Employee Engagement Across Career Stages, Theoretical Integration, and Psychological Mechanisms – A Multilevel Perspective

Thesis defence
Employee Engagement Across Career Stages, Theoretical Integration, and Psychological Mechanisms – A Multilevel Perspective

Ehab Abdelhafez,
PhD candidate in the PhD programme ESCP, publicly defended his PhD thesis in Management Sciences.

January 28th, 2025
13:00-15:00 (CET)
Konferenzraum C-011 at ESCP Berlin campus or online via Zoom

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Abstract

Employee engagement strategies and their effectiveness across different employee segments and contexts remain an underexplored area in both research and practice.

This thesis consists of three papers that examine employee engagement through complementary lenses, providing a multi-level perspective of this critical organizational construct. The first paper addresses the practical challenge of tailoring engagement approaches to employees' career stages, highlighting how engagement needs evolve throughout the employment lifecycle.

Through interviews with professionals across various sectors and career stages, this study provides insights into stage-specific engagement drivers and practical recommendations for human resource practitioners. The second paper builds on these findings through a rigorous academic examination of career-stage engagement dynamics, integrating engagement theory with career development frameworks to advance theoretical understanding while offering evidence-based interventions.

The third paper explores psychological availability as a fundamental yet understudied component of engagement, leveraging Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and the Work-Home Resources (WHR) model to illuminate how cognitive and emotional resources shape engagement capacity, and the mechanisms through which work and non-work-related influences contribute to this process.

Together, these papers enhance both theoretical understanding and practical application of employee engagement by highlighting its dynamic nature across career stages and psychological states while providing frameworks for more targeted and effective engagement strategies.

Jury