Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dave Ulrich is a Professor at the University of Michigan School of Business and a cofounder of The RBL Group. He has published twelve books and more than a hundred articles, and has consulted and done research with over half of the Fortune 200.

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Before you ask,
"Why aren't my employees working harder?"
. . . ask yourself,
"Why are my employees working?"

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE WHY OF WORK
""Principled, timely, and engaging, The Why of Work teaches that building a culture of abundance and common purpose is essential to organizational success."" -- Stephen R. Covey, bestselling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

""Will have a major impact on how individuals shape their attitude to work, how organizations create abundant cultures, and how leaders turn personal meaning into public good."" -- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of Bhutan

""The Why of Work shows a better, different way to build and lead organizations. It is an insightful guide to how leaders can infuse meaning into their organizations."" -- Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Power: Why Some People Have It--and Others Don't

""This book brings the question 'why' to the place in which we spend most of our adult lives, giving us insightful tools to help make a meaningful difference in people's lives."" -- Don Hall, Jr., president and CEO, Hallmark Cards, Inc.

""This is a must read for anyone who works, leads others at work, or works to build a supportive environment."" -- Beverly Kaye, founder/CEO, Career Systems International, and coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay

""Breaks new ground. . . . Going beyond competence and commitment to create abundance at work could be the next frontier for leaders."" -- Paul Humphries, EVP Human Resources, Flextronics

""The Why of Work opens the door to significant employee engagement. The alignment between company values and those of customers and communities can indeed give employees a sense of purpose while delivering great results to customers!"" -- Paula S. Larson, Chief HR Officer, Invensys

""Blackstone has proved that finding superior leaders produces superior results. Dave Ulrich has brought this thinking to a new level at Blackstone. Every private equity investor and senior manager must read this book."" -- James Quella, Senior Operating Partner, The Blackstone Group

According to studies, we all work for the same thing--and it's not just money. It's meaning. Through our work, we seek a sense of purpose, contribution, connection, value, and hope. Digging down to the meaning of work taps our resilience in hard times and our passion in good times. That's the simple but profound premise behind this groundbreaking book by renowned management expert Dave Ulrich and psychologist Wendy Ulrich. They've talked to thousands of people--from rank-and-file workers to clients and customers to top-level executives--and synthesized major disciplines to identify the "why" behind our most successful experiences.

Using the model of the "abundant organization," they provide you with the "how" to create meaning and value in your own workplace. Learn how to: Ask the seven questions that drive abundance Understand the needs of your customers and staff Personalize the work to motivate your employees Build and grow your business in any economy

By following the Ulrichs' step-by-step guidelines, you will set off a chain reaction of positive and enduring effects. Employees who find meaning in their work are more competent, committed, and eager to contribute--and their contribution will result in increased customer commitment, which delivers a winning performance on the bottom line.

"The Why of Work" includes targeted checklists, questionnaires, and other useful tools to help you turn aspirations into action. Using the proven principles of abundance, you can coordinate your needs with those of your employers, your employees, and your customers--and create a vision that resonates for years to come.

When you understand why we work, you know how to succeed.

Dave Ulrich, PH.D., is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and cofounder of The RBL Group. He has written 23 books that cover topics in HR, leadership, and organization; he serves on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller and the Board of Trustees of Southern Virginia University; and he is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources.

Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., M.B.A., has been a practicing psychologist for over 20 years. She is the founder of Sixteen Stones Center for Growth, which offers seminar-retreats on creating abundance and meaning, and she has authored two books on personal change.

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THE why OF Work

McGraw-Hill

Contents

Chapter One

This morning, people all over the planet got out of bed and got ready for work. Some headed out before dawn in high-end cars to claim high-rise offices with high-tech computers and highbrow clients. Some headed out before dawn to walk barefoot, wares on their head, to claim a choice spot in the dirt near the entrance to the village market. Some wrestled with the muses to create artistic masterpieces or solve perplexing scientific problems. Others wrestled with boredom to complete their shifts at cash registers, call centers, or assembly lines. Some pitched their résumés in business suits, looking for good benefits and a sure path to comfortable retirement. Some made their pitch in ragged jeans on street corners, looking for someone to rent their muscles for at least the day.

Some people in each one of these and many other categories by which we could define work found a sense of meaning, purpose, even abundance in their labor today. Others in each category found world-weary tedium, frustration, and despair.

Which were you?

Which were the people you lead?

Viktor Frankl was a budding psychologist following in the footsteps of Freud when World War II erupted. Frankl survived three years in a Nazi concentration camp, but upon his liberation he found his family, home, and writings gone. Before the war Frankl had been developing a system of psychotherapy based on our need for meaning. Once he was incarcerated, his previous philosophical speculations about what helps people heal and cope were no longer just interesting cerebral playthings; they were tested in the fire of a dreadful and lengthy ordeal. Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning, which has sold more than nine million copies, has become a classic. Against the backdrop of horrific adversity, his insistence on the possibility—even the necessity—of finding meaning in life becomes deeply credible. After all, adversity generally disrupts our sense of meaning and robs life of what previously gave it sense and purpose. In troubled times our search for meaning becomes both more difficult and more compelling. Frankl quotes the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."

He or she who has a why to work can bear with almost any how as well. Obviously, people find meaning in many settings—in the privacy of homes and the expanses of nature, in churches, ballparks, and community centers, in family and friendship circles. But work takes the lion's share of our time and energy. Most of us spend more time at work than at play, at family gatherings, at religious meetings, or at hobbies. The organizations in which we labor are thus a primary setting not only for accomplishing assignments but also for finding an abiding sense of meaning in life. Work is a universal setting in which to pursue our universal search for meaning.

Meaning at Work

This book is about both the why and the how of meaning at work.

The why refers to the human search for meaning that finds its way into our offices and factories, a search that motivates, inspires, and defines us. The how gets us into the practicalities of how leaders facilitate that search personally and among their employees. We offer many specific tools and principles to help leaders put meaning to work not only to build personal meaning but also to help companies succeed in the marketplace of human endeavor.

Thus the search for meaning adds value in two senses of the word. First, humans are meaning-making machines who find inherent value in making sense out of life. The meaning we make of an experience determines its impact on us and can turn disaster into opportunity, loss into hope, failure into learning, boredom into reflection. The meaning we create can make life feel rich and full regardless of our external circumstances or give us the courage to change our external circumstances. When we find meaning in our work, we find meaning in life.

In addition to inherent value, meaning has market value. Meaningful work solves real problems, contributes real benefits, and thus adds real value to customers and investors. Employees who find meaning in their work are more satisfied, more engaged, and in turn more productive. They work harder, smarter, more passionately and creatively. They learn and adapt. They are more connected to customer needs. And they stick around. Leaders invest in meaning making not only because it is noble but also because it is profitable. Making sense can also make cents.

The Abundant Organization

In this book we refer to companies that are meaningful in both of these senses of the word as abundant organizations. An abundant organization is a work setting in which individuals coordinate their aspirations and actions to create meaning for themselves, value for stakeholders, and hope for humanity at large. An abundant organization is one that has enough and to spare of the things that matter most: creativity, hope, resilience, determination, resourcefulness, and leadership.

Abundant organizations are profitable organizations, but rather than focusing only on assumptions of competition and scarcity, abundant organizations also focus on opportunity and synergy. Rather than accepting the fear-based breakdown of meaning in hard times, abundant organizations concentrate on bringing order, integrity, and purpose out of chaos and disintegration. Rather than restricting themselves to narrow, self-serving agendas, abundant organizations integrate a diversity of human needs, experiences, and timetables.

In good times and in hard times, abundant organizations create meaning for both the employees who comprise them and the customers who keep them in business. Employees, customers, investors, and society benefit when employees find meaning at work and when companies give meaning to society. This logic applies to small and large organizations, to public agencies and private enterprises, to local storefronts and global conglomerates.

The Market Value of Why

Even if you are not one of those rare folks blessed with a gift for finding joy in the concentration camps of life, you intuitively know that you and your work team would be more productive, more satisfied, and more creative if work engaged not only your head and your hands but your heart and soul as well. What most of us know intuitively research confirms: when employees find meaning at work, they care enough about it to develop their competence; they work harder and are more productive; they stay longer and are more positive about their work experience. But there is more: when employees are more positive, customers generally respond in kind. Employee attitude is a key lead indicator of customer attitude, and satisfied customers help the businesses they patronize to survive and thrive. In brief:

1. Employees who find meaning at work are more competent, committed, and contributing.

2. In turn, employee competence, commitment, and sense of contribution lead to increased customer commitment.

3. In turn, customer commitment leads to better financial results for the company.

Making meaning is an important cause and a lead indicator of long-term organizational success. So-called...