High Stakes in Individual Accomplishments
Today’s organizations are faster-paced than those of our grandfathers, when it was common for employees to work for the same company their entire professional career. In today’s corporate culture, you’re considered a veteran if you’ve been with the same company for 10 years.
According to preliminary research conducted by Mays’ Bennett Chair in Business Administration R. Duane Ireland, with co-author Donald J. Minnick, the new century has already begun to leave its mark in business fundamentals. The 2005 Journal of Business Strategy paper — entitled “Inside the New Organization: A Blueprint for Surviving Restructuring, Downsizing, Acquisitions and Outsourcing” — explains that a century ago, most of an organization’s knowledge lay with the people at the top of its leadership ladder. People at the bottom of the ladder did the same work routines constantly and did what they were told. These organizations thrived on powerful hierarchy and low creativity among their mid- and low-rung level members.
“The successful organization of today is less bureaucratic,” says Ireland, head of Mays’ management department. “It drives decision-making and leadership opportunities deeper into the organization and allows individuals who are closest to the action to make recommendations.”
New organizations hold knowledge toward the bottom, in the minds of specialists who mostly direct themselves. The relocation of critical knowledge gives rise to a work environment dependent on the qualities of the members themselves and on the organization’s general human resource practices. This environment can be very tricky for employees to navigate because of the high stakes companies place on individual accomplishments in a creative team atmosphere.
“It’s so important for each one of us in an organization to take on the initiative of ‘I’m basically responsible for my own career,’” Ireland says. “But initiative and collaboration come together. I want to take the initiative for my own path of development, but an important way to enhance my knowledge-base is through collaborative arrangements.”
Ireland suggests that individuals wanting to appear as worthwhile investments to their companies should combine crucial components of competence with team-building skills. Clearly communicating ideas, being the center of a knowledge network, and continuously bettering and updating one’s skills show an employee to be extremely competent as well as motivated. Team-builders, who can quickly become valued members of a firm’s workforce, are communicators who have the ability to continually learn different parts of the company, are knowledgeable of its workings, and who can connect various people through informal networks.
“Success in the new organization demands a balance between the values of individual initiative and collaboration as we work with others,” Ireland says. “This balance is necessary because these values drive the way we interact with colleagues, superiors, customers and suppliers.”
— Alycia C. Zuehlke
