The soul of the organization: How to ignite employee engagement and productivity
Abstract
Given the opportunity to describe Apple as a company in just a word or two, most would respond with adjectives like: Innovative. Design-conscious. Iconic. Some would probably even say: Secretive. But here's another: Soulful. Yes, Apple has a soul, and it is not alone in that respect. A select few organizations can similarly be said to exhibit similar qualities of soul that inspire passion in their employees and set them on the path to high levels of sustained organizational performance. But, given that most organizations are plagued by low levels of employee engagement and lackluster organizational performance, how do high-performing organizations do it? How do they ignite and sustain employee engagement and boost individual and overall organizational productivity? That is exactly the question that organizational expert David B. Zenoff sets out to answer in The Soul of the Organization. Based on the author's extensive experience consulting to and observing some of the best-known organizations in the world, The Soul of the Organization (www.souloftheorganization.com) journeys into eleven high-performing organizations operating in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds to determine the underlying elements of soul that foster strong employee engagement at all levels. What Zenoff finds in his inquiry is that organizations as different as home goods retailer Williams-Sonoma and not-for-profit group Larkin Street Youth Services all share in common five key elements of soul that, taken together, are powerful forces for fostering employee engagement, satisfaction, and meaning. And he doesn't stop once he has identified the five core elements of an organization's soul. Instead, he goes on to offer both a conceptual framework and a practical primer on how to leverage these key ingredients to create, sustain, and nourish a soul in your organization. Organizations of all stripes and in all industries and domains have great difficulty motivating their workforces to demonstrate a strong commitment to giving their all in the workplace. As a result, these organizations' overall productivity and growth are compromised, and their employees cannot find meaning or satisfaction in their work. If your organization struggles with sub-par employee loyalty, commitment, and drive, you will find the guidance you need in The Soul of the Organization, a guide to infusing into your workplace that "special something" that engages employees, drives their productivity, and taps into their collective well of potential so that your organization can make its mark on the world.
Chapters (9)
The findings begin with four examples of not-for-profit organizations—Larkin Street Youth Services, Sisters of Mercy, University of Notre Dame, and Stanford University—as well as one example of a public sector enterprise—San Francisco International Airport—whose souls are strong.
Business organizations, indeed, can have souls as exemplified by the six leading U.S. firms that are described in this chapter: Barclays Global Investors, Merrill Lynch, Levi Strauss & Company, Wells Fargo, Dodge & Cox, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
What do the examples of companies and not-for-profit organizations discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 suggest about the nature, ingredients, and power of their souls? Each organization featured, in its own specific way, exemplifies the definition of soul, which consists of five principal ingredients that are discussed in depth below.
Why do the 11 organizations discussed throughout this book continue to have such strong souls a long time after they were founded? How have these organizations’ souls managed to transcend decades, transitions in leadership, and the strategic and managerial adaptations necessary to keep up with the demands of changing times? In this chapter, we will explore these questions and more.
The immediate aftermath of the sudden, surprising, and somewhat mysterious departure of Mark Hurd as Hewlett-Packard’s CEO in August 2010 included press allegations of how unpopular Hurd had been among longtime HP employees and executives. The New York Times reported that Hurd had “systematically destroy[ed] what had always made HP great … [by] ‘chopping R. & D.,’ which had always been sacred at HP.” The article also discussed “Mr. Hurd’s dictum that HP executives resign from all civic boards, as well as his decision to cut off many of HP’s philanthropic activities.” “HP had always been a model corporate citizen,” said Charlie House, a former longtime HP engineer. Plus, he continued, “Mr. Hurd was incredibly rude and demeaning, and relied on the fear factor … He was wrecking our image, personally demeaning us, and chopping our future.”
Recently, senior partners of a rapidly growing information security consulting firm decided to find and build on the soul of their firm as part of an intended renewal of its culture and strategy. The creation of the firm was the amalgamated result of a “roll up” of nine formerly independent partnerships in the same type of business that came together in the late 1990’s dot-com boom. Through 2011, the nine smaller firms had been permitted to continue working in their legacy professional practice groupings, to keep their existing clients, and to pursue new client relationships as they did in the days when they functioned as independent partnerships.
Young organizations normally have exceptionally dynamic, demanding, and fragile existences. Their strategic path can be off the mark, and they must endure zigs and zags in strategy as new insights about challenges and opportunities arise. Their financial base is often difficult to secure and subject to uncertainties and changes in funders’ support. Their efforts to gain traction in a desired marketplace or domain usually involve an uphill competitive struggle. Their progress is likely to look much different from what they and their backers had originally anticipated it would. Furthermore, because of the limits imposed on young organizations by thin staffing, if key employees leave, they can experience great stress and organizational dysfunction in their efforts to cover the human-resource gaps. Recruiting the right employees can be slow. Hiring mistakes can be made, resulting in potential setbacks. Understandings about goals, priorities, and desired approaches can evolve unaligned among the leadership group. The IT and administrative infrastructures are likely to be underdeveloped and only partially reliable. The list of potential pitfalls and vulnerabilities young organizations face goes on and on. Suffice it to say that operating in a young organization is tough work with highly unknowable future prospects.
Employees and the organizations in which they work are often unaligned in important ways that create tensions, dilemmas, disappointments, and challenges between them. Employees, for their part, often are highly concerned about employment security and receiving sufficient and fair compensation. In addition, they might be worried about not having attractive professional development or advancement opportunities, satisfactory relationships with their bosses and colleagues, or meaningful, interesting, and challenging work. They might not be given suitable recognition and respect by their organization or the freedom to do their jobs as they think appropriate. They might feel out of the know about their organization’s overall objectives, strategy, and what their leaders consider most important. We can understand, therefore, why employees might regard their employer with a healthy dose of anxiety, reserve, and mistrust and, as a result, feel an unwillingness or inability to fully engage in their work.
... There are certain elements of organizational support that influence employees and their behaviors. Some of them are [23]: ...
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance and significance of leadership and organizational support in shaping employee behavior and improving their
performance. Leaders, by their leadership style and actions, can greatly encourage organizational citizenship behavior of employees and their overall results. Leaders
who use appropriate communication style, networking activities, planning process, building and developing talents, conflict management, change management, and provide clear guidance to employees are able to motivate them to achieve high results. Furthermore, if employees perceive that the organization correctly and
appropriately values their contribution, cares about their well-being, and attempts to meet their needs, their behavior will be directed at enhancing results. Employees begin to feel proud that they work for a specific organization, they care about the achievements that the organization accomplishes, and they want to give their
maximum when executing work tasks and activities under such conditions and circumstances.
... According to Zenoff (2013), culture and management practices should aim at producing good performance positive results that are aligned with the set organizational objectives Chreso University, 2015 and goals. Furthermore, the earlier studies of Collin and Porras (1994) revealed that long term performance in an organization is influenced by the OC. ...
... Employee engagement helps organization to achieve employee creativity. (Zenoff, 2015). Application of interactive and communication technologies help to persuade employees to understand the ways in which people located in different geographical contexts perceive, analyze, and produce situated knowledge (O'Brien, Alfano, & Magnusson, 2007). ...
Employee engagement refers to the state of mind where an employee is enthusiastic about his work and is so much absorbed in the organization that he continually takes action to further its reputation and interest. Today's workforce comprises of demanding and aware centennial population often referred as i-gen, cloud natives. The organizations of this era are posed with several serious challenges such as tough competitions, scarce resources, strict legal compliances, turbulent environment and ever changing technologies. The organizations adopt all the measures to get results from their employees. In this scenario the key to sustain for any organization would be to secure a pool of engaged employees who deliver results not out of fear but out of interest and willingness. This paper is conceptual in nature and aims at in-depth study of the strategies adopted by global firms to achieve a higher level of engagement of their employees. Secondary sources of data such as journals, periodicals, books, company websites and consultancy blog sites have been used for collecting information. The paper will bring out trends into practice towards engagement of centennial workforce which can be used by organizations for designing their engagement programs.
Objective - Telecommunication companies need their people to engage in their activities to achieve organizational goals. So, employee engagement became a crucial aspect of a company that struggles to win the competition. Some literature shows that human resource practice affects employee engagement. The present study examines the impact of perceived organizational support as a mediator on the relationship. Methodology/Technique - Data were collected from a branch office of the biggest telecommunication company in Bandung during May 2019. The questionnaires were distributed through the human resources department for four weeks. We analyze 112 valid responses by using SPSS and Macro Process. Findings - By conducting regression with bootstrapping we found that perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between effective human resources practice and employee engagement. The result suggests that a telecommunication company should practice good human resources practice including proper recruitment, training & development, reward, career advancement, and employee relation so that the employees can perceive its support and increase their engagement. Novelty – This finding provides the implication that good management of human resources practice and perceived organizational support can increase employee engagement. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Employee Engagement, Human Resource Practice, Perceived Organizational Support. JEL Classification: M12, M19
Executive Summary In the face of explosive global competition and a fast-evolving technological revolution, experts on leadership and management acknowledge the importance and value of an engaged, high-performance workforce as the key to the achievement of organizational growth and development. This study investigated the current state of employee engagement in Alberta's public service sector, deploying a mixed quantitative (sampled, anonymous online survey) and qualitative approach (sampled personal interviews) to gather primary data. The online survey of 55 public service employees represented a 100% response rate, and included 15 true-false and 11 scale questions. Research from government and public service entities, selected global literature reviews, academic papers, human resources studies, industry analysts provided a stock of secondary data. The survey data analysis tabulated the responses to scale questions as either yes or no, as a method for increasing the reliability of the count of engaged and disengaged employees. The report deployed Survey Planet and Tableau workforce survey and analytics tools to interpret and analyse the data. Overall, the results showed that 58.9 % of Alberta's public service employees do not feel engaged. A comparison with benchmarks from the Government of Canada, Achievers, and the Towers Watson clearly highlights from a global perspective, the retrograde state of employee engagement in Alberta's public service. The analysis showed that two thirds of the workforce (66%) view leadership, communications, trust, vision, values, and policy among the most acute areas requiring review and change. The study identified eleven essential triggers and six elemental attributes of engagement which formed the focus of engagement improvement recommendations proposed at the end of this report. How engagement impacts performance, productivity, and profitability in Alberta's Public Service.
Executive Summary In the face of explosive global competition and a fast-evolving technological revolution, experts on leadership and management acknowledge the importance and value of an engaged, high-performance workforce as the key to the achievement of organizational growth and development. This study investigated the current state of employee engagement in Alberta's public service sector, deploying a mixed quantitative (sampled, anonymous online survey) and qualitative approach (sampled personal interviews) to gather primary data. The online survey of 55 public service employees represented a 100% response rate, and included 15 true-false and 11 scale questions. Research from government and public service entities, selected global literature reviews, academic papers, human resources studies, industry analysts provided a stock of secondary data. The survey data analysis tabulated the responses to scale questions as either yes or no, as a method for increasing the reliability of the count of engaged and disengaged employees. The report deployed Survey Planet and Tableau workforce survey and analytics tools to interpret and analyse the data. Overall, the results showed that 58.9 % of Alberta's public service employees do not feel engaged. A comparison with benchmarks from the Government of Canada, Achievers, and the Towers Watson clearly highlights from a global perspective, the retrograde state of employee engagement in Alberta's public service. The analysis showed that two thirds of the workforce (66%) view leadership, communications, trust, vision, values, and policy among the most acute areas requiring review and change. The study identified eleven essential triggers and six elemental attributes of engagement which formed the focus of engagement improvement recommendations proposed at the end of this report. How engagement impacts performance, productivity, and profitability in Alberta's Public Service.
Besonders für die so stark gesuchten Young Potentials der Generation Y ist die Kommunikation durch bestehende Mitarbeiter so wichtig, da diese heutzutage besondere Anforderungen an die Unternehmen stellen: Flexibilität und Freiraum bei der Arbeit spielen für sie eine besonders große Rolle. Über persönliche Gespräche und Erzählungen durch Mitarbeiter können sich diese Young Potentials auf besonders ehrliche Weise darüber informieren, ob ein Arbeitgeber diese Anforderungen erfüllt. Im Umkehrschluss ist die persönliche Markenkommunikation durch Mitarbeiter auch für das Unternehmen von besonderer Wichtigkeit: Das Herausfinden, ob eine Identifikation mit dem Unternehmen vorliegt, bedeutet eine automatische Selektion, da sich nur diejenigen Arbeitsuchenden bewerben werden, die eine persönliche Übereinstimmung der eigenen Werte mit denen des Arbeitgebers wahrnehmen.
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