$2Trillion Wasted Through Not Knowing ... or Not Caring?

Strategy Doesn’t Matter?  part 7

The stories regarding employee - management relations concerns are consistent.  Regardless of what leadership might think its company culture represents, most employees within those companies would define today’s work environment, in general, as disingenuous, disengaged and uncaring in the minimum and methodically anti-employee, abusive, internally disconnected, counter-productive and possibly illegal in the extreme.  All one has to do is ask and/or read their comments and posts.

Further proof is a recent CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,480 managers and 3,910 workers shows that people in supervisory roles often doubt their (own) capabilities…..Many workers say their bosses are ineffective and that they play favorites and fail to communicate well. ……. the vast majority of managers never receive formal guidance on effective team leadership. “Good management skills can positively impact productivity, performance and overall employee morale,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources  at CareerBuilder. Another key focus of the survey [was] the shortcomings of the very top leaders of today.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=3%2F28%2F2011&id=pr626&ed=12%2F31%2F2011

Recently in Forbes, Renee Sylvestre-Williams said, “Managers who don’t create the right opportunities for their employees, don’t communicate with them, and don’t appreciate them often find themselves dealing with a high turnover rate. Good managers are people you keep in touch with even after you leave a position. Bad managers are people you keep track of so you can avoid them in future.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/reneesylvestrewilliams/2012/01/30/why-your-employees-are-leaving/

Finally, let’s not forget top leaders like JC Penney’s Ron Johnson, who alienated JCP’s customer base and laid off almost 25,000 people in a predicted ruining of the company, wrapped in a multi-year rebranding effort.  This top leader of the company never moved to headquarters, but irregularly commuted to Texas from California and didn’t even know the upper level company management.  JCP now faces a totally devastated and demoralized workforce, totally untrusting of company leadership!  Which is it…not knowing…or not caring?  Does it matter?

Whether or not you believe employees feel as previously described, why are these employee opinions and concerns so universal?  Why are they not believed?  However, more large surveys are unnecessary.

Next:  Why the churn and waste?