The Case of the Missing Work Ethic Part I

I was sitting with the CEO of a mid size organisation a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing the big challenge facing all CEOs today, irrespective of which country they operate in: execution of strategy to achieve business results. I’ve spoken to many CEOs about this challenge while working with their leadership teams to facilitate their execution and achieving business results. They all agree that accountability is a huge barrier to successful execution. And this is true not just in India, but all over the world. This CEO expressed the same thoughts about accountability.

Since we have a proprietary method that builds accountability cultures in organizations, the conversation revolved around how accountability can enhance execution. Then, the CEO made an interesting statement. He said, ‘the big problem I find is that people are not serious about work today. They are not loyal to the organization and there is a lack of commitment. Their work ethic is missing.’

I found this statement very interesting. And true. The rapid growth in the Indian business environment in the last few years has resulted in two trends that are common to different industries and organizations. Both these trends have arisen as a direct result of the talent crunch: a shortage of talented leaders who can hit the ground running; an issue that I have written about in an earlier article.

Two trends in talent availability and career growth
The first trend is that people have been promoted rapidly to fill in vacancies that appeared as a result of rapid growth. With organizations desperate to fill these vacant leadership positions, people have been promoted on the basis of perceived future potential; sometimes even when they have not had sufficient time in their previous or current assignments to prove themselves and deliver results.

The second trend is that the boom in business led to a proliferation of opportunities for talented people. With a wider availability of options, people began switching organizations with ease, often across industries. Once again, faced with limited choices to hire top talent, organizations often appointed leaders in positions where they had limited or no experience (in terms of leadership, not domain expertise) and sometimes even when they had yet to prove their ability to deliver results in their present positions.

While I am loath, without empirical evidence, to ascribe the perceived lack of a work ethic among today’s employees to either of these two trends, it is possible that they have played an important role in the demise of the work ethic as defined by the CEO whom I have quoted.

The question here is: can external environmental factors be blamed entirely for the lack of a work ethic among employees to the organization they work for? Or are there also factors within the organization that can influence this trend one way or the other?

While I’d welcome a debate and discussion on this and am eager to hear from readers about their thoughts and experiences, based on my experience I believe that the organization itself has a large role to play in this matter.

My next post will expand on the role of the organization in creating and sustaining the work ethic and a simple exercise to help you determine how effective your organization is in this matter.