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On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Barbgolden wrote Re: WORK
>
>Thanks, Rick, for your insight. I did a lot of thinking about this
>dissatisfaction. At first I thought that people still move forward when
>satisfied and I still think that somewhat.
>
>My company, Computing Solutions, has people who are happy with their jobs, but
>are never completely satisfied. They are naturally dissatisfied! You hit it on
>the head. We really have no leaders or all leaders, maybe. They know the
>objectives and they do what it takes to get there. They also have the power to
>change and add things as long as they keep doing what works.

The interchange on energy by Emily, Rick and Barb is interesting.

I have found the views of Dr. Fredrick Herzberg to be very useful. In a
nutshell -- many people are dissatisfied and put a lot of energy into
staying dissatisfied due to a list of things (especially regarding their
employment environment). But the things that "turn them on" are not the
opposite sign. The things that motivate are a quite different list.
Managements job is to minimize the sources of dissatisfaction but that will
not lead to satisfaction, merely to a neutral state. Then the "attractors"
of satisfaction have to be put in place.

Vision may be a key attractor but one has to be careful because it is
difficult to discern a vision from an hallucination.

Jack Ring
32712 N. 70th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
602-488-4615

Jack Ring wrote:
>
> On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Barbgolden wrote Re: WORK
> >
> >Thanks, Rick, for your insight. I did a lot of thinking about this
> >dissatisfaction. At first I thought that people still move forward when
> >satisfied and I still think that somewhat.
> >
> >My company, Computing Solutions, has people who are happy with their jobs, but
> >are never completely satisfied. They are naturally dissatisfied! You hit it on
> >the head. We really have no leaders or all leaders, maybe. They know the
> >objectives and they do what it takes to get there. They also have the power to
> >change and add things as long as they keep doing what works.
>
> The interchange on energy by Emily, Rick and Barb is interesting.
>
> I have found the views of Dr. Fredrick Herzberg to be very useful. In a
> nutshell -- many people are dissatisfied and put a lot of energy into
> staying dissatisfied due to a list of things (especially regarding their
> employment environment). But the things that "turn them on" are not the
> opposite sign. The things that motivate are a quite different list.
> Managements job is to minimize the sources of dissatisfaction but that will
> not lead to satisfaction, merely to a neutral state. Then the "attractors"
> of satisfaction have to be put in place.
>
> Vision may be a key attractor but one has to be careful because it is
> difficult to discern a vision from an hallucination.
>
> Jack Ring
> 32712 N. 70th St.
> Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
> 602-488-4615
Re: Jack Ring's comment about vision, maybe the vision is just a
hallucination that hasn't yet been disproven

On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Jack Ring wrote:

> On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Barbgolden wrote Re: WORK
> >
> >Thanks, Rick, for your insight. I did a lot of thinking about this
> >dissatisfaction. At first I thought that people still move forward when
> >satisfied and I still think that somewhat.
> >
> >My company, Computing Solutions, has people who are happy with their jobs, but
> >are never completely satisfied. They are naturally dissatisfied! You hit it on
> >the head. We really have no leaders or all leaders, maybe. They know the
> >objectives and they do what it takes to get there. They also have the power to
> >change and add things as long as they keep doing what works.
>
> The interchange on energy by Emily, Rick and Barb is interesting.
>
> I have found the views of Dr. Fredrick Herzberg to be very useful. In a
> nutshell -- many people are dissatisfied and put a lot of energy into
> staying dissatisfied due to a list of things (especially regarding their
> employment environment). But the things that "turn them on" are not the
> opposite sign. The things that motivate are a quite different list.
> Managements job is to minimize the sources of dissatisfaction but that will
> not lead to satisfaction, merely to a neutral state. Then the "attractors"
> of satisfaction have to be put in place.
>
> Vision may be a key attractor but one has to be careful because it is
> difficult to discern a vision from an hallucination.
>
> Jack Ring
> 32712 N. 70th St.
> Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
> 602-488-4615
>
Dear Jack and Company,

I enjoy your insights and I too intend to believe in Herzberg's findings.
But then I was reading Fortune magazine for Jan. 12, 1998 and they have an
article on why employees love the 100 best companies to work for in
America. They found that most of the raves workers give their employers
are based on three corporate traits:
Inspiring Leadership, Knockout Facilities(Herzberg's Hygiene Factor), and
a Sense of Purpose. What is your take on that?
Harry
Harry J. Bury, Ph.D.
Baldwin Wallace College
275 Eastland Road
Berea, OH 44017-2088

Tel: (216) 826-2395
Fax: (216) 826-3868

E-Mail: hbury@bw.edu

At 3:30 PM 1/16/98, Dr Harry J Bury wrote:
---snip--->
>I enjoy your insights and I too intend to believe in Herzberg's findings.
>But then I was reading Fortune magazine for Jan. 12, 1998 and they have an
>article on why employees love the 100 best companies to work for in
>America. They found that most of the raves workers give their employers
>are based on three corporate traits:
>Inspiring Leadership, Knockout Facilities(Herzberg's Hygiene Factor), and
>a Sense of Purpose. What is your take on that?
>Harry
>Harry J. Bury, Ph.D.
>Baldwin Wallace College
>275 Eastland Road
>Berea, OH 44017-2088
>
>Tel: (216) 826-2395
>Fax: (216) 826-3868
>
>E-Mail: hbury@bw.edu

I find them quite consistent with Herzberg's views. To summarize
Herzberg's points --
Hygene Factors
Pleasant work environment
Good cafeteria
Pleasant co-workers
Company policy and administration; especially communication
etc.

Motivation Factors
Direct Feedback
Client Relationship
Psychological Growth*
Scheduling One's Own Work
Unique Expertise
Responsibility For Costs
Authority For Direct Communication
Personal Accountability

Management's Job --
The Hygene Factors are orthogonal to the Motivation Factors. Management
must keep the Hygene Factors from becoming too negative but employee
satisfaction is not maximized by making the Hygene Factors better and
better. Rather, keep the Hygene Factors from negatively interfering while
maximizing the Motivation Factors.

* Six levels of growth in developing character:
1. knowing more
2. understanding more
3. creativity -- qualitative leap of insight
4. effectiveness in ambiguity
5. individuation -- some unique talent that sets you apart.
6. real growth -- the ability to pursue character accomplishments and
self respect separate and distinct from personality adjustment for status
and security.
Dialog with others can help in the first three.
The last three come from self-discovery.

Fortune's Inspiring Leadership relates to the Motivation factors,
especially to Psychological Growth.

Fortune's Knockout Facilities, as you noted, relates to Herzberg's Hygiene
Factor, and

Fortune's Sense of Purpose relates, once again, to Psychological Growth
(recall the old story of asking three workers in a rock quarry what they
were doing. The first said "breaking loose blocks of granite" the second
said "making the straightest building blocks produced in any quarry" while
the third said "helping build the most beautiful cathedral in the world.").
Who do you think was the happiest in his work? In the Sense of Purpose,
much of the "reward" is not in the nature of the job but in how the job is
perceived.

Another article in that same issue of Fortune reported: "The Gallup
Organization recently surveyed 55,000 workers in an attempt to match
employee attitudes with company results. The survey found that four
attitudes, taken together, correlate strongly with higher profits. The
attitudes: Workers feel they are given the opportunity to do what they do
best every day; they believe their opinions count; they sense that their
fellow workers are committed to quality; and they've made a direct
connection between their work and the company's mission."

These words sound very much like Herzberg.

Other excellent, real world examples can be found in the Feb/Mar 98 issue
of Fast Company (URL www.fastcompany.com)

It seems to me that the root of all this is FEAR so the key for management
is helping mitigate fear. Will Schutes, UCLA, says we all have three
basic, perhaps genetic, fears --
1. of not being competent
2. of not being relevant or significant
3. of not being lovable or likeable.
Herzberg, Fortune and much of the literature on leadership simply present
various prescriptions for mitigating those fears. In this vein, Eleanor
Anderson gives excellent advice for each employee: Because all humans have
these fears, then when fear occurs it simply means you are human. Instead
of Experiencing the fear, Celebrate the signal. It means you are one of
us.

At the risk of firing a rash of nervous impulses across this discussion
list, I will also suggest that in many companies where employee
satisfaction is high there seems to be a preponderance of optimists even
though the population exhibits a 50/50 distribution of pessimists to
optimists. Could it be that the combination of hiring techniques, peer
pressure and performance appraisal techniques serve to accomplish a little
"pessimist cleansing"?? Any one from the Saturn part of GM care to weigh
in on that conjecture?



Jack Ring
32712 N. 70th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
602-488-4615

Jack, this is so true. Thank you.
In a message dated 1/16/98 1:11:45 AM, you wrote:

<<it is difficult to discern a vision from an hallucination.>>

Barbara Golden

Dr. Bury,
In a message dated 1/16/98 3:29:52 PM, you wrote:

"What's your take on that?"

Inspiring Leadership—To me, after much experience, real leadership is true
empowerment. Many become leaders when they are allowed to do anything that
fits within the parameters of what we do OR with good planning and team
interaction, are outside what we currently do.

Knockout Facilities(Herzberg's Hygiene Factor)—Facilities are important. We
all chose our current space, chose the colors, the buildout, our offices and
we continue to make it work for us. It doesn't always look beautiful. Some
people's offices look like tornados, but it's their tornados.

A Sense of Purpose—Not only a sense of any purpose, but people who feel the
energized by the purpose of the company. This takes great responsibility on
both sides. The potential hiree must know when to say no, and the employer
must tell the truth, not a pie in the sky view and a sing-song
mission/purpose/vision and all that stuff. We have a total employee meeting
(without the owner) with each potential team member to tell the best and worst
of our company. The interviewee is encouraged to ask hard questions. We are
tired of giving an illusionary view of ourselves only to find the new person
and we are not a match.

Barbara Golden

At 12:41 PM 1/20/98 EST, you wrote:
>Jack, this is so true. Thank you.
>In a message dated 1/16/98 1:11:45 AM, you wrote:
>
><<it is difficult to discern a vision from an hallucination.>>
>
>Barbara Golden

I might add,--Only if you don't truly know the person who has it.

Clint Young