Strategies for creating and sustaining organizational energy

Abstract

© 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.20344 Why do some companies buzz with energy and life, while others suffer from stagnation and complacency? Why do some organizations achieve peaks of energy and activity only to plunge into valleys of stagnant inertia? Why do some organizations seem poisoned through and through by negative politicking and bickering, or lost in a slough of organizational burnout? Most leaders have experienced the ebb and flow of different states of energy in their own organizations. This energy belongs to the intangible but very powerful, so-called soft factors of human potential that lie at the core of all companies. We call this phenomenon organizational energy and define it as the extent to which an organization, division, or team has mobilized its emotional, cognitive, and behavioral potential to pursue its goals. Simply put, it is the force with which a company (or work unit) works. There are different types of energy, and these various types are what make organizations tick. At the heart of our energy concept lies a framework we call the energy matrix, which allows us to describe the energy states of an organization and even measure them. Specifically, our research shows that companies’ energy states can differ in two dimensions: its intensity and its quality. The intensity of organizational energy reflects the degree to which a company has activated its emotional, cognitive, and behavioral potential: namely, the level of emotional tension, watchfulness, interaction, and communication that prevails in a company. We distinguish here between high and low intensity; high intensity indicates a high level of emotional involvement, mental activation, and engagement, whereas low intensity describes a reduced level of these states. A very low intensity reflects a company that is more or less in sleeping mode. The quality of organizational energy describes how a company uses its energy—to what extent the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral forces align constructively with common, central company goals. We distinguish here between positive and negative energy. Positive organizational energy is characterized by a constructive use of the company’s potential. People direct their emotions, mental agility, thoughtfulness, efforts, and activities to fortify their unit or company goals. Negative organizational energy reflects a lack of common orientation toward shared corporate goals. It implies a destructive use of the company’s potential. In the state of negative energy, organizations show emotions such as fear, frustration, and annoyance among employees; people think and act in ways disconnected from the company’s goals or even try to maximize their own personal