Is "Loyalty" Obsolete?
I’m probably
committing corporate heresy by asking this question. Most organisations expect loyalty from their
staff. Fewer understand that it’s a
two-way street.
“Loyalty” can be defined as “a strong feeling of support or
allegiance” (Oxford Dictionaries) or “giving or showing firm and constant
support or allegiance to a person or institution” (Merriam-Webster). Synonyms are: “faithfulness”, “fidelity”,
“devotion”, “dependability”, “reliability”, ”constancy” and “commitment”. Nowhere, interestingly, does it say that it
has to be a two-way process, although from very early times people pledged
their loyalty to a king or lord in
exchange for something (e.g. protection).
Post-World War II in the West until the 80s, there seemed to
be an unwritten “social contract” that you studied hard to get the best school
and university grades possible to get the best job possible and worked there
until retirement (this still exists in some countries). Provided you worked hard and weren’t totally
incompetent, the organisation took care of you.
Performance management was in its infancy. Bonuses were unknown in many places (certainly
in my father’s organisation).
“Loyalty” was high.
Fast forward to when the “social contract” came under pressure
with the recession of the 1980s, when the first mass redundancies occurred. I remember worrying as a teenager that my
father’s job might be at risk as people we knew lost positions at organisations
for which they had worked literally all their lives - and not necessarily
because they were below average performers.
In those days “Outplacement Services” (as they are now euphemistically
known) hardly existed. Morale (and with
it, loyalty) plummeted as people began to wonder if they were next to be fired. People like me experienced that “loyalty”
seemed to be one-way…
Abraham Maslow developed a “Hierarchy” of five basic human
needs in the 1940s:
- Physiological (food, water, shelter, warmth)
- Safety (from harm)
- Belonging/Love (to other groups, from others and oneself)
- Esteem/respect (from others)
- Self-actualisation (developing as far as one could)
(These have since been extended to eight needs with the
addition of “cognitive”, “aesthetic” and “transcendence” needs).
The redundancies of the 80s removed the first four and, in
consequence, the ability to proceed to the fifth for many. Those who brought bad news were often the
first to be accused of poor performance or of lacking motivation by
ill-informed management. Small wonder
that the loyalty that people may have felt for their employer underwent radical
changes. Employees began to put themselves first, the organisation second.
Performance Management (itself often poorly managed) was
“in”. Short-term business goals, not the
long-term interests of customers, employers, shareholders and the community at
large, became the new idols. Business
Schools and gurus preached the gospel of career change and managing one’s own
career.
Absent the (admittedly less than healthy at times) “cradle
to grave” employment scenario, the contract between employer and employee morphed
into one of convenience. I remember discussing
this in the early part of the millennium with the HR department of an
international bank, which couldn’t understand why people were less “loyal”. That organisation is now being pilloried in
the press for questionable conduct. One
of its most senior (and, looking back on it, perhaps misinformed) managers told
me that the only thing that motivated people was money. A sad attitude, as well as one that betrayed
a cynical ignorance of what does motivate
people.
The problem is, if people don’t feel that you’re loyal to
them, expect them to feel no loyalty to you. How soon they leave depends on whether the
employment market at the time is an “Employer’s market” or an “Employee’s
market”.
Another problem for employers is that people are better
educated, more mobile and have more information available than in the
past. The new generation, especially, don’t
feel that they need to stay in one place.
They have different expectations to those of employers in terms of how
an organisation should behave. Thanks to
technology, the opportunities for “solo-preneurship” are growing and people
(particularly in the West) no longer need to rely on large organisations.
Business Schools (where the “high flyers” go) teach students
to expect and even to engineer multiple career changes. At best, the “contract” between a large
employer and employee is now more likely to be a “contract of convenience”
where either can (and does) terminate of their own will if /when the need or a
better opportunity arises. People will
be “loyal” if they have no choice, but this is temporary.
In conclusion, I don’t feel that “loyalty” is obsolete, but rather
that it has been “relegated” to a lower place behind job satisfaction, calibre
of management, colleagues, compensation, career progression and other benefits.
Employers can't expect it to be all one-way.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
posted by William Martin @ 14:39
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