ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in detail the characteristics that distinguish sustainable cultures from others and how employee engagement results from their unique cultural characteristics. The chapter reviews the various ways the term “employee engagement” is used. The chapter explores the relationship between company purpose and employee engagement. It looks at how engagement and company performance outcomes are related, as well as how engagement enables an organization to live its purpose.
The chapter discusses the relationship of meaningful work to employee satisfaction and engagement and points out how leaders can ensure that employees can connect their work to the company purpose. The chapter includes a vignette on Benevity, global leader in corporate social responsibility and employee engagement software, based on an interview with the founder and CEO Bryan de Lottinville.
The chapter describes the actions that lead to the creation of a sustainable internal organizational culture characterized by strong employee engagement and leading to high levels of performance outcomes for the company. The chapter includes an exercise for reflecting on the purpose of readers’ own work and how they might increase engagement in their own organizations.
