Company Loyalty Research Articles

Employer Supports for Parents with Young Children

The competing interests of employers, working parents, and very young children collide in decisions over work schedules, child care arrangements, promotions, children's sicknesses, and overtime hours. With the rising number of women in the labor force, more and more employers are concerned about how their workers balance work and family priorities. This article examines the supports that employers provide to help parents with young children juggle demands on their time and attention. It reviews the availability of traditional benefits, such as vacation and health insurance, and describes family-friendly initiatives. Exciting progress is being made in this arena by leading employers, but coverage remains uneven: Employers say they provide family-friendly policies and programs to improve staff recruitment and retention, reduce absenteeism, and increase job satisfaction and company loyalty. Evaluations demonstrate positive impacts on each of these valued outcomes. Employee benefits and work/family supports seldom reach all layers of the work force, and low-income workers who need assistance the most are the least likely to receive or take advantage of it. Understandably, employer policies seek to maximize productive work time. However, it is often in the best interests of children for a parent to be able to set work aside to address urgent family concerns. The author concludes that concrete work/family supports like on-site child care, paid leave, and flextime are important innovations. Ultimately, the most valuable aid to employees would be a family-friendly workplace culture, with supportive supervision and management practices.

Strategic Planning in Public Sector Engineering Organization

In today's engineering and construction industries, the concepts of company loyalty, traditional competitors, and employee development are changing at a pace that has not previously been encountered in postindustrial times. In response to these changing concepts, private and public organizations alike are increasing their emphasis on long-term or strategic planning. This paper introduces strategy planning, describes the expected results of strategic planning efforts in engineering and construction organizations, and provides a case study illustration of the process for the City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering (a 1,000-person public sector architectural and engineering organization). The case study describes the seven steps used by the Bureau starting with building a strategic planning team to ending with evaluation of the implementation effort. Lessons learned from the case study are used to identify several recommendations for future planning efforts in the area of strategic planning.

The aftermath of reengineering: downsizing and corporate performance

Explore the multifaceted steps needed for a successful reengineering process!With The Aftermath of Reengineering: Downsizing and Corporate Performance, you will explore the effectiveness of business organizations after they have significantly changed how they do business. Reengineering is based on the concept of significantly altering existing business models and thinking by reinventing the way in which work is done. You will discover innovative reengineering strategies and solutions that have been utilized by many Fortune 500 firms in their efforts to become more focused with reinvigorated business activity. Volatile business conditions have driven the use of reengineering and have led to drastic corporate downsizing where organizations are expected to do more with less. The Aftermath of Reengineering examines the positive and negative aspects of the demanding process of reengineering. Based on original research and existing literature on organizations that have used reengineering, The Aftermath of Reengineering will assist you with he following reengineering issues:organizing layoffs that do not hinder the productivity or company loyalty of the employees who remaincreating internal changes to businesses in the form of structural realignments and downsizing placing greater emphasis on quality levels in product and service output creating faster communication channelshiring a more educated, skilled employee base placing higher expectations on management defining your company's necessary expenses establishing critical business processesdetermining your company's core competencies, and competitive advantage setting profit growth targetsThe Aftermath of Reengineering covers many recent reengineering efforts made by large corporations in the United States such as Chase Manhattan Corp. Eastman Kodak, and IBM that have sought to pare down a large bureaucracy and steep overhead expenses. You will explore the effective and ineffective results of these efforts and discover the skills needed for successful reengineering to take place. The Aftermath of Reengineering will assist you in achieving a successful vision for your company's future which includes new workplace values, improved leadership, teamwork, and customer-driven success.

A Primer on Tobacco Production: Implications for Health Promotion Practice

In the late 1990s, there has been unprecedented attention to issues that affect tobacco farmers and tobacco-dependent communities. During this time, relationships between public health professionals and organizations and tobacco producers have been established. At the same time, some growers have questioned tobacco company loyalty to the American tobacco farmer. Despite these burgeoning relationships, most public health professionals know little about tobacco production and the host of factors that play a role in shaping the tobacco culture. This overview article attempts to fill this gap in knowledge so that health professionals are in an informed position when they speak about intersections between public health and tobacco farming. An increased understanding of these background issues will enable the public health community to achieve the dual goals of reducing disease caused by tobacco products and ensuring the prosperity of rural farming communities historically dependent upon tobacco.

Changing career rules: clinging to the past or accepting the new reality?

This exploratory study examined recent business school graduates appreciation of ongoing changes in the nature of employment relationships. It has been suggested by some that job security is now dead and that company loyalty has all but disappeared. To what extent do recent business school graduates endorse old or new career and organizational realities? Two hundred and seventeen respondents completed anonymous questionnaires. Aspects of the old and new employment contract were assessed by 20 items created specifically for this research. The data revealed modest support for both the old and new employment relationship, perhaps reflecting the transition currently underway in workplaces. Implications for individuals and organizational management are offered.

Satisfaction and company loyalty as expressed by non-industrial private forest owners towards timber procurement organizations in Finland

The satisfaction and company loyalty as expressed by non-industrial, private forest (NIPF) owners towards timber procurement organizations were clarified via a mail questionnaire. The results denoted that there is a positive correlation between the levels of forest owners’ expectations (EXP) and perceived performance (PERF). In addition, the lower EXP and the higher PERF were, the greater was the overall satisfaction index (SAT). About two thirds of forest owners were characterized by a negative SAT value or then they were dissatisfied with the performance of the procurement organization in their last timber-sales transaction. Furthermore, the results obtained indicated that the SAT index significantly influences the company loyalty expressed by NIPF owners – their willingness to give favourable reports of the company to the others, and their willingness to engage in future timber-sales transactions with the same company. Nonetheless, the SAT index did not affect the market share of a particular company, and this could be partly accounted for by the similar level of performance among the companies and the lack of competition in the timber trade. Finally, the results revealed several dimensions of timber procurement, and some seller segments to which companies could pay more attention to in order to be able to achieve better satisfaction levels and the loyalty of NIPF owners in the future. One approach to successfully addressing these challenges could be the adopting of a satisfaction decision support system (SatDSS).

Rethinking the Nature of Work: A Look at the Research Evidence

In our traditional concept of work, both employer and employee enjoyed a degree of stability, the worker offering skills and loyalty in exchange for job security and potentially higher income. Human resources systems, including compensation systems, supported this view of work by making sure the company had an adequate stream of qualified workers with firm-specific skills. But times have changed-and human resources professionals now face the challenge of supporting the new work systems that appear to be emerging. The first step, says the author, is to gain a more accurate picture of the nature and extent of the changes. A mass of research data related to workplace trends has emerged from various sectors, private as well as public. A closer look at this data reveals a sharper-albeit still piecemeal-picture of what is happening in work systems, organizational structures, career ladders, job security, commitment, use of contract workers, and the like. The data also sharpen our focus on the challenges and paradoxes the HR professional must face. For example, how can a company justify the training investment needed to create high-performance teams if job security and company loyalty are archaic concepts? Or how can a company retain employees with high-value skills as the economy recovers and it is easier for them to find different jobs? Although there are no easy answers, we can at least begin to foresee and define the problems.

Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128.

Compares the organization of regional economies, focusing on Silicon Valley's thriving regional network-based system and Route 128's declining independent firm-based system. The history of California's Silicon Valley and Massachusetts' Route 128 as centers of innovation in the electronics indistry is traced since the 1970s to show how their network organization contributed to their ability to adapt to international competition. Both regions faced crises in the 1980s, when the minicomputers produced in Route 128 were replaced by personal computers, and Japanese competitors took over Silicon Valley's market for semiconductor memory. However, while corporations in the Route 128 region operated by internalization, using policies of secrecy and company loyalty to guard innovation, Silicon Valley fully utilized horizontal communication and open labor markets in addition to policies of fierce competition among firms. As a result, and despite mounting competition, Silicon Valley generated triple the number of new jobs between 1975 and 1990, and the market value of its firms increased $25 billion from 1986 to 1990 while Route 128 firms increased only $1 billion for the same time period. From analysis of these regions, it is clear that innovation should be a collective process, most successful when institutional and social boundaries dividing firms are broken down. A thriving regional economy depends not just on the initiative of individual entrepreneurs, but on an embedded network of social, technical, and commercial relationships between firms and external organizations. With increasingly fragmented markets, regional interdependencies rely on consistently renewed formal and informal relationships, as well as public funding for education, research, and training. Local industrial systems built on regional networks tend to be more flexible and technologically dynamic than do hierarchical, independent firm-based systems in which innovation is isolated within the boundaries of corporations. (CJC)

Business Ethics: A view from the Trenches

This article presents results from a study of how young managers define ethical issues, think about these issues, and resolve them. Several patterns emerge from this study. First, in many cases, young managers received explicit instructions from their middlemanager bosses or felt strong organizational pressures to do things that they believed were sleazy, unethical, or sometimes illegal. Second, corporate ethics programs—codes of conduct, mission statements, hot lines, and so forth—proved to be of little help to these young managers. Third, many of them believed that their companies9 executives were out-of-touch on ethical issues, either because they were too busy or because they sought to avoid responsibility. Fourth, the young managers resolved the dilemmas they faced largely on the basis of personal reflection and individual values, not through reliance on corporate credos, company loyalty, the exhortations and examples of senior executives, or philosophical principles or religious reflection. Ironically, however, while the interviewees typically described their experiences as difficult or even traumatic, many believed they had learned important lessons about themselves and the world of work.

Regional advantage: culture and competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128

Compares the organization of regional economies, focusing on Silicon Valley's thriving regional network-based system and Route 128's declining independent firm-based system. The history of California's Silicon Valley and Massachusetts' Route 128 as centers of innovation in the electronics indistry is traced since the 1970s to show how their network organization contributed to their ability to adapt to international competition. Both regions faced crises in the 1980s, when the minicomputers produced in Route 128 were replaced by personal computers, and Japanese competitors took over Silicon Valley's market for semiconductor memory. However, while corporations in the Route 128 region operated by internalization, using policies of secrecy and company loyalty to guard innovation, Silicon Valley fully utilized horizontal communication and open labor markets in addition to policies of fierce competition among firms. As a result, and despite mounting competition, Silicon Valley generated triple the number of new jobs between 1975 and 1990, and the market value of its firms increased $25 billion from 1986 to 1990 while Route 128 firms increased only $1 billion for the same time period. From analysis of these regions, it is clear that innovation should be a collective process, most successful when institutional and social boundaries dividing firms are broken down. A thriving regional economy depends not just on the initiative of individual entrepreneurs, but on an embedded network of social, technical, and commercial relationships between firms and external organizations. With increasingly fragmented markets, regional interdependencies rely on consistently renewed formal and informal relationships, as well as public funding for education, research, and training. Local industrial systems built on regional networks tend to be more flexible and technologically dynamic than do hierarchical, independent firm-based systems in which innovation is isolated within the boundaries of corporations. (CJC)

Australian Wharfies 1943-1967: Casual Attitudes, Militant Leadership and Workplace Change

In the 1950s and 1960s the waterfront was seen as the nation's major economic bottleneck. Its turbulent industrial relations were subject to greater publicity and polemics than the even more disputatious coal industry. This paper focuses on the nature and characteristics of the casual employees who moved the cargo in the days before container ships. It stresses the singularity of both the composition of the workforce and its attitudes to work, and examines the cause of policy disagree ments between rank-and-file wharfies and the militant union leaders whom they invariably elected. It is found that while contemporaries often attributed industrial unrest to Communist officials' machinations, in fact the rank-and-file members had a clear mind of their own. They tended to take a narrower, shorter run view than their leaders, who often sought in vain to restrain members' reflexive mili tancy. Wharfies were highly sertsitive to perceived threats to their level of earnings, were conservative about all changes to work practice and remained deeply at tached to the casual nature of their constantly varying work. Although favoured by their leaders, permanent employment was long distrusted by the rank and file. When technical change made decasualization inevitable, established group atti tudes meant that employers were unable to instil much company loyalty.

Employment security: balancing human and economic considerations

Introduction External Influences Company Loyalty and Employee Morale Financial Performance Employee Productivity Strategies and Results Challenge of Application Managing in the 21st Century Selected Bibliography

Leading Today's Professional

Are technical professionals so different that they require special training? This is a question we have studied for the past decade, and with the years of experience we've amassed in developing technical leaders, we firmly believe the answer is yes. There is enough uniqueness in technical professionals to warrant special training for the people who lead them. Traditional management principles only meet with minimal success when applied to technical professionals. Technical leadership takes a special combination of: knowledge about science and technology to acquire respect; knowledge about behavior; and skill to lead. Technical professionals have invested considerable time and energy in preparing for their careers. They are knowledgeable workers and they bring unique values and expectations to the workplace. Technical leaders must be able to understand and respond to their special needs: * Desire for autonomy -- Professionals are frequently achievement-oriented individuals who seek motivation from the work itself. A high level of autonomy over the conditions, pace and content of work is important to them, and they are increasingly sensitive to the quality of the work environment, climate and culture. The professional's need for autonomy usually means a higher need for participation in goal setting and decision making as' well as a desire to self-manage. In fact, professionals seem to define, in their terms, the lack of management, the lack of perceived direction and control from another person (the manager), as the desirable kind of management. This creates a severe challenge for the leader-manager. * Need for achievement -- Professionals are often driven by a need to accomplish tasks requiring high levels of skill and effort. They want to do difficult jobs well and accomplish something of major significance. Achievement usually requires being part of a larger context that recognizes and rewards results. Work that is perceived as exciting and meaningful generates commitment, as does the full opportunity to apply oneself to use one's skills and knowledge. Commitment is also generated by support from management and colleagues and acceptance of use of and recognition for the results by the organization and the profession. When the goals of the professional and the organization are not carefully aligned, achievement needs are typically frustrated and demotivation ensues. * Fear of burnout -- A fear of obsolescence is often associated with this syndrome, which is usually accompanied by interpersonal problems, demotivation and declining performance. Under-utilized skills often yield apathy, burnout and/or alienation. Burnout exists when the professional loses the sense of payout from work, is emotionally exhausted, and feels trapped and powerless to influence change. * Professional identification vs. company loyalty -- Technical professionals tend to identify primarily with their profession and secondarily with their company. It has been shown that college graduates in a marketing department appear to more easily align career objectives with the company promotion path than does the entering engineer or accountant. Professional orientation rather than organization focus -- professional first, employee second -- is a common characteristic of many scientists, engineers and other technical specialists. Conflict often arises between professional identification and company identification, and the pursuit of professional goals can be in conflict with the work effort necessary for the attainment of department and company goals. * Participation in mission and goals -- Technical professionals are more resistant to internalizing and committing to mandated organizational goals than are most occupational groups. Since discretion and control over one's work are so vital to professionals, the goalsetting process is integral to motivation and job satisfaction. Alignment of goals -- which means that the professional's goals overlap, are similar to and are included with the goals of the larger entity -- is key to establishing and sustaining motivation. …

The World Of The Corporate Physician

The World Of The Corporate Physician

CEOs: A group profile

The chief executive officers of the country's largest corporations form a diverse group. But they share several characteristics, including background and company loyalty.

Corporate Perceptions of Job Satisfaction And Educational Needs

During the winter of 1986, The Ohio State University Department of Avi,ation conducted a survey of randomly selected National Business Aircraft Association members. The survey served two explicit purposes (1) addressing the need for information to be used in the design of a course at OSU in corporate flight operations; and (2) assessing the needs of the industry for workshops and seminars in communication and management. Direct information from corporate flight departments was sought to insure that the practical concerns of the corporate pilot or flight department manager be combined with organizational communication and management strategies tailored to the specific needs of the industry. This information was gathered through a series of scaled responses, and through closed and open ended questions. Industry cooperation and support has been excellent. The questionnaire's design provides insight into the perceptions of corporate pilots and managers regarding a number of factors that pertain to their degree of job satisfaction. Public attention regarding aviation continues to focus on the airlines. Expansion, collapse, takeovers, hires, furloughs, unions, and routes all receive media attention. Primarily through the media, the general public and many prospective aviation professionals have become aware of the pilot shortage and the projected continued hires by major lines. Even among many commercial pilots the traditional goal continues to be attaining a major airlines captain slot despite the two-tier pay scales and changing benefits. The rites of passage for a non-military pilot to build experience traditionally consisted of a progression from flight instructor to Part 135 then to corporate or to regionals then to majors. Those entering the corporate market have tended to remain in it. The corporate market on the surface seems healthy. The NBAA reports an increase in member aircraft (5,547) and corporate membership (2,941) in 1985. Except for 1983, membership shows an approximate growth of 10% per year. Company loyalty is often high, although conditions in corporate flight departments are known to vary greatly. What is there about the corporate arena that allows it to retain high time experienced professionals who have one of the best safety records in the business? Is it in the best interest of the industry that corporate aviation be such a well kept secret? This study only provides an introduction to such questions. The paper examines those aspects of the OSU survey results which indicate the degree of satisfaction that survey respondent corporate managers and pilots exhibit regarding their perceptions of (1) their own company compared with other corporate flight operations; and (2) their position in their own company compared with a similar position with a major airlines. Those educational needs identified by the NBAA members as beneficial to either students soon to be operating in the corporate environment or to individuals already in the field are briefly addressed as well.

Japanese Workers’ Responses to Mechanization and Automation

One view of the social organization of Japanese industrial firms is that employees have a higher level of company loyalty and "lifetime commitment" than is true in the West. This view suggests that, despite the extremely rapid rate of technological innovation ("rationalization") in Japanese industry in recent years, Japanese employees would refrain from expressing reservations about rationalization. Data from one plant of a large, leading Japanese firm, which has had an active rationalization movement, cast some doubt on this view. The meanings employees attach to "rationalization," and their attitudes toward it are explored; the conditions under which employees express unqualified approval, versus a mixture of approval and disapproval, of rationalization are suggested.