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Wednesday, November 25, 2009How Thanksgiving Can Boost Organizational Performance
I recently heard fantastic news while on a conference call hosted by the International Positive Psychology Association. The guest speaker was Dr. Kim Cameron, and he started his call with a very interesting question.
Seeing that the stock price of about 80% of corporations who downsize in a bad economy dropped, he wondered what the 20% of organizations whose stock price did not drop was doing differently.
His research showed that an organization's virtuousness makes the difference. By virtuousness, Cameron means the extent to which the organization is benevolent, highly ethical and strives for excellence, as well as the extent to which its employees flourish, experience flow and vitality.
Dr. Cameron then studied whether implementing new virtuous practices could improve performance, and found statistically significant relationships between 
virtuous interventions and:
- productivity
- quality
- innovation
- customer loyalty
- employee retention
- profitability.
If you thought fulfillment and ethics were touchy-feely concepts unrelated to the bottom-line, think again. Turns out all those values Mom taught you make a lot of business sense in the end.
Employers, why not give heartfelt thanks to your employees for all their support and hard work this Thanksgiving? After all, what would you do without them? Employees, I'm sure your boss isn't perfect, but I'm also persuaded he or she does a few things you appreciate, and making that known will help you get more of it. As Dr. Cameron's research shows, getting the good vibes flowing abundantly can only benefit the organization overall.
Want to implement a few virtuous practices in your organization? Email me: info@SmartsAndStamina.com. In the meantime, I'd like to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving. And sincere thanks for being here and reading me!