Abstract: Research on engagement, a multi-faceted concept covering a variety of positive work attitudes and experiences, has gained substantial traction in the last decade. Since 2009, it has been measured as part of the NHS staff survey – an annual questionnaire with more than 200,000 respondents each year. This talk will describe how engagement fits with other work-related constructs, why it is seen as important, and uses data from the NHS staff survey and other routinely collected sources to demonstrate its effects on staff well-being outcomes as well as associations with patient care. It will also explore how aspects of line management can promote engagement to achieve these outcomes.
Biography: Jeremy Dawson is Professor of Health Management at the University of Sheffield, where he works jointly between the Institute of Work Psychology (part of the Management School) and the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). His research includes a range of topics in the areas of health services management, and research methodology. He has led several large-scale projects in the NHS, particularly focussing on team working, staff engagement and well-being and their links with patient outcomes, and he led the team that ran the NHS national staff survey between 2003 and 2010. Amongst his other research interests include team and organisational climate, and work group diversity. He is a statistician by background, and teaches a wide variety of subjects in the fields of statistics and research methods, as well as researching in these areas. He has published over 40 papers in refereed academic journals, as well as numerous project reports and articles in practitioner publications. He is an editorial board member of six journals, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.