🔗 linkedin.com/in/ryanasaul

Research Focus: Organizational Leadership • Employee Engagement • Hybrid & Remote Work

“Bridging Scholarship and Practice: Designing a Transferable Employee Engagement Framework for the Future of Work”

What research challenge did your dissertation address?

My research focused on the challenge organizations face sustaining employee engagement across hybrid, remote, and in-person work environments. As work has changed, many organizations are still trying to understand how employees experience connection, recognition, opportunity, and fairness when they’re not all working in the same physical space. The real question isn’t just whether employees are productive: it’s whether they feel included, valued, and connected to the organization and to each other. Hybrid and remote work create real flexibility, but they can also create gaps in visibility, informal communication, recognition, and access to opportunity.

What inspired you to pursue this research?

I was inspired by my own leadership experience and by how dramatically work has changed over the past several years. I’ve led teams through different workplace models and seen firsthand that engagement doesn’t happen by accident; it’s shaped by the systems, behaviors, and everyday leadership practices employees experience. Many organizations talk about engagement, flexibility, and inclusion, but employees don’t always experience those things equally. I wanted to understand those differences and help organizations move from broad engagement efforts to practices that are more intentional, practical, and equitable.

What did your research find, and what is its impact?

My research produced the CORE Engagement Framework, focused on four key areas: Connection, Opportunity, Recognition, and Equity, supported by continuous feedback and trust. Through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and expert validation, I found that employees experience engagement differently depending on their work arrangement: Connection emerged as a foundation for trust and collaboration, Opportunity reflected equitable access to information and voice, Recognition required consistency across all work modalities, and Equity revealed ongoing gaps tied to access and visibility. The framework gives leaders a practical way to think about engagement in today’s workplace, encouraging them to intentionally design employee experiences that are consistent and responsive across hybrid, remote, and in-person teams, rather than treating engagement as a single annual survey score.

“The real question isn’t just whether employees are productive: it’s whether they feel included, valued, and connected to the organization and to each other.”

Ryan Saul

Full dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20854567