In This Issue

·    Job Satisfaction, Affiliation, and Prosperity

·    Greater Equality and Stronger Societies

·    Quote

·    EOR Mentions

·    About EOR

Contact Us

Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR)

www.elsdon.com

renewal@elsdon.com

Tel.  925 838 2362

Ron Elsdon, Ph.D., is founder of Elsdon Organizational Renewal (a division of Elsdon, Inc.), which focuses on supporting organizations enhance effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and leadership practices.  Prior to establishing his practice, Ron held senior leadership positions at diverse organizations.  Ron is also co-founder of New Beginnings Career and College Guidance, which provides caring and personalized help to individuals and families in career guidance, coaching and college planning.

Ron is author of Affiliation in the Workplace:  Value Creation in the New Organization, a book describing leadership approaches to integrate the needs of the individual with the needs of the organization for the benefit of both.  Ron holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in Chemical Engineering, an M.A. from John F. Kennedy University in Career Development and a first class honors degree from Leeds University in Chemical Engineering.  With his co-author he was awarded the Walker Prize by the Human Resource Planning Society for the paper that best advances state-of-the-art thinking or practices in human resources.

Welcome to the latest issue of Bringing Work to Life.

Coming soon, our new book Building Workforce Strength:  Creating Value through Workforce and Career Development to be published by Praeger, summer 2010.  This book highlights the perspectives and learning of experienced practitioners about building and sustaining workforce strength:

http://www.abc-clio.com/products/overview.aspx?productid=120026&viewid=1

We explored the following topics in the past twelve issues of Bringing Work to Life (all newsletters are available at www.elsdon.com/newsletters.htm):

o   The purpose of organizations (First Quarter 2010)

o   Career stepping stones (Fourth Quarter 2009)

o   Portfolio careers (Third Quarter 2009)

o   Career windows (Second Quarter 2009)

o   Handling upheaval (First Quarter 2009)

o   Career transformation (Fourth Quarter 2008)

o   Career interdependence (Third Quarter 2008)

o   Demystifying workforce metrics (Second Quarter 2008)

o   Transforming a Human Resources (HR) career (First Quarter 2008)

o   Stewardship and governance (November/December 2007)

o   Finding the peaks (September/October 2007)

o   Career plateaus – what to do about them (July/August 2007)

In this issue we address “Job Satisfaction, Affiliation and Prosperity.”

 In this time of high unemployment how are those who are employed viewing their jobs?  Does relief at being employed trump job frustration?  Not according to a recent Conference Board survey of job satisfaction summarized in the following figure:  

Source:
I Can’t Get No...Job Satisfaction, That Is: America’s Unhappy Workers
Research Report #1459-09-RR, The Conference Board.

Job satisfaction in 2009 was at the lowest level recorded in the twenty-two year history of this survey.  Only 45% of people surveyed were satisfied with their jobs in 2009, continuing a consistent trend of declining satisfaction since 1987, when 61% of people reported being satisfied.  Particularly disturbing is the concern expressed by those just entering the workforce as shown in the following figure:

 Source:
I Can’t Get No...Job Satisfaction, That Is: America’s Unhappy Workers
Research Report #1459-09-RR, The Conference Board.

Fueling these fires of discontent has been growing inequity in the workplace with those in power taking disproportionate compensation.  CEO compensation averaged more than three hundred times that of the typical American worker in 2007, compared to thirty or forty times the average American worker’s paycheck in the late 1970s.  Between 2000 and 2008 real median household income stagnated for the average American worker.

Along with these financial concerns are factors that contribute to a challenging workplace.  Elsdon Inc.’s results of exit interviews with more than 2,500 people in wide ranging industry sectors and job functions, show people considering leaving organizations for the following reasons, in order of priority:

1. Negative work environment
2. Lack of developmental opportunities in existing role
3. Lack of promotional opportunities
4. Better opportunity/more challenge
5. Lack of recognition/appreciation
6. Poor communication with manager
7. Base pay
8. Lack of meaningful work/adding value
9. Lack of resources
10. Increased stress

Negative work environment includes factors such as lack of management openness to suggestions, conflict in the workplace and lack of respect.  Many of the reasons in this list relate to an expressed need for development opportunities.  Most of the issues are connected to management and leadership behaviors.

These issues contribute to decreased job satisfaction.  If we continue down a path of decreased job satisfaction, this will slow economic recovery, harm productivity and further fracture communities.  How can we reverse the trend of declining job satisfaction?

Let’s consider this from three perspectives:

·         Community/policy

·         Organization

·         Individual

First some aspects of the community/policy perspective.  The following figure, frequently referred to as the Beveridge curve (Bringing Work to Life, Third Quarter 2009), shows the trend of job openings and unemployment from 2000 to 2009:

Source:  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

 Policies during the years 2000 to 2008 moved us firmly to the lower right of the figure – a point of high unemployment and reduced job openings.  While there is still a long path to employment prosperity, stimulus funding since 2008 has helped arrest the trend, job openings have stabilized and the unemployment rate is beginning to fall.  These trends are reflected in a significant reduction in job losses:

Source:  Organizing for America, Democratic National Committee

So we see a clear need for policies, such as stimulus funding, that support job creation.  This needs to take place in an environment of equitable distribution of rewards and resources, rather than rewards only accruing to a select few.  Policies are needed that strengthen corporate governance practices and contain excessive compensation at senior levels where value subtraction rather than creation has occurred.  Policies are needed that provide for effective provision of healthcare, such as through a single payer system.  Healthcare is a basic human right in other developed societies.  People in such societies, since they do not suffer from our unregulated private insurance bureaucracy, do not face our threat of medically induced bankruptcies, and they have fully inclusive and better healthcare outcomes provided at much lower cost.

At the organization level we have an opportunity to create workplace environments that inspire and encourage people.  In our upcoming book, Building Workforce Strength, we identify the relationship between stronger affiliation and the extent to which people self-assess that they are working to closer to their full potential.  Enhanced productivity is a natural outgrowth of working closer to potential.  Strong affiliation results from leadership practices that (Affiliation in the Workplace, 2003): 

Here is the moment of awakening for the poet Pablo Neruda as quoted by Whyte (1996):  “I didn't know what to say, my mouth could not speak, my eyes could not see and something ignited in my soul, fever on unremembered wings and I went my own way deciphering that burning fire and I wrote the first bare line, bare without substance, pure foolishness, pure wisdom, of one who knows nothing and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open.”  It can be this way in organizations, as each person realizes their sense of calling, awakens their music, the music of the whole organization stirs.

Which brings us to the third perspective, namely that of the individual.  Here we  acknowledge now being in world where interdependence is central to individual development and progression (Bringing Work to Life, Third Quarter 2008).  Career interdependence recognizes the strengths and benefits that come from integrating personal aspirations with communal resources.  Individual success and aspirations are interwoven with the success and aspirations of others. In this environment growing job satisfaction is strengthened by: 

It is by interlinking such community, organization and individual perspectives that we can move closer to a society that secures prosperity and fulfillment for all.     

There is growing evidence that greater equality in a society leads to healthier, happier communities for everyone regardless of economic circumstance.  This is highlighted in recent book, The Spirit Level, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.  The following figures are drawn from this source.  Combining a series of indices that characterize health and social problems shown in the following figure, and using a standard measure of inequality (the ratio of income received by the top to the bottom 20%), Wilkinson and Pickett show that health and social problems are closely related to inequality in rich countries.  They also show separately that health and social problems are only weakly related to national average income among rich countries.

A similar pattern is observed among U.S. States as shown in the following figure:

Similarly life expectancy is unrelated to differences in average income between rich countries as shown in the next figure on the left, but closely related to differences in income within a society as shown by the next figure on the right.

Child well-being (using forty United Nations Children’s Fund indicators) is better in more equal rich countries as shown in the following figure:

Homicide rates are higher in more unequal rich countries as shown in the next figure:

and homicide rates are higher in more unequal U.S. States as shown in the next figure:

Levels of trust are higher in more equal rich countries as shown in the next figure:

And levels of trust are higher in more equal U.S. States as shown in the next figure:

Social mobility is higher in more equal rich countries as shown in the next figure:

Inequality trends over a recent thirty year period show the problems of policies during the Reagan and Bush (squared) years.   

Not surprisingly, the policies that generated this growing inequality also brought us close to economic collapse as in the time of the Great Depression.  We see this reflected in a dramatic jump in food insecurity (a euphemism for hunger) in 2008 as shown in the following figure:

Source:  Household Food Security in the United States, 2008.  United States Department of Agriculture.  Economic Research Service.  Economic Research Report Number 83, November 2009.

At a time when we struggle to secure basic healthcare for our population, a right that has existed in most developed countries for many years, we can and should reflect on revitalizing values of common humanity and decency, knowing that a quest for such values is a quest for greater equality in our society, and that such a quest benefits all.

"… Then it is only kindness that makes any sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend."

From Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

·         Reviews of “Affiliation in the Workplace:  Value Creation in the New Organization.”  Ron Elsdon.  Praeger,  Westport, CT (2003)

o   Harvard Business School

·         HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations

o   Global Diversity Institute

·         Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis

o   Journal of Asian Economics

·         ScienceDirect - Journal of Asian Economics : Ron Elsdon, Affiliation in the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT (2003) 280 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 1-56720-436-8, $49.95.

o   Greenwood Publishing Group

·         Affiliation in the Workplace — www.greenwood.com

·         Chapter titled “How Can You Grow Your Practice with Purpose?” in National Career Development Association Monograph, “Starting and Growing a Business in the New Economy”  Edited by Sally Gelardin, 2007

·         Recorded webinars for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers

o   Staying Career Fit in Turbulent Times

·         http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=5b5ab7c8-d88a-4592-8b97-0a8c25eeea59

o   Networking and Connecting

·         http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=ccdc8053-0321-4c3f-b1c7-8c4254e2fffb

o   Progressing in Your Organization

·         http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=3fd526f3-ac7e-4a3e-b70b-08d771211e46

o   Negotiating for a New Position

·         http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=aea9e4cc-d045-4d20-bebe-cbba93ab0d1a

·         Webcast for the Human Capital Institute (and associated white paper)

o   Building Workforce Affiliation to Keep Your Best and Brightest Talent

·         http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/research_community_product.guid;jsessionid=8C417EAC34880D6A38E82D4FBE2598C4?_webcastID=74366

·         Recorded webinar for the Project Management Institute 

o   “Becoming Career Fit in Turbulent Times”

·         http://pmi-issig.org/Default.aspx?tabid=319

·         “Building a Strong Workforce Through Affiliation.”  Chapter 26 in “On Staffing: Advice and Perspectives from HR Leaders.”  Eds.  Nicholas Burkholder et al, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken NJ (2004)

o   http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html

·         “The Growing Divide Calls for Advocacy.”

o   Article in March, 2007, NCDA Career Convergence magazine

·         http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=947&Sections=&IncludeDropped=1&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285

·         “Reaching for Our Deep Gladness”

o   Article in May, 2005, NCDA Career Convergence magazine

·         http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=625&Sections=6&IncludeDropped=&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285

·         Mention in article on cost of turnover

o   East Bay Business Times, April 2005

·         Turnover costs exceed employers' estimates - 2005-04-25

·         “Worklife Survival:  Finding a Fit”

o   Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource Association)

·         http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf

·         Interview in the education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in Education”

o   Career Pro News

·         Affiliation and Education

·         MBTI Step II workshop

o   CCDA News, April 2005

·         Local Chapter News

·         Review of ICDC Global Issues Forum

o   CCDA, January 2005

·         ICDC Global Issues Forum

We enhance your workforce, leadership and organization by:

·         Using proprietary approaches to understand workforce and leadership challenges

·         Creating tailored action plans and solutions to strengthen workforce and leadership practices

·         Building individual capabilities and contributions

We enable you to focus on external results and building value, confident that your organization and leadership are operating at peak effectiveness.

To support your organization by enhancing performance, productivity and effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and leadership practices.

We tailor our engagements to the needs of each organization with a process designed to surface critical issues, identify root causes, build effective solutions, monitor progress and implement.

With a scope that ranges from system and organizational interventions to work with individuals, our focus is on the heart of the relationship among the individual, the organization and the community.  We believe that organizational and community prosperity are built on enabling each person to fulfill his or her potential.

We work with individuals and groups in your organization to drive performance and development for both the short and long term.  As a result people will choose to work in your organization and will prosper there.

We bring solutions when you need to:

·         Reverse declining revenues and performance

·         Revitalize your workforce

·         Stem the loss of key talent

·         Redirect your organization to new areas

·         Stop losing customers or market share

·         Penetrate new markets

·         Combat aggressive competitors

·         Handle major change

·         Break down communication barriers

·         Energize your leadership team

·         Successfully build on an acquisition or merger

Our proprietary services include:

·         On-site career services that support the development of your workforce, build strength in depth, increase individual fulfillment and affiliation, and accelerate  productivity growth

o   On site career counseling

o   Individual and group delivery

o   Metrics to guide on-going system enhancement  

o   Integrated with the needs of your organization

·         State-of-the-art tools to take the pulse of your organization and then move to action

o   Web enabled systems

o   Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to action

·         Individual leadership coaching to give you world class leadership capabilities

o   Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their capabilities and become catalysts developing others

·         Workshops to build interpersonal skills in your organization so that:

o   Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal

o   People listen to each other

o   Negotiations are quick and effective

o   Differences create rather than destroy value

o   Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products and services

o   People understand and link their motivations to your organizational needs

o   Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized workforce

o   People use their time well

·         Systems that make it easy to drive performance and build capabilities by:

o   Linking objectives throughout the organization

o   Strengthening key competencies

o   Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it

o   Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers and development and have a major long term influence on your organization

·         Proprietary simulation and modeling techniques that let you explore how to maximize the value of your workforce