July 28th, 2008
“Traditionally-managed companies, by inadvertently draining the
motivation levels of their employees, are stifling productivity,
innovation, and creativity. Companies cannot expect to remain
competitive when such large numbers of employees do not feel like they
are treated like responsible adults nor when they feel like their input
has little or no impact on the company’s decision-making process.” This comes from Asher Adelman, Founder and President of the Workplace Democracy Association, which has just released the results of a workplace survey that they conducted with Zogby. A few of the uninspiring data points:
- 25% of working Americans describe their workplace as a dictatorship
- 34% say that their bosses respond well to valid criticism
- 31% believe that human resources and / or upper management almost always or sometimes hire the wrong people
What is your workplace like?
Just my humble opinion here, but to me this is yet another indication that we really do not understand leadership and culture as business and performance issues. Less and less do I believe that these dynamics take life because of some “bad / incompetent leaders”, but rather our limited and narrow concept of leadership. The way we operate today creates a situation in which even “good leaders” can be contributing to the outcomes highlighted by this survey.
Have a good week…hope you are not working in a dictatorship. If you are, it is probably time to start thinking about a revolution. You know where to find me.