CHAPTER 1

"Thinking about corporate culture might sound somewhat 'touchy feely,' but Iwould argue that few characteristics are more important to a company's success."

—The Motley Fool, a financial website

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

—Martin Luther King. Jr.

Workplace Cultures

Before exploring workplace communication or the potential for miracles, let'sfirst talk about the workplace itself and how it has (and hasn't) changed overthe years. If you watch old movies, for example, you'll notice that mostcompanies were depicted as pretty straitlaced, with lots of earnest men in theirstarched white shirts and conservative ties performing their narrow butimportant roles with a steadfast commitment. There were specific rules, chainsof command, and the general drone of commerce without much variation. It was atime when companies like Ford, IBM, and General Electric ruled the Westernworld, where you took what these paternal giants gave you and were happy just tobe a productive cog in the economic machine.

No more.

Today, with more women in the workforce, more autonomy for employees, partneringand teamwork, flextime and job shares, and growing multicultural diversity, theworkplace bears little resemblance to the one to which our fathers made alifetime commitment. Workplaces are changing with the times, spurred also by aflood of new strategies for getting more out of less: hierarchy leveling,quality circles, theories Y and Z, "best practices," and the list goes on. Thegoal of these strategies has been to improve workplace performance while givingmanagement—and employees—more of that they need.

And yet despite all that effort and adaptation and, for many workers, growingwages, job satisfaction remains surprisingly low:

• A study completed in 2000 by The Conference Board, a nonprofit membershiporganization for business executives, found that almost half of all workersweren't happy with their jobs.

• A recent study of 1000 workers commissioned by Headhunter.net found that 78percent of them would take a new position if the right opportunity came along,while 48 percent were actively looking for a new job.

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that American workers hold on averagenine different jobs before the age of thirty-two (which isn't all that amazingif you think about how many restaurant jobs you had before the age of twenty!).

According to these and other reports, the most frequently cited reasons that weleave our jobs, or would like to, include a lack of recognition, salary issues,a weak sense of purpose or mission, few opportunities for advancement, andinsufficient training. Many people surveyed also reported a drop in satisfactionwith their workplace relationships, historically a key component of jobenjoyment.

And yet workplace benefits have never been more generous. Companies are goingout of their way to meet their employees' needs, sometimes out of a true senseof giving, sometimes as a desperate measure to keep staff, and sometimes as aresponse when cries for change can no longer be ignored. Many of these changesare designed to help working folks better integrate their personal lives withtheir professional lives. And still they don't seem to be enough.

What's going on here? From what well does such deep dissatisfaction draw?

Sure, there are legitimate problems in our workplaces, many of which will bediscussed in the pages that follow. Workplace stress, much of it fueled bydysfunctional relationships and communication breakdowns, has never been higher.But maybe we're asking for too much from our jobs. Should work be all things toall people? Can it be? Are acknowledgment, a big paycheck, limitless potential,and limited hassles more than any company should be expected to give?

Wanting It All

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow presented his famous "hierarchy of needs"theory. At the bottom of the pyramid are the basics: food, water, shelter. Thenthere is safety and security (money). Next come social needs (a sense ofbelonging, love), then ego needs (self-esteem, respect from others), and finallyself-actualization—achieving our highest potential. It was a process he feltthat all human beings are born to follow, the natural stages of humanmaturation. But is it a process that stops at the office door? Perhaps it'sunrealistic to think that we can meet all our higher needs at our jobs. Thereare many who believe that our expectations have simply become too high, that ourjobs were never meant to provide much more than a fair wage and a reasonablypleasant place to work.

This claim was best expressed in a provocative article entitled "The Myth of JobHappiness" In Workforce, a magazine for "human resource" professionals. Itquoted both an author and a professor defending the notion that the problem ofworkplace dissatisfaction lies not with the companies but with their workers.The author, Dave Arnott (who wrote Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure of theAll-Consuming Organization), believes that "employees are expecting the wrongthings from the workplace. They are expecting emotional satisfaction from work,not just financial satisfaction."

Professor of leisure studies Benjamin Hunnicutt goes even further, stating,"It's a myth that we can find identity, meaning, and community at work." Hecalls this the "Mary Tyler Moore myth," a reference to the optimistic heroine oftelevision sitcom fame. "In reality," he says, "employees find dullards andirrational bosses" because the politics of work "is about control."

Well, he's right up to a point. But the whole purpose of what came to be calledby management theorists the "human relations movement" was to counteract thetask-oriented models of workplace performance with a more people-centeredperspective. And while it's also true that work has taken up more and more spacein our lives, what's wrong with a company with a healthy sense of community,where people working together can stretch for something larger than the nextpaycheck? Our jobs shouldn't supplant a healthy life outside of work wherefamily, friends, and being in nature take precedent, but if we leave too much ofourselves at home, our performance at work can only suffer, and so too will thecompany that employs us.

And don't assume that companies or groups whose primary mission is to save theworld have it any easier. These workplaces can be just as dysfunctional as...