Thursday, 8 October 2009

Where’s the value arise from engagement?

Value arises from the outcomes of engagement, which are what Wenger and Axelrod rabbit on about, being free flowing communication and consequent emergent knowledgeability through exchange of social capital and intellectual capital.

New value is created through:
  • More capability and improved productivity (Axelrod et al., 2004),
  • People aligned around a common purpose & people grasping issues (Axelrod, 2001),
  • A recognition of peoples' issues & concerns (Axelrod, 2001).
  • Engagement sparks creativity and produces ownership It also builds trust and creates common languages (Axelrod, 2001) and
  • Better understanding (McCormick, 1999) in (Axelrod, 2001).
  • Engagement increases commitment and gives a greater feeling of community {McCormick, 1999 #1256)
There's a lot of Axelrod. I'd like to see something else, and something more academic. Axelrod tends to be more practitioner than academic literature. The McCormick paper is interesting and relevant but it's a PhD thesis that I haven't yet got my hands on.


AXELROD, R. H. (2001) Why Change Management Needs Changing. Reflections, 2, 46-57.
AXELROD, R. H., AXELROD, E., BEEDON, J. & JACOBS, C. D. (2004) You don't have to do it alone: how to involve others to get things done, San Francisco, CA, Berrett-Koehler.
MCCORMICK, T. M. (1999) The impact of large-scale participative interventions on participants.
SAKS, A. M. (2006) Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21, 600-619.

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