magazine issue 12 2006 / Issue 1

Engagement: A Source of Value, Quality of Life, or Both?

• written by Janina Marguc

The difference between the two examples is the level at which engagement is defined: While the latter perspective defines engagement as a state that people are in while they are doing something (e.g., pursuing a goal, reading a book, solving a problem, or playing a tennis match), the former example describes what one may call an engaged life, which is quite a different thing, at least at the first glance. What exactly is an engaged life then? Isn’t it just a busy, hectic way of spending one’s time? Or does the diversity of activities one pursues on a regular basis also play a role? Again, there is no single answer, but as you will later see, all answers have something in common. For example, if one were to ask people on the street what engagement or being engaged means, one would be likely to find answers ranging from being involved, committed, willing to expend time and energy on things one values, a sense of caring, and taking responsibility for something. If one were to ask researchers in the domain of positive psychology, on the other hand, they would explain that an engaged life refers to making use of one’s positive traits, including strengths of character (e.g., originality, integrity, or courage) and talents, which in turn leads to higher engagement, absorption, and flow in life, and thus adds to subjective well-being (Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005). Similarly, Cantor and Anderson (1999) believe that vigorous participation in personally involving daily life activities increases effective funtioning and subjective wellbeing. Speaking to the diversity aspect of engagement, the expression “engaged lifestyle” has also been used to describe an active involvement in various domains of life, including mental, social, and physical activities, which acts as a buffer against cognitive decline as people are getting older (Bosma, van Boxtel, Ponds, Jelicic, Houx, Metsemakers, & Jolles, 2002). So engagement not only makes you like your job more (provided you consider it to be at least a little bit positive), but also makes people happier and smarter in old age? This is a compelling conjecture supported by preliminary evidence, but it requires some further thought and empirical testing. Remember, all the findings are based on a slightly different definition of engagement! However, what all of them have in common is a sense of involvement in current activities or in what life has to provide.

How can the average person make use of such findings in everyday life? Not everyone will be thrilled about reading dense scientific articles with lengthy passages on statistical methods and procedures. No, the “modern person” uses Google and searches online bookstores to find the information he or she needs. In fact, this is what I did as well in order to find out whether engagement as a term also exists in popular science and what context it is used in there. To my surprise, my search yielded an almost perfect hit, namely a book called “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal” (Loehr & Schwartz, 2003) Wow. It sounds like a bestseller, doesn’t it? The title reminds you of those thousands of books out there that tell you how to live. One that both top-managers, commuting to their fancy office in lower Manhattan, and people who are fed up with checking off their to-do-lists merely to realize at the end of the day that they again did not manage to do everything they had planned would litteraly absorb. But the very title, proclaiming the power of engagement, also compelled me to take a closer look - I just couldn’t resist. And I became even more curious to learn more about the specific approach after I read the inside cover, which explains that the authors had originally designed their program to enhance the performance of athletes like Monica Seles and Jim Courier, but then adapted and applied it to other settings, mostly in the corporate world, where it has been greeted with great interest. Loehr and Schwarz promise their clients no less than to become “more fully engaged on and off the job, meaning physically energized, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned” through following their program. Indeed, the book is full of sample cases that are used to illustrate the core principles and practical aspects of a typical training. So, how does it work? I will not go too much into detail here due to a lack of space and because it would become pointless to read the book. Moreover, it is certainly not the one and only way to lead an engaged life and it is written from a very Western perspective. Nonetheless, the authors make some intriguing points and suggestions that are easy to implement and apparently are capable of turning the workaholic who usually eats his or her sandwich in front of the computer screen rather than taking a proper break and feels the job leaves no time for family, friends, or other valued activities, into a more effective, socially apt, and generally more balanced person.