How Companies Can Profit By Giving Workers What They Want

Oct. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- What management policies and day-to-day practices make for a high-morale workforce?

The 2^nd edition of “The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Employees What They Want” (Pearson, 2013) reports in-depth analyses of more than 42 years of survey research, covering over 13.6 million employees at all levels working for more than 840 companies in all industries.

The book’s core concept is simple: Management doesn’t have to “motivate” employees. Rather, it must steer clear of practices that destroy the natural tendency of most workers to be proud of their work and company and perform at high levels.

Written by David Sirota and Douglas Klein, their analyses show clearly that high-morale companies satisfy the three main goals of the overwhelming majority of workers – regardless of gender, race, nationality, or age. These goals are:

·         Equity: To be treated fairly in relation to the basic conditions of employment, such as pay, benefits, and fundamental respect for people.

·         Achievement: To take pride in one’s accomplishments by doing things that matter and being enabled to do them well; to receive recognition for one’s accomplishments; and, to take pride in the organization’s accomplishments.

·         Camaraderie: To have warm, interesting and cooperative relations with others in the workplace.

The three goals are best satisfied by specific policies and practices that, taken as a whole, comprise what the authors call a Partnership Culture. “It is a culture in which employees are treated as genuinely valued assets rather than as enemies to be fought, or children to be coddled, or disposable parts that can easily be replaced. As described in detail in the book, it is the culture that is characteristic of high-performing companies such as Southwest Airlines and Costco, and, in the nonprofit sector, of Mayo Clinic,” say the authors.

“In these companies, relationships between management and employees are based on: mutual obligations; grounded in performance; with high levels of trust, transparency and collaboration; and shared rewards. In both good and difficult business conditions, the employee enthusiasm generated by this kind of corporate culture is a huge factor in their business success.”

This second edition is an update to the widely-acclaimed 2005 book of the same name.

The book now contains a detailed study of Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s most effective healthcare organizations and a true representation of the principle of partnership, as well as more in-depth descriptions of private sector exemplars of partnership, such as Costco.

Other new chapters include: how the Great Recession really impacted workers’ morale (it didn’t) and how to build a true Partnership Culture that starts with senior leadership.

The authors debunk fashionable theories of worker “generations” (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Y, etc.) as mostly nonsense… clarify what they’ve learned about making business ethics and corporate social responsibility actionable…share what research on merit pay tells us about its likely impact on school teachers and performance (not good)…offer compelling, data-informed insights about women and minorities in the workplace, and much more.

For more information about the book, its authors or Sirota, please call (914) 696-4700, or visit http://www.amazon.com/The-Enthusiastic-Employee-Companies-Workers/dp/0133249026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377536372&sr=8-1&keywords=enthusiastic+employee