The future of employee engagement: the challenge of separating old wine from new bottles

This chapter charts the future of employee engagement. It reports engagement findings from a large, four-country survey of workers and management. Across all four countries the survey finds employers report considerably higher levels of employee engagement than do workers, with low to moderate employee scores indicating much room for improving employee engagement. The chapter also assesses future trends in employee engagement by estimating the likelihood of greater spread of the high-performance work system (HPWS), which is predicated on engaged workers. Taking into consideration a variety of factors, the authors settle on a sober assessment, noting that, while some trends such as growth in knowledge-driven and high-technology industries favor an expansion in HPWSs, other future of work trends, such as financialization and employment insecurity, work against the adoption of engagement practices through HPWSs.