(Published in Business Day – 14 January 2025)
In a time of great fluidity in culture, politics, and economics, I think it would be great if managers held the line on values. Managers have a substantial impact on the thinking and behaviour of their people, so it’s worth considering the impact we want to make.
We live in a strange time when the values most of us grew up taking for granted are under assault – things like respect for individual dignity, the rule of law, protection for individual liberties and rights, fair play, compassion, freedom to believe what we want and to talk about it, limitations on the power of rulers, protection for the marginal.
These seem to me to be self-evidently good. But globally the opposite is surprisingly prevalent. “Might is right” has made an extraordinary comeback. This is most evident in international relations, led by Putin justifying his invasion of Ukraine, but just as clearly evident in conflicts everywhere. If you think you need a neighbouring sovereign state, apparently it’s okay to talk about acquiring it – by whatever means.
The autocrats are grabbing all the headlines, and if you are one, congratulations. But this is not what most people actually want. The rest of us prefer a world where our rights are protected and we have some degree of control over who determines our future. We don’t want nasty people pushing us around.
“Where is the evidence?” you may be asking.
An indication of what the average member of your company might want comes from an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review in March 2022. The authors found that toxic culture was the single best predictor of attrition during the first six months of what has been called the Great Resignation – a period after the Covid pandemic when an unusually high number of professional staff left their jobs. In fact cultural toxicity was ten times more powerful in predicting attrition than how employees viewed their compensation.
The article quotes an estimate that employee turnover triggered by a toxic culture cost U.S. employers nearly $50 billion per year even before the Great Resignation.
What is toxic culture? The authors analysed more than 1.3 million reviews sent by U.S. employees to Glassdoor, a site that matches people and companies. From the 128 topics they found, they identified the “Toxic Five”: disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive. These five elements had by far the largest negative impact on how employees rated their corporate culture and contributed most to employees resigning.
To me, those five characteristics provide an accurate description of some leading politicians. And judging by recent events, it may also be what some business leaders aspire to.
The Mission & Culture Survey 2019 from Glassdoor surveyed 5000 participants across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany and found that nearly four in five would consider a company’s culture, and also its mission and purpose, before applying for a job there. Over half of the 5000 respondents said that company culture is more important for job satisfaction than salary. This was even more true of younger respondents.
I know this research is a few years old and is based in the US and Europe. But it resonates with what I know of the people I meet nearer home.
Liberal values are good ethics and, if they help retain the most committed staff, they may also be good for business. By fostering a culture of inclusivity, equity, transparency, and environmental and social responsibility, you’ll attract top talent and loyal customers. You’ll also sleep better at night and eventually retire satisfied that you made the world a better place.
So stick to your principles. There are more of us on this side than it may seem.
Jonathan Cook chairs Thornhill Associates.