y multinational firms have found that multinational and multi-culture international teams in international projects perform better than mono-culture teams. One important role of CEOs in such culturally diverse companies becomes that of effectively managing such diversity.
In spite of a multitude of methods of leading companies successfully, successful CEOs develop their own innovative ways of leading organizations. Many of them have been successful in their own ways of leading and contributing to employee engagement.
CEO’s Role in Engagement of Staff/Associatesand Development ofPositive Organizational Culture- Theoretical and Empirical Evidence
Employee engagement is a phenomenon in most cases, articulately created by CEOs in their organizations, to develop a positive relationship between the employee and the organization. An engaged employee is someone who is fully devoted, absorbed in the organization and have certain level of enthusiasm to work for enhancing the reputation and success of its employer.
CEO’s role in engagement of staff/associates and developing a positive organization culture, assumes a significant meaning to all the stakeholders of the organization. Staff, associates, external stakeholders look at the approach of CEO to steer the company to success. Company success can translate into individual success of each staff/associate. So if a CEO can demonstrate that his approach is in the right direction and company is moving towards excellent results, the employees/associates tend to respond and engage to the leadership style of CEO and thereby amplifying the positive outcomes of such efforts. At the same time, if the CEO’s approach is right and each employee/associate is effectively engaged, a positive organizational culture is emerged which takes care of short term glitches of employee engagement and ensures that medium and long term goals and objectives are achieved. In the following paragraphs the phenomenon is debated through theoretical and empirical evidences.
a.Supporting evidence
Several theoretical studies have concluded that employee engagement can be generated by their CEOs by improving employee involvement, commitment and productivity. Konard in his 2006 study found that in manufacturing plants, workers who were highly involved through several methods used by their CEOs, showed more positive attitude to work and for the success of their manufacturing units. They also showed positive signs of intrinsic enjoyment in their jobs, trust in their leadership, better organizational commitment. Several other studies have linked employee’s ‘voice and empowerment’ with ‘productivity’ (Wilkinson, Adrien, et al., 2004).
Some studies have indicated that CEOs of companies can generate greater level of employee/associates engagement through such things as improvement of perception to job importance (Crim, Dan, et al., 2006), Clarity of expectations from job ("Engage Employees and Boost Performance". Hay Group., 2002), showing career advancement and opportunities (Hulme, Virginia A., 2006), feedback and communication with superiors, quality of working relationships (Ryan, Richard M., et al., 2000), better understanding of the ethos and values of the organization ("Engage Employees and Boost Performance", Hay Group., 2002) and finally effective internal communication. According to certain ‘engagement theories’, CEOs will do better to create environment in their companies, where employees have their free choice and intrinsic desire to work for the betterment of the organization (Hellevig, Jon, 2012). Certain studies
