Plus, what to do with 30 trillion unspent frequent-flier miles
McKinsey&Company October 26, 2018
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As performance-review season rolls inexorably into year’s end, people tend to assess not just their feelings about work but also their overall happiness. For some, the holidays prompt reflection; for others, it’s the turning of the calendar. Sometimes, it’s both.
Companies, aware that workplace stress is exacting an ever-higher toll, are starting to understand the link between general happiness and workplace satisfaction, and they are looking for ways to make their employees happier.
Management often turns first to salary, perks, and cool job titles. While these all matter, of course, there are also several fundamental and overlooked ways to help employees find satisfaction at work that don’t have to do with a paycheck—or a to-die-for snack bar.
In a recent McKinsey article adapted from his new book, Dying for a Paycheck, Jeffrey Pfeffer, the Stanford business school professor and prolific author, outlined how organizations can provide the autonomy, social connections, and support that foster physical and mental well-being. “Any company, in any industry, can pull these levers without breaking the bank,” he writes. “Today, though, too few do.”
Pfeffer notes that studies going back decades have shown that job control—the amount of discretion employees have to determine what they do and how they do it—has a major impact on their physical health. Job control is also one of the most important predictors of job satisfaction and work motivation, frequently ranking as more important even than pay. In essence, people at the top of the company shouldn’t be the only ones who feel they control their destiny.
Recent research also indicates that limited job control has ill effects that extend beyond the physical, imposing a burden on employees’ mental health, too. Organizations can guard against these dangers by creating roles with more fluidity and autonomy and by erecting barriers to micromanagement.
A culture of social support lets employees know they are valued, and thus helps in a company’s efforts to attract and retain good people. Management practices that reflect these values provide a payoff to employees and employers alike. Now, how about that bonus?
OFF THE CHARTS
The global superstar effect
Superstar firms, sectors, and cities share several attributes. In addition to capturing a greater share of income and pulling away from peers, superstars exhibit relatively higher levels of digitization; greater labor skill and innovation intensity; more connections to global flows of trade, finance, and services; and more intangible assets than do their peers. Superstar firms have become more geographically diverse over the past 20 years, though North American firms still make up the largest share.
The global superstar effect
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WHAT WE’RE READING | Jaidit Brar
Jaidit Brar is a senior partner in New Delhi, leading McKinsey’s marketing and sales practice in India. He is the author of multiple reports, including “India’s Economic Geography” and “Powering India.”
Jaidit Brar
Recruiting and developing great teams is by no means an easy task. How do you foster a highly motivated group of employees? Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord advocates practicing extreme honesty in the workplace. That means letting employees go who don’t fit the company’s emerging needs and motivating those who remain with challenging work—rather than just with promises and perks. A terrific read by the former chief human resources officer of Netflix on how that company’s culture was built and how it evolved and became embedded in the company.
In my spare time, I like to read about geopolitical hotspots and understand the genesis of some major conflicts. One of the most in-depth books I’ve read about the Afghan conflict is Steve Coll’s Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a granular look at the relationship between the US military and Pakistani intelligence.
In hundreds of interviews, Coll describes the second- and third-order impact of small decisions, including, for example, how the war against drugs intensified the insurgency. American efforts to find common ground with their Afghan and Pakistani counterparts continually come up short in a war that is in its 17th year, with no end in sight.
I also enjoyed In the Valley of Shadows by Abhay Narayan Sapru, a fictionalized narrative about courage, passion, and the hatred that an insurgency generates. There are many twists and turns in the plot, which are all neatly stitched against a backdrop that exposes some of the tensions and hardships currently being faced by people in the state of Kashmir.
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