Attitudes and Values

Although the last entry made was about a similar topic but in a larger way, it would be interesting to answer the question: What kind of attitude does my employee have towards my company? Or, better on, why is my employee working for me?

Taken from farm4.static.flickr.com

Happiness / Unhappiness, Leave / Stay, Fire / Ignore. These are variables that both CEO's and employees have to face day by day, because of work issues. Not every work fits every person, nor every person is willing to take every job proposal they recive. There was an interesting blog at the NY Times about an owner of five small stores in Chicago, he said something remarkable: "You can try, you can listen, you can solve some problems, you can try some more. Good management requires training, counseling and patience, but there comes a point when you are robbing the business of precious time and energy." 1 He later added: "Bad management can make a good employee dysfunctional. On the other hand, good management will not always make a dysfunctional employee good. And sometimes people who would be great employees somewhere else just don’t fit your company, whether it is the type of business or the company culture." 2 His solution was simple, if you have an unhappy worker, then you should fire him.

www.happinessatworkindex.co.uk

There are lots of studies about why a worker, even if he/she is not happy will stay at his/her job. But the matter itself for a CEO would be about if the company can afford to lose a great employee because they cannot make that employee happy. A study in England called "The Happiness at Work Index and Employment Study from Badenoch & Clark" had some interesting statistics about which were the most important things from the employees about their jobs (Figure 1) and, as it can be seen many of the topics composed what it would be the attitude of an employee towards a job depending on how these variables were met. The study also found that: "nearly a fifth (18%) of respondents are actively looking to move jobs and over 41% expect to change jobs this year" 3 Why are they looking for jobs if they stated that they were happy at their actual work places? Well, this answer cannot be given. Happiness varies in definition from person to person, so even if these people state that they are happy, most of them may not be achieving their goals on their current workspace. Theories and models have to be taken into account if the goal is to retain Human Resources.

Quotes

1 Goltz, Jay (2010). The Secret to Having Happy Employees; Paragraph 5, Lines 2 to 5. The New York Times. You're  The Boss, The New York Times Business Blogs. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/the-secret-to-having-happy-employees/

2 Goltz, Jay (2010). The Secret to Having Happy Employees; Paragraph 6, Lines 3 to 7. The New York Times. You're  The Boss, The New York Times Business Blogs. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/the-secret-to-having-happy-employees/

3 Badenoch & Clark (2010). Workforce happier but no time for complacency; Paragraph 2, Lines 2 to 3. The Happiness at Work Index and Employment Study from Badenoch & Clark. The Happiness at Work Index from Badenoch & Clark. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://www.happinessatworkindex.co.uk/ 

Bibliography

Goltz, Jay (2010). The Secret to Having Happy Employees. The New York Times. You're  The Boss, The New York Times Business Blogs. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/the-secret-to-having-happy-employees/

Badenoch & Clark (2010). Workforce happier but no time for complacency. The Happiness at Work Index and Employment Study from Badenoch & Clark. The Happiness at Work Index from Badenoch & Clark. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://www.happinessatworkindex.co.uk/

Fox, Justin (2008). How to Succeed? Make Employees Happy. Time Magazine Webpage. Time Magazine Webpage. Access 02/02/2011 Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1818183,00.html

D'Amato, Gina (2011). Attitudes and Values Lecture. EAFIT University, Medellín Colombia.

Organizational Behavior

Nowadays is common for many of us, who have some grade of relation with Administration terms, the meaning of Organizational Behavior. Basically it reffers to the way the companies or even little chains of people behave, if they are succeding at leadership, employee, shareholder and even stakeholder levels. Not that there aren't any other meanings for the word, but in this case it would be a simple and accurate way of seeing it.

www.greatplacetowork.com

There is a famous evaluation institute called Great Place to Work (located in San Francisco, USA), that, alongside with many magazines around the world, evaluates companies in whole regions and countries. The objective is not just to attract employees (or great employees to make the difference remarked) but to become better through this process that takes place each year. 

So, what does this have to do with Organizational Behavior? Well quite much. The evaluation process includes, from the point of view of the employees: "aspects as the credibility of the leaders, the acknowledge of the contributions that workers have made to their company, how good or bad is the environment of work (taking into account place and coworkers), pride for the company and the perception of justice, equality and deservance with respect to the achievements made" 1


From this point of view, and since many companies have started to take a further look in this evaluation and other researchs about the topic, the world is now facing a stage of cultural and stakeholder awareness. It isn't just about the best payment, nowadays is about it all. Where is the organization headed? What is its culture? Are their employees working in what they feel confortable at? Are they meeting their proffesional goals? Are the stakeholders winning something from the enterprise? And many other cuestions. This study is developing awareness, as many others, that the companies need and have to be compromised with their organizational behavior if they want to have success, not only with its workers, but with customers, and society as a whole.

Quote

1 Dinero Magazine (2010). Las 25 mejores empresas para trabajar. Dinero Webpage, Paragraph 2, lines 7 to 10. Retrieved from http://www.dinero.com/edicion-impresa/caratula/25-mejores-empresas-para-trabajar_80275.aspx
[Personal Traduction]

Bibliography

Great Place To Work. Great Place to Work Webpage. Retrieved from http://www.greatplacetowork.com/ Access 01/02/2011

Dinero Magazine (2010). Las 25 mejores empresas para trabajar. Dinero Webpage. Access 01/02/2011 Retrieved from http://www.dinero.com/edicion-impresa/caratula/25-mejores-empresas-para-trabajar_80275.aspx 

Costea, B., & Crump, N. (1999). Introducing organisational behaviour: Issues in course design. Education & Training, 41(8), 403. Access 01/02/2011 Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/237064908?accountid=45662

D'Amato, Gina (2011). Organizational Behavior Lecture. EAFIT University, Medellín Colombia.

Some Interesting Blogs

Looking around on The BOB's webpage, I just wondered here and there and found out some blogs of international news, though regionalistic some, part of their focus is the young people, and of the relation of each zone with the rest of the world. So, just a little summary of each from my personal point of view, says as follows:

www.periodismoindependiente.es

Kind of thrilling international news blog, centered in Spain and European Union, but also adding international news as well as Latin America and United States follow up. Who minds to take a look at it, can find a different perspective of the world, and an interesting point of view from Spain eyes. 

thesouthasia.blogspot.com

Quite an exotic blog, yet simple. It mainly develops news and activities that have to do with the South Asian region, and its international relations with other countries all around the world. It's enjoyable for those that, as me, don't get much news about eastern countries, keeping it's identity and without being polarized by western reporters.

qorreo.com

A well designed blog, Qorreo, a bit of alike as Periodismo Independiente lets us know about Spain and its news, but also news about what they call the Iberosphere (mainly the area of influence of Spain). Maybe polarized a little, this doesn't mean the information showed would not be of good taste for its follower.