Influences of peers, friends, and managers on employee engagement

Abstract

Employee engagement is a reflection of an employee's experience of work. Previous research has analyzed each employee's experience in terms of individual factors. We provide the first report of the influence on engagement of peers (who report to the same manager) and friends (who share social ties in an internal social network), using linear regression to model employee engagement in a sample of more than 44,000 employees. We show that an employee's engagement is associated with the engagement of her/his peers, friends, and manager. Our results contribute to analyses of social factors at work, and argue for revisions to existing theories of employee engagement.