Greetings Readers!  I think everyone can relate to Mark’s story of employee apathy.  What bothers me most is that Mark’s experience, repeated billions of times per day, carries with it a great cost.  Frustration to customers, waste of capacity, damage to the brand and the organization’s goodwill, are just a few of the negative consequences of this problematic workplace phenomenon.  While many leaders would love to use a single event or focused approach to solving this problem, as J.B. Kassarjian points out, we have to shed a mindset of simplistic ideals and move beyond the hopes that “prescribing a little blue pill” mentality works. 

Mark, you point out that even though these behaviors are widespread, they must be overcome.  In fact, while employee apathy is common, it is not insurmountable.  Recent research I have done might provide helpful insight into the solutions to employee apathy.  What I have discovered aligns with Brandi’s ideas of leaders helping employees internalize what value is (from the view of stakeholders) and McKeown’s view that leaders must provide the chain of evidence that leads from employee performance to organizational performance.  I have surveyed employees from two levels of the organization, top executives and clerical staff, across multiple firms.  I was surprised to find out that both groups suffered from the same problems, and that these issues caused them to experience stress and be less productive (a situation that often is expressed in employee apathy).  These common problems include:

1.     A lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities

2.     A lack of communication

3.     A lack of strategic planning

4.     A lack of analysis of understanding root causes of problems

(Interestingly, measuring outcomes and taking more action on ethical beliefs were not areas of concern.) 

So, what I have learned to date is that there is a common understanding the outputs of work, namely the outcomes.  There is also an understanding of the parameters of work, and specifically ethical behavior.  What is missing on all levels is an understanding of how to proceed with processes, protocols and structures that make a difference.  Hence, there is no little blue pill solution here.  Rather, acumen for systemic thinking, skills in process-based approaches and the mental discipline needed for sustaining continuous improvement are called for. 

Dr. Shannon Flumerfelt leads the Organizational Development Practice of Inflexion Advisors.