William Anderson, Director of Engineering at Forbes raises vital
issue about employee loyalty. He raises two important questions
1. What is loyalty to the organization?
2. Why does the Loyalty Die?
In his thought provoking insight, he says, Loyalty is not
about length of stay. Many employees stick around even if they find
workplace bad for them.
I think there could be two reasons
-
The
Employees have no choice due to their lack of knowledge, skill, experience or
attitudes.
-
It is believed
that all workplaces are same, hence hang on instead of facing uncertainty
believing the proverb - Known Devil is better than unknown Angel.
Loyalty Defined
It is finding solutions at workplace and contribute for
the growth of the organization even in adverse conditions. Of Course
without cursing & complaining about the organization, policies and the
boss.
It is the ability to focus on the responsibilities rather than
finding excuse for non-performance. Results may not be favourable but the
sincere efforts matter in a long run.
The second issue is Why does the loyalty die?
The possible reasons are as follows
-
The firm
don't live up to their promises to the employees and hence there is lack of
trust. The Employees have feeling of being exploited.
-
The
feeling among the employees that there is lack of support to them in difficult
times, honest efforts are not being recognized and in many cases sycophancy
thrives instead of performance.
-
There is
a lack of integrity among the employees and focus on personal goals and
achievements rather than organizational growth.
-
The
feeling of unable to deliver or failing to make any change that ultimately
leads to the frustration and outburst.
The solution may be found in works of the genius, Prof. Sumatra
Ghoshal, he says the smell of the place must change for the purposeful
actions to take place. He gives following matrix to change the smell of the
place.
|
Existing
Workplace Context
|
Desired
Workplace Context
|
|
Contract
|
Trust
|
|
Control
|
Support
|
|
Compliance
|
Discipline
|
|
Constraint
|
Stretch
|
Dr. Sushant T. Joshi
