Naperville, IL – June 6, 2011 – The business thought leadership organization, The Forum, has published a new white paper which reexamines the crucial link between how effectively managers communicate and how their communication strengths – or weaknesses – affect the level that employees are engaged in their work.

The paper, authored for The Forum by Curtis Walker Jr., who recently completed a doctoral degree from the University of Connecticut, is the latest in a long series of respected white papers illustrating how businesses and other organizations can improve their results by focusing on their most important resource – their people. Walker is the winner of The Forum’s research competition for doctoral candidates studying in the field of people and organizational performance.

”Perceived Climate for Engagement and the Role of Social Influences in Fostering Individual Engagement and Performance Behaviors,” is based on research conducted at a major state-run university health system which provides medical care to inmates at statewide correctional facilities. It explores several dimensions of employee engagement in a nonprofit organization and evaluates how leadership styles and the organizational climate can influence an employee’s level of engagement.

One major finding shows a positive and significant relationship between an individual employee’s perception of an organization’s climate and that individual’s level of engagement. “In short, employees perceive themselves as performing better when they perceive the work climate positively,” Walker wrote.

He added that the upshot for managers is that they can significantly improve employee performance by offering clear and proper guidance on the three major “P’s” of any workplace; policies, procedures, and practices.

To read the full text of the white paper, ”Perceived Climate for Engagement and the Role of Social Influences in Fostering Individual Engagement and Performance Behaviors,” please visit The Forum’s new website, www.BusinessResultsThroughPeople.org. The website is open to anyone interested in learning how an increased emphasis on companies’ most valuable component – their people – is having a measurable effect on the bottom line.