I think The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want is the best management book I have ever read. The book, published by Wharton School Publishing and written by David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer, features the "Three Factor Theory" (equity, achievement, camaraderie) of employee motivation and the value of partnership management.
The book's data are taken from questionnaire surveys administered by Sirota Consulting from 1994-2003.The company surveyed 2,537,656 respondents from 237 companies to determine that getting employees involved in the companies success is more motivating, energizing, and profitable than autocratic or laissez-faire management. Employees and management are in league together with both striving to make the company highly successful.
"We advocate a partnership culture as the surest path to a high-performance organization. Partnership works because it harnesses the natural motivation and enthusiasm that is characteristic of the overwhelming majority of workers.
I agree. I first learned the value of a partnership culture at the J.C. Penney company thirty years ago.It just made sense because the company based it on "The Golden Rule." Everything flows naturally from there. Who doesn't want to be treated fairly, have opportunities to grow, be a part of a successful company where everyone gets along without personnel problems?
Partnership management can engage, excite, energize, and improve any "team" (company, corporate office, department, region, or front line) regardless of the nature or size.
I strongly recommend that, any organization with a passion for organizational excellence, read the table of contents and decide whether this book is of value to their career or their organization. It paints a profitable picture of an engaging way to create something special by getting everyone involved in the process.
The Table of Contents
Part I: Worker Motivation, Morale, and Performance
Chapter 1: What Workers Want-The Big Picture
Chapter 2: Employee Enthusiasm and Business Success
Part II: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Fair Treatment
Chapter 3: Job Security
Chapter 4: Compensation
Chapter 5: Respect
Part III: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Achievement
Chapter 6: Organization Purpose and Principles
Chapter 7: Job Enablment
Chapter 8: Job Challenge
Chapter 9: Feedback, Recognition, and Reward
Part IV: Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Camaraderie
Chapter 10: Teamwork
Part V: Bringing It All Together: The Total Organization Culture-and How to Change It
Chapter 11: The Partnership Organization
Chapter 12: Translating Partnership Theory into Partnership Practice
The only major disagreement I have with the book, after instilling a partnership culture in five corporate offices and seven front line teams, is that it does not have to start at the top as stated below. In fact, it is more likely to be considered a viable management approach by an organization after a front line team has established the system within the existing culture.
It Starts At The Top
"Many partnership organizations did not have to change to that form; they started that way with a visionary founder and CEO who strongly believed that is the way people should be managed. Frederick Smith of Federal Express and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines are good examples of this. "
Employees who feel important produce important results.
Employees support, often with great passion, what they help create.
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