From Buzz to Burnout and beyond: The journey from Engagement to Workholism and the quest for Balanced Employee Engagement (BEE)

In this paper, we trace the evolution of engagement from personal ‘engagement’ to the modern concept of employee engagement. Through our archeological and genealogical evaluation of different conceptualizations of engagement, we illustrate the discursive processes that allow initially emancipatory concepts to be gradually absorbed and co-opted by profit-maximizing interests, with potential for dysfunctional consequences and its implications on Human Resource Development. Our findings suggest that over time, the boundaries of workaholism have blurred due to the normalization of engagement as a driver of organizational success, which has led to the commodification of employees and the socialization of capitalism in organizations. We propose “Balanced Employee Engagement” (BEE), a balanced approach toward engagement by being both employee and organization-centric and accommodating periodic disengagement as a part of being engaged. This would require HRD professionals to evaluate employee engagement tools critically and develop strategies that allow for periods of disengagement and psychological detachment from work.