A Jobless Recovery and a Slip Down Maslow’s Hierarchy

The message seems to be clear, and oft repeated.  We are in a “jobless recovery.”  I read and hear from all sorts of sources that jobs are scarce, especially the good jobs are scarce, and insecurity is the defining characteristic of the era.

a little wisdom for companies in better times...

Not too long ago, it seemed like there were plenty of jobs to go around, and people like Geoff Colvin could describe how workers could be “picky.”  Here’s a passage from his book Talent Is Overrated — What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else:

Today’s best young employees, the ones on whom future success will depend, are demanding that employers help make them better performers…  Organizations are finding that the advantages of building a big reputation for developing people are even greater than they may have thought.  Such a reputation grants these companies a “first-pick advantage,” an edge in attracting the cream of college and business-school students.
Understand that each person in the organization is not just doing a job, but is also being stretched and grown.

This is true, of course – in an ideal world.  People want jobs that stretch them, train them, help them develop into what they could be with such attention given to future building.

But this is not such an ideal world. “Panic” seems to be the response to the uncertainty.  And everyone and anyone with a job wants to keep it, whether it is “helping them become better performers” or not.  The uncertainty is too…  uncertain.

To borrow just the title from Michael Lewis, Panic:  The Story of Financial Insanity, insanity underlies our uncertainty.

So, I was thinking about all this, and realized that there is a simple way to grasp and explain what has happened.  And it is demonstrated in the always reliable Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.  You remember the hierarchy:

Well, I think it is obvious we have slipped down a notch or two.  While just a brief time ago we were a nation looking for self-esteem and self-actualization in our work, we may be back down to physiological needs and safety needs.  We need to pay the bills and survive this jobless recovery, and self-actualization will have to wait a while.

Personally, I wish we had a job-filled recovery.  What about you?

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Update:

Doug Caldwell, a regular participant at the First Friday Book Synopsis, linked to this post on his blog, and points us to this not-so-encouraging article about the duration of this jobless recovery: Wait Until 2017 Before Job Market Recovers, Report Says.  Here’s what Doug said to do before you read this article:
If you are in a good mood or have had several adult beverages you can read this blog post sitting down that employment won’t be ‘normal’ until 2017.

Book Review: SuperCorp

SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Crown Business (2009)

Becoming a “SuperCorp” (however defined), especially in the current economy, is an admirable achievement but does not necessarily ensure a permanent position. The vanguard companies Kanter examines in this book include Banco Real, CEMEX, IBM, ICICI Bank, Omron, Procter & Gamble, Publicis Groupe, and Shirshan Bank. All of them have been literally “in the forefront of an action, an example of change to come” in terms of both social purpose and profitable enterprise, not either/or. To a much greater extend than ever before, Kanter provides within her lively narrative reader-friendly check lists that facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key points later. For example:

• Four general forces to which vanguard companies respond (Pages 46-47)
• Six advantages created with strategic use of values and principles (58-60)
• Five advantages when social purpose is at the forefront (111-113)
• Nine tenets of innovation initiatives that make a difference (211-212)
• Seven guidelines that summarize vanguard practices (231-232)
• “Ten Things That Anyone Can Do to Be in a Vanguard” (259-260)
• Five characteristics of vanguard leadership (261-262)

Unlike most other business books whose authors heavily rely on lists of hollow bullet points, Kanter’s checklists include detailed annotations. However different they may be in most other respects, all of the CEOs of vanguard companies she discusses in this book – Fabio Barbosa (Banco Real), Lorenzo Zambrano (CEMEX), Sam Palmisano (IBM), K.V. Kamath (ICICI Bank), Hisao Sakuta (Omron), A.G. Lafley (Procter & Gamble), and Maurice Lévy (Publicis Groupe) — possess highly-developed skills for establishing and nourishing relationships within and (especially) beyond their organization. Their effectiveness is explained by ability to see things in context and understand complex interactions between and among many variables. They have a bias for action and are results-driven when seeking solutions for their own organization as well as for the clients it is privileged to serve. They have what Daniel Goleman correctly describes as “emotional intelligence”: exceptional self-awareness (of weaknesses as well as strengths), empathy, respect for individuality and principled dissent, and a sincere delight in others’ achievements. They are also values-driven, take very seriously their fiduciary responsibilities as a steward of resources, and recognize, indeed embrace a higher calling than merely making money.

In vanguard companies, Kanter points out that competences and capabilities such as these are by no means limited only to CEOs or to executives at the C-level. On the contrary, they can – and should – be developed in everyone throughout the enterprise, at all levels and in all areas. She concedes that the vanguard model “turns organizations upside down and inside out. They become less hierarchical and more driven by flexible networks. They become more open and transparent to the outside world while bringing society and its needs inside. As an ideal and an aspiration, the vanguard model attempts to reconcile contradictions: to be big but human, efficient but innovative, respecting individual differences while seeking common ground, global in thinking but concerned about local communities.”

Given what Kanter characterizes as the “inexorable march of global change,” organizations really have no choice but to adopt and then adapt the vanguard business model. The bad news is that that process will be immensely complicated and very, very difficult to complete. The good news is that it can be done, as the exemplary companies in this book clearly indicate. For these and other reasons, I think that SuperCorp is the most valuable book that Kanter has written thus far.