"Engagement" is one of the more popular business watchwords for today. Multiple studies have found that a company with a more highly engaged workforce has less turnover, higher productivity, more profit, and, by almost any measure, greater success than its competitors. In health care, the ability to achieve continuous improvement in both quality and cost has been correlated to the engagement level of nurses, physicians, and other team members, including patients themselves. That makes intuitive sense, because, while job satisfaction is described as contentment with a job, engagement means commitment to the organization's success. Organizations need advocate stakeholders who are willing to lead and take part in change that will keep them thriving, not just people who are contented with today.
Awareness of the importance of dedicated individuals-those who are devoted to the institution's mission and success-has resulted in more emphasis on tactics to increase engagement. Management consultants can make a living helping us create cultures where employees are motivated and choose to work because they are empowered, rewarded and recognized for commitment, and well informed through respectful and thorough communication. Nurse leaders should applaud the new emphasis on these ideas, because they aren't new to us. These methods for building a great team are well documented in our leadership literature. They also form a foundation for shared governance models.
Management research is replete with evidence that these practices result in workplaces where workers are more likely to be engaged. So, how is it that we are still struggling with putting them in place everywhere? Is it, as some postulate, due to a changing world where a job is just a place to get money for living and not a calling? Is it, as others believe, a function of new (or multiple) generations in the workforce? Is it because in some professions, including Nursing, we don't recognize that management is a bona fide specialty that requires specific education, competence, and maybe even certain basic personality traits and natural talent?
Continued studies of managers, leaders, and teams may elucidate us on causes for nonadoption of researched best management behaviors. In the meantime, I hope you will consider this: We know what has been demonstrated to increase engagement, but we must also consider the why we should practice these culture-building tactics. It isn't because they lead to the results listed in the first paragraph of this editorial. Those are the outcomes (desirable, to be sure) of proven engagement techniques but not the critical reason to initiate shared governance and other best practices. The fundamental why that must be a leader's basis for everything that leads to engagement is true concern (I like to call it love) for the care team members and their patients.
For those of us who have the privilege to lead, the why that will best result in engaged people is our true concern and empathy for them. That calls for us to be authentic nurses who chose leadership largely because we wanted to make care environments better for others by serving as authentic leaders. It is only when people recognize that leaders care for their well-being that tactics (even best practices) become more than perceived ploys or manipulation to get desired outcomes for the company. Executives and managers committed to the welfare of the team and organization hire and keep committed team members ... which can only lead to what the company wants: engagement.
Thank you for choosing to lead,
-Kathleen D. Sanford, DBA, RN, FACHE, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief
Nursing Administration Quarterly