9780131423305

Enthusiastic employees outproduce and outperform. They step up to do the impossible. They rally each other in tough times. Most people are enthusiastic when they're hired: hopeful, ready to work hard, eager to contribute. What happens to dampen their enthusiasm? Management, that's what.

David Sirota is holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of Michigan Louis A. Mischkind taught courses in social and organizational psychology at New York University and holds a master's degree in experimental psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from New York University Michael Irwin Meltzer holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School

Acknowledgments

xiii

About the Authors

xvii

Introduction

xxi

Part I: Worker Motivation, Morale, and Performance

1

(54)

What Workers Want---The Big Picture

3

(30)

Blame It on the Young

4

(3)

What People Actually Say About Work

7

(2)

Three Factors

9

(11)

The Evidence

20

(6)

How the Three Factors Work in Combination

26

(2)

Individual Differences

28

(5)

Employee Enthusiasm and Business Success

33

(22)

Making the Connection

33

(2)

Tell Us in Your Own Words

35

(4)

A Few Leading Organizations

39

(5)

Enthusiasm and Business Performance

44

(3)

Building the People Performance Model

47

(8)

Part II: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Fair Treatment

55

(82)

Job Security

57

(20)

Justice and Job Security

58

(10)

Best Policies and Practices

68

(9)

Compensation

77

(32)

Money as Seen by Workers

77

(1)

Money as Seen by Employers

78

(3)

The Level of Pay

81

(7)

Pay for Performance

88

(8)

Strategies for Effective Compensation

96

(13)

Respect

109

(28)

The Heart of Respect

112

(1)

Humiliating Treatment

113

(2)

Indifferent Treatment

115

(5)

The Specifics of Respectful Treatment

120

(1)

Physical Working Conditions

121

(2)

Status Distinctions

123

(4)

Job Autonomy

127

(4)

Constrained Communication

131

(3)

Day-to-Day Courtesies

134

(3)

Part III: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Achievement

137

(102)

Organization Purpose and Principles

139

(28)

Elements of Company Pride

140

(3)

Company Ethics and Business Results

143

(7)

Ethics in the Treatment of Employees

150

(4)

Getting Practical: Translating Words into Deeds

154

(13)

Job Enablement

167

(24)

Ah, Bureaucracy! The Evil That Just Won't Go Away

173

(6)

A Management Style That Works

179

(4)

Layers of Management

183

(3)

The Benefits of Self-Managed Teams

186

(5)

Job Challenge

191

(16)

Is This an Aberration, Are Workers Delusional, or Are They Lying?

193

(2)

Given a Choice, Few People Volunteer to Fail

195

(3)

Push and Pull Forces

198

(9)

Feedback, Recognition, and Reward

207

(32)

Do Workers Get the Feedback They Need?

207

(2)

Guidance: Cognitive Feedback

209

(3)

A Short Course on Giving Guidance

212

(11)

Evaluation, Recognition, and Reward

223

(8)

Promoting From Within

231

(2)

Dealing with Unsatisfactory Performance

233

(3)

Feedback Sets Priorities

236

(3)

Part IV: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Camaraderie

239

(24)

Teamwork

241

(22)

A Look Back

242

(1)

Are We Doing Better Now?

243

(1)

Socializing While Working

244

(1)

The Negative Effect of Uncooperative Co-Workers

245

(1)

Contentious Workgroups Are a Drag

246

(4)

Building Partnership

250

(4)

A Short Course on Effective Partnership Workshops

254

(9)

Part V: Bringing It All Together: The Total Organization Culture---and How to Change It

263

(40)

The Partnership Organization

265

(16)

Partnership and Its Alternatives

266

(13)

Application to Other Constituencies

279

(2)

Translating Partnership Theory into Partnership Practice

281

(22)

It Starts at the Top

283

(2)

The Action Process

285

(18)

Part VI: Appendices

303

(32)

Appendix A: Survey Administration and Population Composition

305

(4)

Appendix B: Reliability and Validity of the Data

309

(8)

Appendix C: Job Satisfaction: Demographic, Occupational, and Regional Breaks

317

(4)

Appendix D: Comparisons with Other Norms

321

(4)

Appendix E: The Readiness Questionnaire

325

(10)

Endnotes

335

(12)

Index

347

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IntroductionThe impact shook everything for blocks. Fire, charged by thousands of gallons of jet fuel, sucked so much oxygen out of the air around the impact zone that windows in nearby buildings blew out as the towers of the Word Trade Center began to wither and then collapse. On the 32 nd floor of the World Financial Center, the offices ofBarron'sMagazine shook. Computers, office supplies, and equipment flew out the windows. Stunned workers held on for dear life. Then, they carefully made their way out of the building to safety. The editorial and business offices ofBarron'sMagazine had been almost instantaneously decimated. The damage was so great that it took more than a year to refurbish the offices.Yet, on September 11, 2001, as people fled the building,Barron'semployees had already turned their attention to the task of publishing the magazine on time. Months later, Ed Finn,Barron'sManaging Editor, recalled that the attack had not prevented his employees from publishing a full edition of the magazine three days after their offices were destroyed. In fact, the idea of not publishing never even came up; the only question any employee asked was how the team would accomplish it. None of us would want to face the challenges thatBarron's--and many, many others--faced that day, but we can all appreciate what theBarron'semployees did. We can all agree that most organizations would love to have employees who display that level of enthusiasm for their jobs, their companies, and their colleagues.This is a book about enthusiastic workers.Managers at all levels often spend an inordinate amount of time with "difficult" individual employees--employees who are angry, uncooperative, or perhaps neurotically demanding of attention. In fact, the task of dealing with such behavior problems is often perceived as a significant human-resources cost. But, the reality is even worse, because the bigger problem is the vast number of workers who are not openly troublesome, but who have become largely indifferent to the organization and its purposes. This is the greater problem because the troublemakers can be identified and dealt with; the "walking indifferent," however, are silent killers. They have learned to expect not too much and to give not too much. Yet, these workers are normal people with reasonable human wants. Somehow, their human needs are only marginally satisfied, if at all, by the companies for which they work. In return, they give to the companies a mere fraction of what they are capable of contributing. The economic cost of this underutilization to the affected businesses is enormous.How does a company tackle this problem? One approach is to more closely supervise employees, pressuring them to do more. On a more positive note, other managers treat their workers to a procession of "motivational" speakers, rah-rah events, and programs. Neither approach will do much good--in fact, the former will likely exacerbate the problem. We need to get to the root of the matter, the source of employee indifference, and we need to address it. The real challenge is to turn indifferent workers into enthusiastic workers. The solution might surprise you.First, we must understand what workers want. Then, we must give it to them!This might sound absurd to some, a sure road to insolvency. On the contrary, it is a powerful path to business success.Why do we say this? Because many years of research has established that, surprisingly, little real conflict exists between the goals of the overwhelming majority of workers and those of their employers.It is a common, but harmful, misconception that people and their organizations are in a natural state of conflict. This book starts by setting the record straight, examining th

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Enthusiastic Employee : How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want

Enthusiastic Employee : How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want

0131423304

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