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ANNEX B DETAILS OF LITERATURE SEARCH AND SCREENING
Literature search methodology
At the outset of the search process a series of the key search parameters and terminology was established. These were:
- Geography - the main geographical coverage was to focus on the UK, but to include any relevant international literature
- Timing - there was no date restriction on the literature although we anticipated more recent (last 10 years) literature to be located.
- Sector - the emphasis of the literature search was on the public sector. However, texts discussing employee engagement in the private sector where there is evidence of a generic application to the public sector were considered.
- Search terms - the key themes and free text search combinations are set out in Table 1.1. On websites where keyword searches were not possible, any publication lists or documents were scanned using the parameter criteria.
Table 1.1 Illustrative keyword terms used in the literature search process
Key theme | Sector | Process | Examples | Measuring Outcomes |
|---|
Employee engagement Employee performance with engagement Engaged employee Combined with: | Public sector Local, regional and central/national government Government department(s) and bodies Trade union(s) Public service Private sector (if required to supplement material specific on public sector) | Model Toolkit Blueprint System Application Policy Practice Combined with Change Management | Case study Best/good practice Success story Exemplars/
example Lessons /lessons learnt Effective | Output Outcome Evidence Review Assessment Monitoring Evaluation Measurement/
measuring [engagement] |
The main focus on the search was a comprehensive trawl of a wide range of resources. The resources essentially fell within the following main areas:
- Academia covering centres of excellence and academic home pages
- Think tanks and policy
- Local government and public sector organisations
- Government offices and agencies
- Professional HR related organisations
The findings were a combination of abstracts, full text reports and articles, conference proceedings and web based resources such as the TUC Drive for Change website. All the literature was collated for the screening process between 13th February 2007 and 27th February 2007.
Screening Process & Analysis
Over 150 documents comprised the 'long list'. Senior members of the study team examined these and, if deemed relevant in principle, they went forward for detailed assessment against a bespoke screening framework - see Annex C.
The screening framework contains fields of information relevant to the focus of the research and the documents were assessed against these fields: context and definition, public sector focus, models, case studies, impact, measurement and monitoring and international focus. Based on the range and quality of information, each document was then assessed as follows:
- 'Yes' - a definite for inclusion in the literature review (44 documents)
- 'Possible' - a possible for inclusion in the literature review (21 documents)
- 'No' - rejected from the literature review (33 documents)
From over 150 documents, 50+ were rejected outright as being non-relevant, with 98 going forward for detailed screening. Given the richness of the literature base on employee engagement it was agreed with OCR that the research would focus on the 44 'high relevance' documents. A full list of all the sources examined is provided in Annex A.
The analysis of the literature was facilitated by the structuring of the screening framework against the main Chapters in the report structure.
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