Thought Leadership Articles
Kenexa HR Thought Leadership™ articles are experience-driven pieces that discuss best practices in the Human Capital Management (HCM) space. These articles are written by skilled HR practitioners or technologists who initiate or provide new thinking on a specific component of HR. Kenexa HR Thought Leadership articles discuss strategies on new or existing HR topics and educate readers about future possibilities and considerations on those topics. The overall purpose of these thought leadership articles is to engage readers through original, innovative ideas that are supported by the knowledge and experience of the author.
Corporate Identity Crisis
By Jeffrey A. Jolton, Ph.D. and Tim L. Geisert, Kenexa
Susan Hendrickson’s friends envy her. They think she goes to work every day at a great job for a wonderful company. After all, she works for an organization whose mission focuses on bringing joy to the world. Once she began her job, it became clear that although it felt good to work for a company with a mission to make people happy, the work environment was anything but joyful. It was competitive, anxious and aggressive. Susan struggles to figure out how to reconcile this darker side of her employer with the bright image and experience presented to its customers.
For Robert McKinsey, an engineer, his passion is about working with some of the best engineers in the world. He loves what he does, but he feels for every step forward his company makes toward its strategic goals, it ends up taking two steps back. Issues such as bureaucracy, process paralysis and lack of trust keep the company from really making any progress. These problems seem so pervasive and apparent; surely, leadership knows these issues are keeping the company from achieving its goals. Yet, the organization appears to be stuck—not necessarily floundering, but not succeeding either. Bob wonders if his company has a future, and whether he should stick around to find out.