Conclusion

This free course, Employment relations and employee engagement, began with a critical consideration of employee engagement in the context of employment relations; exploring the broader issues raised by both positive and negative conceptions of experience at work. The concept of emotional labour was introduced as highlighting the complex challenges of these issues in practice.

The course then considered the role of HRM in delivering effective employee engagement practices and policies as part of organisational-level employment relations processes. This was further explored through the case study of the New Zealand post office. We also explored specifically the role of trust before moving to examine the perceived relevance of employee engagement in different cultural contexts as well as the ways to maintain engagement during times of organisational change.