Assignment: Neuroscience By David Rock
Assignment: Neuroscience By David Rock
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Neuroscience of engagement David Rock and Dr. Yiyuan Tang
www.NeuroLeadership.org
NeuroLeadershipjouRnal issue TWO 2009
This article was published in the
The attached copy is furnished to the author for non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the author’s institution, sharing with colleagues and providing to institutional administration.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third- party websites are prohibited.
in most cases authors are permitted to post a version of the article to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding the neuroleadership jouRnal’s archiving and management policies are encouraged to send inquiries to: info@neuroleadership.org
Assignment: Neuroscience By David Rock
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This article was published in the neuroleadership jouRnal. The attached copy is furnished to the author for non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the author’s institution, sharing with colleagues and providing to institutional administration.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third- party websites are prohibited.
in most cases authors are permitted to post a version of the article to the personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding the neuroleadership jouRnal’s archiving and management policies are encouraged to send inquiries to: info@neuroleadership.org
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Introduction
Workplace engagement involves the degree to which people put in discretionary effort and care into their job. up until now, research on engagement has focused mostly on the degree to which engagement impacts organizational performance (Conference Board, 2006). also, there has been research into the way engagement varies across different organizations and different countries (Gallup, n.D.) However, no research has been done to identify the underpinning neurological drivers of engagement, it’s effects on various brain networks, and how we might measure engagement more objectively through neural or biological markers.
Recent neuroscience research has begun to provide insights into the neurological drivers of behavior in the social environment (Lieberman, 2008; Lieberman and Ochsner, 2001; Rock, 2008; Ringleb and Rock, 2008; Tang and Posner, 2008). in this paper we will draw on neuroscience research to explore these five questions: 1. What is the neural basis of engagement? 2. What are the neural drivers that enhance and decrease
engagement? 3. What are the levels of engagement from a neural
perspective? 4. What effect does increasing or decreasing engagement
have on the brain and our wider biology? 5. What neural markers might be used to more accurately
measure engagement and the effects of engagement interventions?
Overall, we believe that understanding the neuroscience of engagement is more than just an interesting discussion, but will open up insights into how to more accurately and
effectively measure and improve employee engagement across all types of organizations. While there is much research still to do, this paper can provide a theoretical foundation that can help shape future research.
engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract.
The neural basis of engagement
engagement in this paper relates to the idea of workplace engagement. A definition of engagement from a us-based organizational research firm is:
‘A heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work’ (Conference Board, 2006).
A definition from a uK-based organizational research firm is:
‘A combination of commitment to the organisation and
Neuroscience of engagement David Rock1,2,3 and Dr. Yiyuan Tang4,5,6,7
1CeO, Results Coaching systems international, sydney, Australia 2Faculty, CiMBA 3Co-founder, NeuroLeadership institute: editor, NeuroLeadership Journal 4institute of Neuroinformatics, Dalian univ. Tech., Dalian, China 5Department of Psychology, university of Oregon, usA 6institute of Psychology, the Chinese Academy of sciences, Beijing, China 7Center for social and Organizational Behavior, Graduate university of Chinese Academy of sciences, Beijing, China
davidrock@workplacecoaching.com
yiyuan@uoregon.edu
RESEaRCH
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NeuroLeadershipjouRnal issue TWO 2009 RESEaRCH
its values, plus a willingness to help out colleagues (organisational citizenship). it goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract’ (CiPD, 2008)
