According to the survey of 500 Fortune companies in 2002, one of the problems facing CEOs is the increasing threat from the stakeholders. Robert H. Rosen, a clinical psychologist stated that companies are now struggling for universal 5 pressures :
- The Power of People
The power of people is the most potent force, for it reaches into all facets of all kinds of business. It touches every stage of operations, every strategy, goal and vision. It affects all companies regardless the size and the sector of business it operates. Because individuals are contributing more and more to the lifeblood of companies, the costs of mismanaging them can only drain companies. Management can choose either to treat people as valuable assets to be maintained and improved upon or to treat people as costly liabilities that increasingly demand more money for health claims, accidents, and replacement. - The Changing Complexity of the Workplace
Old assumptions about people’s training, schooling, values and cultural backgrounds are no longer operative and must be discarded for a new openness and flexibility. In a company of mix cultures, both management and co-workers need to learn about each other and strive to meld everyone into a unified and multi talented workforce. Companies should be absence from gender and cultural, race issues and treat the employees according tp the standard of professionalism. - The Dynamic of Blender
Business people are struggling to understand, accommodate and get benefits from change. But in process, we can become easily burned-out, stretched beyond limits, and over stressed. The companies and managers who see the opportunities in this who learn how to work with different kinds of employee and take advantage of technological and competitive breakthrough – will escape the suffering of misjudging and mismanaging the power of this force. - The New Psychological Contract
A new psychological contract between employee and company that is redefining traditional understandings about premises, loyalties, working relationship and roles. From the corporate view, the employers can no longer offer lifetime employment jobs, guarantee advancements. Economic survival demands that they are able to expand and contract quickly and be flexible enough to respond to changing markets and global opportunities. - The Human Crisis
There is a dramatic expansion of companies’ roles and responsibilities to incorporate the whole employee, not simply the person who work eight hours a day. The crisis demands that companies begin to pay more attention to employees’ minds, bodies, relationship and families. Companies that ignore the total person will receive a very painful lesson. Expanded benefit programs, the old narrowly defined health insurances, pension packages are now considered less valuable. Employees want more compassion and opportunity at work, more enlightened attitudes and behavior.
In short, a corporate mentality that recognizes and appreciates the human side of its business as much as the financial side. The employee needs for self-esteem, growth, and well-being. Employes deeply believe that their personal value are at odds with what’s important and worthwhile to their employers. They head CEOs make speeches about fairness and equality, they learn about executive pay packages. They hear about a company’s spirit of competitiveness, then find that office politics, not professional excellence, reap the biggest promotions.
Thus, despite many manager’s conviction that they are good people managers, their management style is controlling and self-centered. In this environment, employees have been regarded as costly liabilities and had to be pushed for maximum output. If all of us, do not invest in our workforce now, this shortsighted will haunt us for decades to come.
(Source : The Anatomy of a Healthy Company, Robert H. Rosen)
