“The Human Comes First, And That We Feel” Employee Engagement in a Purpose-Driven Organization

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to contribute to the research gap on the relationship between employee engagement and a purpose-driven organizational mode. Our research, which adheres to the interpretive tradition of symbolic interactionism (SI) comprises a qualitative single-case study in a purpose-driven organization and follows an abductive approach. We generated our empirical data by collecting 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews and on-site observations. For the analysis of the findings, we refer to the underlying tenets of the SI tradition to capture the meaning of employee engagement of members of a purpose-driven organization. In addition, we draw on Kahn's (1990) conditions for employee engagement as a theoretical framework to discuss the findings. Our findings show that the purpose-driven organizational mode is related to the employees’ engagement in a multitude of ways regarding the organization’s external and internal purposes. First, the organization’s external purpose is pursued by the employees due to their engagement through moral and religious beliefs. And second, the internal purpose provides the space for employees to raise their voices, and for leaders to act in a caring way, which in turn also enhances the employee engagement.