Category: Claims vs. Behaviors
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The Case Against a Marriott Boycott: Marriott is not a Mormon organization
Many GLBT-rights and marriage equality rights activists are up in arms in protest against individuals, business and institutions that supported California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage. Letters to prominent individual contributors, protests in front of churches, and calls for boycotts figure prominently in these activists’ efforts both to punish the individual, businesses and institutions…
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If Stephen Colbert were the CEO of Zappos: Explaining a layoff to your employees
On The Colbert Report , it’s called "The Word". In Web 2.0, it’s called "transparency ". Historically, it’s called "telling the truth". As I was working on a more serious post about Zappos , I could not push aside my annoyance at the contradiction between the way the Zappos layoff has been discussed in the…
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Authentic Responses to Recession? Try Alternatives to Layoffs
The latest report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that in September 2008 alone, 2,269 companies executed a "mass layoff" . (A "mass layoff" is defined as firing at least 50 employees at one time from the organization.) This is the highest number of organizations executing a mass layoff since September of 2001. While…
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Can Taking Responsibility for the Financial Crisis Be Good For You?
In a word, yes. You’d never know it from the conversation we’ve been having about our current financial crisis, but it’s true: Taking responsibility for your organization’s part in the financial crisis can actually be good for you. We’ve seen a variety of explanations for what’s been happening, some finger-pointing over who’s to blame, and…
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Black Organizations: Authenticity through "an obligation to our own"?
What makes an organization or business authentically “Black”? [Or for that matter, what makes an organization authentically “feminist”, authentically “Mormon”, authentically “Republican”, and so on?] By my definition, an organization is authentically “Black” not when the majority of its members or employees are Black, but when the organization promotes the interests of the Black community.…
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8 Ways to be Authentic: Tyson Foods suggests how
Tyson Food claims that, as part of its core values, it is “striving to be faith friendly”. But, if Tyson’s handling of the brouhaha over recognizing an Islamic holy day in the labor contract of its plant in Shelbyville, TN, is any indication, Tyson is having a hard time finding ways to demonstrate its values…
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Broken promises hurt twice as much
What hurts more: (a) An offensive organizational action or (b) an offensive action that displays inauthenticity? I vote for (b). An offensive action that displays inauthenticity hurts more than an action that is simply offensive. Why? Because an offensive inauthentic action represents a broken promise. When an organization makes a claim to be a certain…
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The New York Junior League: To be more authentic, practice what you preach
If an organization wants to be seen as inauthentic, all it needs to do is to say one thing and do another. When an organization creates a gap between ‘who we say we are’ and ‘how we act’, it creates a common and avoidable authenticity challenge. This authenticity challenge is made even worse when an…
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Work-Life Initiatives are the foundation of Authentic Organizations
Earlier this week I met with a group of organizational change advocates, each of whom is dedicated to reshaping the relationship between work and life. Work-Life issues per se aren’t really my gig, although I’ve had a fair amount of work-life conflict in my day as an employee and as a manager. However, I invited…