Kindness As An Organizational Value
Sanjay Bose, EVP HR, ITC, heads human resource for the hospitality business of ITC, the third largest in India. Prior to joining ITC, he was heading the global HR operations of Taj Group of Hotels with responsibilities spanning across 12 countries.
Anupreeta Lall is the founder of IntellSearch, a boutique search firm which has completed a decade of delivering exemplary service to its clients. Prior to Intelli Search, Ms. Lall was associated for more than ten years with leading search firms, managing senior level mandates across the FMCG, Alcobev, Agri Input, EPC, Automobile, Media & Advertising sectors. Her work spanned across various geographies including Middle East, North Africa and ASEAN region.
A sound strategy coupled with an enabling culture, drives an organization to strive towards its goals and craft its success. Could "kindness" be a defining value in the culture of an organization and play an important role in its success or failure? Does kindness hold the key to rebuilding business? Can kindness have a positive impact on high performing work environments?
Maximizing shareholder return is an important priority for organizations. Organizations focus on profitability; utilizing their resources with maximum efficiency for competitive superiority. Amongst resources, which deliver a predetermined value, there is one resource, which is live, has emotions and therefore the output and efficiency cannot be computed on a mathematical model. The efficiency and productivity of the people resources; at the individual as well as collective level, is dynamic and varies based on its emotional state.
Anupreeta Lall, Founder, IntellSearch
In a normal business scenario, organizations impart varying degrees of importance on the emotional aspect, depending on their culture. It is statistically proven that organisations having unrelenting focus on efficiency and productivity are normally the winners. A competitive world ensures prime focus on monthly, quarterly and annual results and therefore the need to put immediate goals first. Quite naturally, with no visible, tangible result on any of these metrics, there remains little space for kindness. On the contrary, there are numerous examples where organizations turned inefficient and subsequently unprofitable, due to an inordinate focus on carrying people; at the cost of ignoring other, significant business priorities.
The paradigm changed with a suddenness which was not factored in any projections, as the current pandemic hit. Most organisations reacted to the situation with the same arsenal, which had been their forte earlier. Cultures with a high component of innovation launched new product lines overnight, others were agile in utilizing their strength of logistics, technology and intellectual capital to diversify into new services and yet others saw shrinking demand and went on an overdrive of cost optimization. For those on cost optimization, the natural focus was on people costs; obviously one of the higher elements of fixed cost. What followed was large-scale layoffs, salary cuts, talent migrating back to home states or home countries etc. The decisions of such businesses were very understandable. In the face of diminishing, possibly negligible revenues, any business would want to do away with costs to protect the shareholders' interest. Even if it had been present earlier, the current predicament ensured a backseat for kindness. For most organizations it was a question of survival.
Nevertheless, going against the grain, some organisations chose to take a risk. In seemingly counter-intuitive moves, they opted to carry their workforce with them realizing fully well that it widened the losses for them. Their competitive performance dipped and the promoters or shareholders took further, additional hits. There was no business logic except a belief that they needed to care for their people. It is this deep-seated belief, predominantly unstated and unexpressed, which anchors the culture of these organizations; the value of organizational kindness.
So Is Organizational Kindness A Virtue?
Numerous researches and studies have established, that kindness has a direct correlation with enhanced business performance. It directly impacts culture, fosters trust and camaraderie within teams, enhances commitment within the workforce and the customer and promotes loyalty towards the organization. A case can be made that these attributes probably are more relevant for industries that are service led (hotels, airlines, consulting, retail etc.) than those, which are product led (IT, manufacturing, energy etc). In a cross industry survey of 17 industries in 2011, about half the respondents said they were treated to unkind behavior at least once a week. More importantly, the impact of a negative work environment led to about half the people intentionally decreasing discretionary effort or time spent at work.
As the world ambles towards normalcy and business starts coming back, the demand for good talent is also returning. However there's a difference! While earlier the employer brand anchored on efficiency, growth and profitability could be counted on to attract talent, it may not be enough now. A mind shift has happened and psychological security has unexpectedly become a key factor in choosing an employer. All other factors being equal, organizations that stood for their people in the time of adversity, are emerging as employers of choice. What may have been a minor factor in an organization's success, has evolved and emerged as a key differentiator in the current times.
Interestingly, organisations which invested in building a culture of organizational kindness, probably at the cost of operating efficiencies, are placed in a position of higher yields. Presently they are at a strategically advantageous position; difficult to be replicated easily by competitors. The counter argument however, is that it is not every day, or year or decade, that these kinds of disruptions happen. Logically, as businesses go back to the earlier normal, the pressures on delivering the monthly, quarterly and annual results would mount again. Kindness may again slide down the priority list.
Organizations are at an impasse on this! Although, accepting that cultures built on kindness have a long-term strategic value, how does an organization go about finding a balance between kindness and efficiency? There is no easy answer to this. Organizations must look within themselves to find a balance; and discover their appetite for short or mid term versus long-term sustainability. As in all other areas of business, this too requires investment and this appetite of long-term versus shorter term will be key for any organization to find its right balance.
Anupreeta Lall is the founder of IntellSearch, a boutique search firm which has completed a decade of delivering exemplary service to its clients. Prior to Intelli Search, Ms. Lall was associated for more than ten years with leading search firms, managing senior level mandates across the FMCG, Alcobev, Agri Input, EPC, Automobile, Media & Advertising sectors. Her work spanned across various geographies including Middle East, North Africa and ASEAN region.
A sound strategy coupled with an enabling culture, drives an organization to strive towards its goals and craft its success. Could "kindness" be a defining value in the culture of an organization and play an important role in its success or failure? Does kindness hold the key to rebuilding business? Can kindness have a positive impact on high performing work environments?
Maximizing shareholder return is an important priority for organizations. Organizations focus on profitability; utilizing their resources with maximum efficiency for competitive superiority. Amongst resources, which deliver a predetermined value, there is one resource, which is live, has emotions and therefore the output and efficiency cannot be computed on a mathematical model. The efficiency and productivity of the people resources; at the individual as well as collective level, is dynamic and varies based on its emotional state.
Anupreeta Lall, Founder, IntellSearch
In a normal business scenario, organizations impart varying degrees of importance on the emotional aspect, depending on their culture. It is statistically proven that organisations having unrelenting focus on efficiency and productivity are normally the winners. A competitive world ensures prime focus on monthly, quarterly and annual results and therefore the need to put immediate goals first. Quite naturally, with no visible, tangible result on any of these metrics, there remains little space for kindness. On the contrary, there are numerous examples where organizations turned inefficient and subsequently unprofitable, due to an inordinate focus on carrying people; at the cost of ignoring other, significant business priorities.
The paradigm changed with a suddenness which was not factored in any projections, as the current pandemic hit. Most organisations reacted to the situation with the same arsenal, which had been their forte earlier. Cultures with a high component of innovation launched new product lines overnight, others were agile in utilizing their strength of logistics, technology and intellectual capital to diversify into new services and yet others saw shrinking demand and went on an overdrive of cost optimization. For those on cost optimization, the natural focus was on people costs; obviously one of the higher elements of fixed cost. What followed was large-scale layoffs, salary cuts, talent migrating back to home states or home countries etc. The decisions of such businesses were very understandable. In the face of diminishing, possibly negligible revenues, any business would want to do away with costs to protect the shareholders' interest. Even if it had been present earlier, the current predicament ensured a backseat for kindness. For most organizations it was a question of survival.
Nevertheless, going against the grain, some organisations chose to take a risk. In seemingly counter-intuitive moves, they opted to carry their workforce with them realizing fully well that it widened the losses for them. Their competitive performance dipped and the promoters or shareholders took further, additional hits. There was no business logic except a belief that they needed to care for their people. It is this deep-seated belief, predominantly unstated and unexpressed, which anchors the culture of these organizations; the value of organizational kindness.
The paradigm changed with a suddenness which was not factored in any projections, as the current pandemic hit
So Is Organizational Kindness A Virtue?
Numerous researches and studies have established, that kindness has a direct correlation with enhanced business performance. It directly impacts culture, fosters trust and camaraderie within teams, enhances commitment within the workforce and the customer and promotes loyalty towards the organization. A case can be made that these attributes probably are more relevant for industries that are service led (hotels, airlines, consulting, retail etc.) than those, which are product led (IT, manufacturing, energy etc). In a cross industry survey of 17 industries in 2011, about half the respondents said they were treated to unkind behavior at least once a week. More importantly, the impact of a negative work environment led to about half the people intentionally decreasing discretionary effort or time spent at work.
As the world ambles towards normalcy and business starts coming back, the demand for good talent is also returning. However there's a difference! While earlier the employer brand anchored on efficiency, growth and profitability could be counted on to attract talent, it may not be enough now. A mind shift has happened and psychological security has unexpectedly become a key factor in choosing an employer. All other factors being equal, organizations that stood for their people in the time of adversity, are emerging as employers of choice. What may have been a minor factor in an organization's success, has evolved and emerged as a key differentiator in the current times.
Interestingly, organisations which invested in building a culture of organizational kindness, probably at the cost of operating efficiencies, are placed in a position of higher yields. Presently they are at a strategically advantageous position; difficult to be replicated easily by competitors. The counter argument however, is that it is not every day, or year or decade, that these kinds of disruptions happen. Logically, as businesses go back to the earlier normal, the pressures on delivering the monthly, quarterly and annual results would mount again. Kindness may again slide down the priority list.
Organizations are at an impasse on this! Although, accepting that cultures built on kindness have a long-term strategic value, how does an organization go about finding a balance between kindness and efficiency? There is no easy answer to this. Organizations must look within themselves to find a balance; and discover their appetite for short or mid term versus long-term sustainability. As in all other areas of business, this too requires investment and this appetite of long-term versus shorter term will be key for any organization to find its right balance.
