Organizations for People: Caring Cultures, Basic Needs, and Better Lives

250 Pages·2019·2.484 MB·English

by  Michael O'Malley, William F. Baker

ORGANIZATIONS FOR PEOPLE
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O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
F O R P E O P L E
CARING CULTURES, BASIC NEEDS,
AND BETTER LIVES
M I C H A E L O ’ M A L L E Y
AND
W I L L I A M F. B A K E R
STANFORD BUSINESS BOOKS
AN IMPRINT OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: O’Malley, Michael, date- author. | Baker, William F., date- author.
Title: Organizations for people : caring cultures, basic needs, and better lives / Michael
O’Malley and William F. Baker.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford Business Books, an imprint of Stanford University
Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019010218
(print) | LCCN 2019011675 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503611054 (electronic) | ISBN 9781503602540
(cloth; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Personnel management. | Personnel management—Psychological aspects. |
Quality of work life. | Psychology, Industrial.
Classification: LCC HF5549 (ebook) | LCC HF5549 .O515 2019 (print) | DDC 658.3/14—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019010218
Cover design: Rob Ehle
Typeset by Classic Typography in 10/14 Minion
To the 21 companies who created humane workplaces and opened
their doors to us to reveal what good businesses can look like, and in
memory of James Berger who led with vision and respect
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CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
part 1: kindness in the workplace
Chapter 1: Mo 9
Chapter 2: Vergonnen 21
Chapter 3: Kindness 31
Chapter 4: Unruly 42
Chapter 5: Community 54
Chapter 6: Basic Needs 69
part 2: human needs
Chapter 7: Belonging 91
Chapter 8: Meaning 106
Chapter 9: Autonomy 126
Chapter 10: Self-Acceptance 138
Chapter 11: Self-Confidence 152
Chapter 12: Growth 167
Appendix 185
Notes 195
Index 221
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FOREWORD
Rachel S. Moore
President and CEO
The Music Center
Los Angeles, California
I can still see their faces as I walk up to the podium. Written all over them is
the question, “What could she possibly have to say about running a business?
A former professional ballet dancer and philosophy major . . . how is she even
employed?” Yes, it is an unusual combination. Yet when I describe my back-
ground, I push back on the stereotypes. I argue that my past as a performing
artist and my background in ethics and political philosophy inform my work
as a CEO numerous times every day. In fact, it is because of these experiences
that I believe values-based leadership is critical to the development of high-
functioning teams in the 21st century.
For many the notion of being a professional ballet dancer is glamorous.
One imagines performing on stages around the world and not having to deal
with the day-to-day challenges of a “regular” job. The reality is, being a profes-
sional dancer is extremely difficult, highly stressful work, where one is com-
pelled to perform at a very high level at all times, even through injury and
illness, because “the show must go on.” For me, dancing with the American
Ballet Theatre in the 1980s was both a great honor and an emotional journey.
At that time the dancers were treated not as respected, highly trained profes-
sionals, but as cogs in a much larger mechanism, a ballet production. We were
told to be silent and obedient. Dancers were often punished—by not getting
opportunities to perform certain roles—for speaking out, for asking ques-
tions, and for trying to demonstrate some personal efficacy or wanting to have
some control over their professional lives. Repeatedly, we were told to “shut up
and do as you are told.”
This daily marginalization was corrosive to the spirit. It created an inordi-
nate level of low morale among the artistic talent, the company’s greatest asset,
and compelled many of its gifted employees to look for other professional