Hope and Work

The world has an employee engagement crisis. Low employee engagement has a detrimental impact not only on employee performance and well-being but also on organizational outcomes, including revenue and profitability. This chapter sets out the argument that a key predictor of employee engagement (and therefore performance and well-being) is hope. The relationship between these variables is unpacked from a theoretical and empirical perspective. While the literature has tended to focus on the agency and pathways components of hope theory, this chapter argues that much more attention should given to the fact that hope rests on the pursuit of positively valenced, personally valued, meaningful goals. The chapter offers suggestions on how organizations and employees might amplify hope, engagement, and positive outcomes in the workplace by focusing on goals that matter not only to the organization but to employees also.