which: caused businesses to become much larger; this was later exacerbated by the concept of Taylorism. The manufacturing industry has as many actively disengaged workers as it does engaged workers. Up until the early 1800s, there was no “industry” in the United States.
