The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want

by David Sirota and Douglas A. Klein

Book Overview

This book is about employee enthusiasm: that special, invigorating, purposeful and emotional state that's always present in the most successful organizations. Most people are enthusiastic when they're... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131423304
• ISBN13: 9780131423305
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing
• Length: 363 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Strong, excellent exposition of employee relations

One of the problems common to all businesses is how to build employee loyalty, productivity, and satisfaction. The Enthusiastic Employee examines how you can make a company profitable by creating enthusiastic employees. One of the most interesting parts of the book examines how employees change their attitudes over time from one of excitement and eagerness to please to a lackluster one. They propose that over time managers often kill the enthusiasm of employees and then describe what to do about it. The authors provide a close examination of motivational factors in the workplace including job security, compensation, respect, a sense of achievement, challenge, feedback, recognition, and feeling you are part of a team. They also examine the problem of changing the corporate culture to implement change. The analysis presented in the book is based on real world knowledge obtained through years of research on millions of employees. For those interested in employee relations The Enthusiastic Employee is highly recommended.

A 3 factor theory that links human motivation to business success

David Sirota is founder and Chairman Emeritus, Louis A. Mischkind is Senior Vice-President, and Michael Meltzer is Managing Director and General Counsel at Sirota Consulting. All authors have impressive credentials to their names, ranging from doctorates through to directorships at IBM. This review is slightly longer than my usual ones. This 2005-hardcover version is split up in 5 parts, consisting of 1-to-4 chapters each. There are also 5 proper appendices, which contain the statistical evidence for the claims made in the book by the authors. In the extensive introduction the authors discuss the background, research and set up of the book. The first part of the book - Worker Motivation, Morale, and Performance - consists of 2 chapters. In the first chapter the authors assert that there are three primary sets of goals at work: Equity, achievement, and camaraderie. They term these "our Three Factor Theory of Human Motivation in the Workplace" and maintain that "these three sets of goals characterize what the overwhelming majority of workers want." In the second chapter the authors ask the question: "what does employee enthusiasm have to do with business success?" The authors believe that higher morale of their workers is one of the key characteristics of companies that have experienced long-term success. The term `enthusiastic' is introduced in order to elevate superior overall satisfaction scores, since they are just more than moderately satisfied, and organizations with enthusiastic employees are much higher performing organizations than the rest. The second part of the book - Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Fair Treatment - consists of 3 chapters and discusses the first of the Three Factor Theory, the concept of equity. In the first chapter of this part the authors tackle the issue of job security which "is a defining characteristic [of a company] because a decision to lay off people sends a message to the workforce about the way the company views its people: assets or as costs (necessary evils)." In the second chapter the authors discuss compensation, which is also extraordinarily important for worker morale and performance. There is a short piece on money as seen from a worker's and an employer's perspective. The final chapter of this part discusses respect, which is the major non-financial component of equity. The kind of respect the authors have in mind is "from a sense of the intrinsic worth of human beings - all human beings." Equality through the treatment of each individual is at the heart of respect, but the core issue is how higher income and power level individuals treat individuals at lower levels. Part III - Enthusiastic Workforces, Motivated by Achievement consists of 4 chapters and discusses the second of the Three Factor Theory, the concept of achievement. The authors discuss a critical condition for employee enthusiasm, which is a clear, credible, and inspiring organizational purpose, or a "reason for being there". Th

How Satisfied Are You?

You get more flies with honey then vinegar, this simple concept just about sums up this book. The truly motivated employee is one that wants to be at work and perform, what environmental factors that make a person what to be at work is in large part the responsibility of management This is the claim of this book by the authors. How many of us spend most of our people time working on the disgruntled under performer. We then find that the rest of the staff are ignored because the "real work" needs to get done, so full steam ahead and get out of the way or get run over. The authors claim this is exactly what kills morale, managers focusing on black and white issues and just assuming the staff will follow, even managers who themselves are disenchanted with the work place they are in. The authors detail out how they have come up with the advice they are dispensing in the book and then they sit you down for a class on improving the work place in relation to employee relations and morale. It all came off as so basic yet when the everyday pressures of the work place get too much the common sense of fair and equitable treatment tends to go out the window. The authors give the reader a number of techniques to help with employee morale and thus performance. These items alone make this book a must read. Overall I found the book to be very interesting and easy to read. The authors give you valuable information that will make you a better manager. This book should be given to every new manager in any company.

This one shouldn't be missed

From time to time, as a book reviewer, I come across a book that could easily slide under the radar-but should not. This is one of those books. The book's subtitle is "How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want." For savvy leaders, this is a no-brainer. However, as a Certified Management Consultant with 25 years of practice under my belt, I can tell you that an uncomfortably large proportion of managers don't get it. And those who may suspect that they can do more to build their productive relationships with employees often question whether these ideas are just a lot of fluff and woo-woo. This book presents 30 years of research with the results of surveys given to over 4 million employees. This is a huge contribution to the field, particularly when the book contains a significant amount of material in the appendix about research methodology. The real meat of the book will be found in the sections on how enthusiastic workers are motivated by fair treatment (job security, compensation, respect), achievement (purpose and principles, job enablement, job challenge, feedback/recognition/reward), and camaraderie (teamwork). Even as you cruise through the table of contents, your mind will shout "duh!" But as you read the pages, you'll find a meld of academia and real-world that presents a serious handbook into how to gain greater commitment and results. This is a deep business book, not conversational light reading. The final section of the text explores organizational culture and what the authors-consultants and professors-call the partnership organization. Naturally, consultants-internal and external-will gain quite a bit from this book. Corporate leaders-and particularly those charged with organizational change and positive cultural reinforcement-will find the book a treasure. Even a relatively quick read (a scanning for insights and ideas) will stimulate thinking for busy executives. This is a book that will be scanned, re-read, and referenced by people dedicated to taking our workplaces back to the foundations that made them strong in days past...when people really cared about their jobs-when they were genuinely enthusiastic employees.

Enthusiastic Performance and Production

If you are in management or HR or have employees of any sort, including by independent contract, get this book and follow its advice. It is worth its weight in gold, but fortunately you don't have to pay that much for it. This is the bible of common sense management of human motivation and performance. It is also the bible of scientific study of common sense management of human motivation and performance. It contains the relevant results of 30 years worth of meticulously researched materials produced by members of Sirota Consulting where the authors are senior staff. (David Sirota is the founder.) The book contains very little that anyone familiar with the literature in the field will find new. In fact, most reputable management consultants have told their clients most of the same things for many, many years: (1) Ask your employees what the want. They will tell you the truth and it will be reasonable. (2) Employees want to be treated fairly, including in compensation -- and fair means fair, not extrordinary. (3) Employees want the opportunity to perform well and achieve something meaningful (really!) (4) Employees want to work with others who share their basic values and with whom they can comfortably interact and cooperate -- there is an important social element in the workplace. Sirota and his co-authors build on those basic concepts. They tell you about those concepts in full, rich detail. You will understand that what they are saying is valid and why it is valid. They tell you the specific practical applications of the information and insights they give you. You know exactly what to do in your job to put their information to work. They show you how applying their methods motivates, improves performance, makes management easier, even fun and makes your company more profitable. They show you how to make your employees raving fans of your company.