This is the question posed by Kevin Kennemer, a former human resources director for a major corporation who now runs his own organizational consulting business, in his blog Chief People Officer: http://thepeoplegroupllc.com/2009/02/what-are-you-working-for/. In this post, Kennemer writes about the importance of good leadership, mission-based living, and avoiding the destructiveness of greed. He observes that so many American workers are “unfulfilled, unsatisfied, unrecognized, under-utilized, under-appreciated and unengaged.”
In one of his very first blog posts, Kennemer discusses the “Signs of a Toxic Company Culture,” with a list of revealing questions to ask about our workplaces: http://thepeoplegroupllc.com/2008/04/signs-of-a-toxic-company-culture/. Too many workers will find themselves nodding their heads in agreement.
The more I surf the blogosphere looking for interesting commentary about the workplace, the more I’m convinced that kindred spirits are arriving at roughly the same place, often following different paths to get there. Themes such as integrity, fairness, dignity, and work ethic recur with encouraging repetition, and they appear to transcend geographic regions, vocations, personal demographics, and political orientations. Amidst the doom and gloom of today’s business and economic headlines, we see signs of an emerging consensus about the need for better workplaces.
Minding the Workplace 