A Foucauldian exploration of employee engagement in the Australian Public Service

Abstract

The prevalence of employee engagement in human resource management (HRM) practice provides the opportunity for exploration and analysis of its function in the world of work. This thesis explores employee engagement in the context of an agency in the Australian Public Service (APS). Drawing on Foucauldian methodological tools, employee engagement is examined within a network of power, knowledge and processes of subjectification, thereby reconceptualising employee engagement in term of its potential to shape employee conduct and govern the employment relationship. Through a genealogical analysis of the Coombs Report (1976), the McLeod Report (1995) and State of the Service Reports (1999 to 2016), the emergence of employee engagement in the APS is made visible. In addition, discursive analysis of 28 semi-structured interviews with managers and employees in a large APS agency demonstrates the productive power of employee engagement discourse and practice to shape workplace relations. Findings highlight that employee engagement functions beyond the purported engagement-performance link. It is argued that the governmentality of the employee engagement reinforces organisational hierarchy by structuring how individuals relate to their work, their organisation and to themselves. The perceived ambiguity of employee engagement is argued to be productive, acting as a springboard for stakeholder self-formation within their organisational context. Grounded within critical HRM, this Foucauldian study maps the emergence of employee engagement in the APS, tracks its reproduction through the APS agency stakeholders, and illustrates its ability to transform managers and employees into active participants in the production of an engaged workforce through ethical work.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English