Organization Espresso

I came across this statement – “If you are not fired with enthusiasm, then you would be fired with enthusiasm” quite a significant statement and very relevant in the current environment. What I think of here is going more to the core of the statement. The link between firing and enthusiasm, firing is an action taken by an organization towards a person(s) and enthusiasm is a characteristic trait. The direct correlation can be different in three different scenarios in three different types of organizations-

1- Sluggish Elephants- these are the mammoth organization which have seem to have been present since eternity. They have a set code for everything a well written process for every possible situation existing. They are gradual changers (I say this because I don’t believe that an organization can be under no change at all). Here a person who is enthusiastic (over enthusiastic when compared to the enthusiasm in the organization) is more likely to be fired for his over enthusiasm which might seem to be a positive trait to a lot of agencies and people external to the organization. An appropriate example of this kind of organization is army, though it is a non business organization, but it is one place where your enthusiasm which if not in accordance to organizational pace and policies might get you fired immediately. Though I don’t mean it is wrong on their part but that is their way of function (may be necessary too) and resembles closely to the situation I am describing in the corporate world.

2- Agile Reptiles- These are the organizations which ride on the wave of change. The organizations which are the agents of change. The organizations which nurture change and believe in the survival through change. The organizations actually need the agents of change to fuel their own growth engine. Actually if a person doesn’t matches the pace of the organization and is not as enthusiastic & motivated as the overall mood of the organization is, there is a high probability that he would find himself lagging behind the organization and would be under a constant fire. A close example is the consulting firms which fuel on change of clients, nature of projects and the industry scenarios. A person who is not very enthusiastic about changing industry, nature of work etc. is most likely to get into the line of fire in such an organization

3- Unpredictable Mice- These are the organizations which remain in a constant state of turmoil; they are the ones which have numerous smaller factions amongst them. These organizations run in a very unpredictable way with not a fixed pattern towards change and enthusiasm. The different factions or units of the organization have a different appetite for enthusiasm and change. In such an organization acceptability of an enthusiast depends upon the faction/ department/ unit he is working in, however on a broader basis the enthusiast if with his enthusiasm produced might be rewarded on the basis of results but might also get fired if the enthusiastic initiative backfired. An appropriate example of such an organization would be the modern IT companies which have known to be the ground for a lot of enthusiasts but also have been constantly under battering for killing enthusiasm in the employees.

Another thing I would like to clarify here is that everywhere I have mentioned organization I have used it as a part of corporate universe which is collectively performing some activities with a vision and objective. So this might be your unit, project team, program, department, company, group of companies etc because the change and enthusiasm is of relevance at every point in the organizational change.

by Prats | on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 8:44 am | Organization Culture . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.