JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Employee engagement has been a popular research subject since the change of the millennium. Although it was first mentioned in 1990 by W. A. Kahn, there is no universally agreed upon theoretical background to date. The scientific discussion is divided into two branches which often ignore one another. In addition to having different perspectives to engagement in general, there are also multiple ways to measure engagement. In this thesis the aim is to test the ISA engagement scale (Soane et al. 2012) in a new context. References to the ISA engagement scale dimensions and items are searched for from the official texts of two case companies, Kesko and VR Group. As the mentions are found, there are development suggestions made for ISA engagement scale. For example, employer-originated development is seen as an additional condition for ISA engagement. The study is qualitative and uses a case-study methodology. The results can be utilized within the engagement research field as they bring forward perspectives omitted from the past discussion. The study also strengthens the position of ISA engagement scale as a good way to measure engagement in organizations.