Examining the relationship between employee engagement and perceived managerial wisdom

Abstract

Wisdom is very difficult to study due to the complexity of defining wisdom outright. Various models propose characteristics of individuals that are perceived as wise but wisdom finds its real application in decision making. People would characterise someone as wise if they believe that the decision made by the person (the manager in this instance) is informed by the values of all stakeholders and have long term validity. With increasing demands placed on managers to make decisions in contexts where various stakeholders and the natural environment have to be taken into consideration, managers have to make increasingly complex decisions. The decision then also has to take into consideration the values, beliefs and needs of the employees. By asking respondents to rate their manager‟s level of wisdom, why they perceive their managers as wise and what constitutes employee engagement in their minds, a relationship between employee engagement and the perception of wisdom can be deduced. The evidence suggests that especially the cognitive and emotional dimensions of employee engagement are correlated with the perception of wisdom of the manager. New models for the measurement of implicit wisdom and employee engagement are proposed. Copyright