The definition of corporate worship depends on the degree of control over employee thinking and behavior.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Harvard Business Review” (ID: hbrchinese), author Manfred FR Kets de Vries. Authorized to reprint.
Every company has its own “culture” – a set of values and codes of conduct that are in the company’s interests. Corporate culture affects the way employees work. A healthy and up-to-date corporate culture helps attract and retain motivated employees, motivating them to move toward common goals and achieve sustainable business.
However, those voluntarily reached consensus can sometimes go astray and become precarious. Regardless of whether the leader intends to do so, the original healthy corporate culture can easily be transformed into a blind worship of the enterprise.
Many of the most acclaimed companies are on the brink, such as Apple, Tesla, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Nordstrom ( Nordstrom) and Harley Davidson. They have cultivated a group of fanatical followers among customers and gradually began to encourage employees to worship.
The definition of corporate worship depends on the degree of control over employee thinking and behavior. From the beginning of the recruitment, the company began to screen the “fit” employees. Once on the job, the onboarding process and incentives are all intensified. This affects the way employees communicate, make decisions, evaluate each other, and make decisions about hiring, promotion, and dismissal. In such an atmosphere, collective thinking prevails and individualism is suppressed.
Some companies even advocate the positioning of the workplace as a substitute for families and communities, intentionally or unintentionally separating employees from other support systems. They encourage employees to focus their work on their work, leaving them with little time for vacation or other recreational activities.
How do you tell if a company’s corporate culture has a blind worship? Language is a big clue. Corporate worship usually creates its own terminology to enhance the sense of belonging. For example, in Disney, employees are “actors”, “customers” are “audiences”, amusement parks are equivalent to “stages”; when attractions fail, code “101” is used.
A specific ritual is another warning signal (but not absolute). When I was working with IBM many years ago, I got a collection of songs full of praise for the first CEO, Thomas Watson Sr, and even called it a legendary figure like God. In the US retail giant Wal-Mart, the company slogan is still an indispensable step in the transaction.
Although these rituals seem to be outdated in the US or Europeans, they are still a feature of many Asian companies. The staff of Yamaha Motors is still singing the song of the company created in 1980; in the production workshop of the precision instrument manufacturer Horiba, the staff happily sing “Joy&Fun”; while in Kyushu, Japan, the passenger railway At the lunch time of the company, the social song “Romantic Railways” was also broadcast.
Recently, I attended a weekly gathering of a leading technology company in the United States. I found that the meeting was full, and everyone cheered at the opening. Later I learned that this is a standard guided cheer: people shouted the company name and repeated it three times. After that, my CEO was invited to award the weekly service award, and each winner received deafening applause.
I feel like I am attending the Gospel Revival. After the award ceremony, there was a barbecue event, almost no one was absent, and they all wore black and gray clothes (like the CEO).
I was very impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff present, but after interviewing a number of executives and employees, I began to wonder. Later I realized that this is because employees have little private life outside of work, and many people are facing separation or divorce. An executive said that he was just going home to change clothes, preferring to exercise at the company’s fitness center rather than staying at home. In this case, this weekly gathering is a bit more dangerous.
When the company has too many morale-enhancing speeches, slogans, unique jargon, radio, video, stimulating team building activities and singing activities, the manager’s mind will be lit up. As long as employees are likely to be squeezed out by expressing their thoughts or feelings, the company has gone astray. This will eventually bring crisis to the company. The rigid thinking caused by worship kills innovation and makes the company’s future in jeopardy.
Therefore, if you are a senior manager, you should always pay attention to whether your corporate culture has shown signs of psychological coercion. Ask yourself: Does the employee believe in it because he understands and agrees with the company’s vision, or is it just because he thinks it is right? Does the company encourage employees to have their own lives? The most important thing is, does the company encourage the existence of personality and encourage innovative behavior that can lead to breakthroughs?
Excellent leadership is able to unlock the potential of followers to maximize their potential, rather than building a corporate culture of slavery.
This requires managers at all levels to encourage critical thinking and rewardsWisdom judgment, value individuality, show true self, and fully tap the unique strengths and talents of employees. Of course, it is important to reach a consensus – and a great culture includes learning from the past and agreeing on core values. Employees should both praise each other and challenge each other, be willing to communicate openly, relax, and work as a team.
But there is no shortage of positive debates. You can express different opinions on certain values and norms. When a corporate culture refuses to accept diversity and dissent, it becomes a blind worship.