Blanchard Employee Passion

7/29/2019 Blanchard Employee Passion

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The Leadership Difference.

PERSPECTIV

Employee Work Passion: Volum

Employee PassionThe New Rules of Engagement

You cant open a training or human resource magazine without hearing about the importanceo employee engagement. A myriad o studies, articles, and research papers all supportthe concept that employee engagement is a critical driver o organizational productivity,proftability, and customer loyalty and conclude that an engaged, motivated, and empoweredworkorce is ar more likely to work at optimal levels than one that is dispassionate, de-motivated, and unempowered.

What isnt as clear or agreed upon in the literature are the components that

comprise and inuence employee engagement. In act, 10 dierent studies can

sometimes oer 10 diering opinions on the actors that comprise and drive

engagement. What also is not present in the literature is an agreed-upon

defnition or employee engagement.

In 2005, The Ken Blanchard Companies conducted a comprehensive study to

determine what role leaders play in increasing organizational perormance, theconnections between Strategic and Operational Leadership, Customer Devotion, and

Employee Passion, and how these variables linked to Organizational Vitality.

This study, titled The Leadership-Proft Chain, was grounded in a literature review o

hundreds o studies and meta-analysis rom 1980 through 2005. The study concluded

that strategic and operational leadership were the key variables or driving Employee

Passion and that Employee Passion, in turn, was a key actor in creating CustomerDevotion and Organizational Vitality.

In November 2006, The Ken Blanchard Companies embarked on a new study to explore the

concept o Employee Passion more ully. Specifcally, the study was designed to:

Determine what defnes the sot measures o Employee Passion

Determine the actors that comprise a broad general defnition o Employee Passion

Determine whether demographics inuence the dierent items within the actors or theactors themselves

Create a consistent, reliable measure o the actors that inuence Employee Passion


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MK0568 052510EmployeePassion 2009TheKenBlanchardCompanies.Allrightsreserved.Donotduplicate. 2

Employee PassionOur Definition

The research conducted in The Leadership-Proft Chain suraced a collection o terms and

concepts in regard to employee engagement, employee motivation, and employee morale.

Our belie was that each o these terms defned separate dimensions that could be linked

to a broader concept that had not yet been identifed in the literature which we defnedas Employee Passion. Further, we determined that there are three distinct componentsincluding an aective component, which can be assessed, ocused on the eelings people haveabout their organizational lie. There is a cognitive component, which includes logical mentalconclusions about their organizational lie. In addition, there is a behavioralcomponentassessed on hard data statistics such as turnover, absenteeism, and perormance.

So, our earlier concept o Employee Passion, published in The Leadership-Proft Chain,included dimensions o satisaction, engagement, motivation, and morale.

Original Defnition

Employee Passion results rom the overall satisaction with the organization, its

policies, procedures, products, and management practices. Hard measures o Employee

Passion include retention, absenteeism, tenure, and productivity. Sot measures includeemployee perceptions o airness, justice, and trust.

Through our research in The Leadership-Proft Chain, we determined that Employee Passionis dependent on the perceptions individuals have o organizational policies and norms. Ourstudy on Employee Passion measured certain aspects o job satisaction but ocused primarilyon certain cognitive aspects o organizational commitment, thus defning and narrowingthe variables that were most inuential in orming positive emotional states o mind calledEmployee Passionemotional perceptions o how people, through these norms, processes,and practices get work accomplished.

This research caused us to broaden our existing defnition to the ollowing:

Employee Passion is the positive emotional state o mind resulting rom perceptions oworthwhile work, autonomy, collaboration, growth, airness, recognition, connectedness

to colleagues, and connectedness to leader, all o which lead to standards o behavior

that include discretionary eort, long-term commitment to the organization, peak

perormance, low turnover, and increased tenure with the organization.

Study Methodology

Research conducted or The Leadership-Proft Chain included a review o hundreds ostudies. Using this as a oundation, we reviewed numerous additional studies that suraced atleast 40 potential elements that seemed to inuence our concept o Employee Passion.

Though the terms were obtained rom a variety o dierent sources, logical groupings began

to emerge in seven conceptual areas: meaningul work, collaboration, recognition, growth,airness, autonomy, and connectedness.

Using these seven concepts as a guide, we did a ollow-up review to see i there wereadditional actors that could be included in each grouping. The second review caused us toexpand the original 40 items that had been identifed in the literature search to a fnal list o72 items that were included in our survey.

A survey was designed and sent to 25,000 c-level and mid-level managers as well as rontlineindividuals rom a variety o industries and company sizes around the world. Responses werecollected rom 2,101 individuals. The survey included 72 items grouped in seven sectionsand used a six-point Likert scale.

Employee Passion

extends beyond the

meaning o some othe present research

on engagement

and includes but

is not limited

to engagement,

motivation,

perormance, morale,

and satisaction.


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The results o the survey weresubjected to an exploratory actoranalysis. From this, a total o fveitems per subscale were retrieved andthe data was re-actored and analyzed.Forty-fve items were retained withnine dierent subscales.

An analysis o the survey resultsshowed that our original identifcationo seven main concepts thatcontributed to Employee Passionwas incomplete. Through the actoranalysis and stepwise regression,it was urther determined that anumber o items nested in the originalConnectedness subscale were ound

to split into two actors to make eightsubscales.

Ater urther scrutiny o the wordingo these items it was determinedthat the Connectedness subscalecontained two dierent actors, thefrst being Connectedness with theLeader (sub-actor seven) and asecond being Connectedness withColleagues (new sub-actor eight).It was then determined that items inthe Connectedness category would

be used to separate the constructo Connectedness into two actors:relationship connected with the leaderand relationship connected withcolleagues.

A Model for Employee Passion

OrganizaiOn

Cognitive Component

Perception of

Meaningful work Collaboration

Fairness Autonomy Recognition

Growth Connectedness

with Leader Connectedness

with Colleagues

Affective Component

Emotions

Passion for job Passion for

organization Propensity to

work overtime

Intent to stay Willing to

recommendorganization

to others

Behavioral Component

Requiredand discretionary

effortand behavior

and the

manifestationof

EmployeePassion

HIGH

LOW

individual

(MOTIVES

AND VAE S)

Eight Key Factors Influencing Employee Passion

Meaningul orkEmployees perceive the organizations larger purpose throughproducts or services produced, consider their work to be worthwhile, and are proud otheir individual actions and contributions that help the organization serve its customer.

CollaborationEmployees perceive an organizational environment and culture thatenhances collaboration, cooperation, and encouragement between all organizationalmembers.

FairnessEmployees perceive an environment where pay, benefts, resources andworkload are air and balanced and equitable, people treat each other with respect, andleaders act in an ethical manner.

AutonomyEmployees perceive an environment where people have the tools, training,support, and authority to make decisions.

RecognitionEmployees perceive an environment where they are praised, recognized,and appreciated by colleagues and their leader or their accomplishments, wherethey receive monetary compensation or those accomplishments, and where they arecontributing to positive relationships with others.

GrowthEmployees perceive an environment where people have opportunities to learn,grow proessionally, and develop skills that lead to advancement and career growth.

Connectedness with LeaderEmployees perceive an environment where they trusttheir leader and where the leader makes an eort to orm an interpersonal connectionwith them.

Connectedness with ColleaguesEmployees perceive an environment where they

trust their colleagues and where their colleagues make an eort to orm an interpersonalconnection with them.


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Exploring the Eight Factors Influencing

Employee Passion

Meaningful WorkMeaningul ork relates to an organization where people eel thattheir work is worthwhile and is connected to both the organizationand a larger purpose. hen doing Meaningul ork, individualsunderstand how their work adds value and believe that theirorganization helps its customers through its products and services.

Ultimately, employees need to understand where they are goingin relation to the vision, to buy into the culture, to know what thecompany stands or, and to understand how to connect their workto the strategic imperatives.

CollaborationCollaboration hinges on creating an environment that is motivatingand inspiring and where people work together to help one another

succeed. A key trait o high perorming organizations is sharedpower and high involvement where participation, collaboration, andteamwork are the way o lie. A corporate culture that encouragessharing and team spirit is essential to creating Collaboration. Inaddition, it is important or colleagues and leaders to support oneanother on tasks and to express appreciation or one anothers ideas.

FairnessThe concept o Fairness as reviewed in the literature can encompassmany things including an environment where pay, benefts,and workload are air and balanced and equitable and in whichpeople treat each other with respect and leaders act in an ethicalmanner. hile we recognize that the concept o Fairness includes

distributive, procedural, and interactive components, our studyocused primarily on the distribute component.

Our research in The Leadership-Proft Chain showed that employeesneed to perceive that leadership and the organization as a whole aretreating both them and the customer airly and justly. In act, theresearch showed that the number one reason that employees leavean organization is when they perceive that justness and airness arenot present in the organization.

AutonomyAutonomy involves creating an environment where managementstyle is collaborative and participative, allowing people to eel

empowered to make decisions about their work and tasks, in controlo their work, and in their ability to achieve their goals. e defnedAutonomy as providing the tools, training, support, and authority toindividuals to allow them to make decisions.

People need to have input and inuence over how their tasksare perormed and they need to eel that they have the abilityand inormation necessary to make decisions about their work.Additionally, clear guidelines must be in place to allow individuals tosucceed in regard to making decisions about their tasks.

Components of Meaningful Work

An organization that oers a quality productor service to its customers

Understanding how ones work adds value tothe organization and creates positive results

An organization that is ocused on apurpose other than making money and doesmeaningul work

Components of Collaboration

An organizational culture that encouragessharing, interdependence, and team spirit

An environment where coworkers and leadersexpress appreciation or each others ideas andsupport each other on projects and tasks

An environment that supports and encouragespositive and cooperative relationships withothers in the organization

Components of Fairness

Benefts, resources, and workloads are air andbalanced across the organization

Consistent application o decisions, policies,and procedures

Compensation based on perormance andindustry averages

Components of Autonomy

The ability to choose how tasks are perormed

Having the inormation and authority neededto make decisions about ones work

Being trusted to do ones job without

intererence Knowing the boundaries and limits in regard

to decision-making authority


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RecognitionMost people appreciate being praised and appreciated, or otherwiserecognized or their achievements. Most individuals value beingrecognized or their accomplishments by team members and theirleader. Individuals also value monetary recognition as well as verbal

and written recognition and they can fnd intrinsic recognition in theact that they are doing work that improves relationships with people

GrowthHaving opportunities to learn and grow proessionally and developskills that lead to advancement in ones career are core to the concepto Growth. Having a manager and organizational systems that providethese opportunities as well as being in an environment or departmentwhere colleagues can learn rom one another, or coach each other areimportant dimensions that support individual Growth. In addition,individuals need to eel that they are part o the process in terms ocareer planning.

Our research indicates that the items most strongly correlatedwith the concept o Growth include having a manager who assistswith uture career planning, the ability to learn rom coworkersto enhance ones current job, having opportunities to grow andimprove, and having the ability to inuence ones own career path.

Connectedness with LeaderHaving a solid relationship with ones leader and colleagues that isbased on integrity and trust is a key component in creating EmployeePassion. People need leaders who share inormation and make aneort to build rapport. A leader who takes an interest in his or heremployees and shares personal inormation is more likely to establish

and maintain connectedness with direct reports than one who doesnot.

As stated earlier, we tested items relating to Connectedness toLeader and Connectedness to Colleagues together to determinewhich group inuenced the issue o Connectedness. The actoranalysis revealed that the data correlated to two clusters, oneconnected to leader and the other connected to colleagues, and thatthe two sets o questions needed to be separated to create a newitem, which we titled Connectedness with Colleagues.

Connectedness with ColleaguesJust as a solid relationship with ones leader impacts EmployeePassion, so too does a strong relationship with colleagues andcoworkers. People want to have a personal connection with theircoworkers in addition to a proessional work relationship. Peoplewant to care about others, and they want others to care about them.There is a human need to connect.

Components of Recognition

Verbal, written, or monetary recognitionrom colleagues and leader or onesaccomplishments

Contributing to positive relationships withpeople

Being promoted based on perormance andaccomplishments

Components of Growth

A manager who assists with uture careerplanning

The ability to learn rom coworkers to enhanceones current job

Opportunities to grow and improve onescurrent job

Opportunities to discuss uture developmentneeds and interests with ones leader

Opportunities to chart ones uture career pathin the organization

Components of Connectedness with Leader

Sharing personal inormation

Making an eort to build rapport

Taking a personal and proessional interest inones direct reports

Acting with integrity

Components of Connectedness with Colleagues

Sharing personal inormation

Making an eort to build rapport

Taking a personal and proessional interest

Trust and integrity


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Ad ditional Findings

Our research also attempted to determine to what extent these actors were present in theminds o our survey population. The kurtosis or skewness o the curve or each item implies

a certain amount o positive perceptions in regard to the actors we tested. The actorsthat represent Employee Passion are present to some extent in the minds o our surveypopulation as evidenced by the average item means or all subscales alling between 4.73and 3.63 on a six-point scale. Based on the average item means, the actor that appearedto be most present in the minds o our survey population is Meaningul ork, ollowed byAutonomy. The actor that appears to be least present is Growth.

One hypothesis to explain this fnding could be that creating a sense o Meaningul orkhappens via the organizations culture and that this is easier to create than the separate anduniquely customized growth and career paths or hundreds or thousands o individuals.Another hypothesis could be that growth is not a common ocus.

hile an inormal ranking o the eight Employee Passion actors did emerge as ollows:

Meaningul ork, Autonomy, Connectedness with Colleagues, Connectedness with Leader,Collaboration, Recognition, Fairness, and Growth, the dierences between the means was

not enough to establish a ranking that was signifcant. This led us to believe thatall o

the eight actors must be present in order or true Employee

Passion to be present in an organization. However, we did conclude that

there is a signifcant dierence in the highest and lowest scoring actors and that the highestscoring actor, Meaningul ork, was more commonly present in organizations than thelowest scoring actor, Growth. Our sample included 950 emales and 1,150 males. e ran anANOVA to test or gender bias in the responses, which showed no dierence in the responsesor any o the subscales.

Toward the end o our research process, two fnal steps were taken. First, the data wasdivided into two groups: those who scored highly on the fve Employee Passion questions andthose who did not. The scored high group contained 325 respondents and the scored lowgroup contained 350 respondents. The data was subjected to a stepwise regression, and weound that the group that scored highly on the fve Employee Passion questions also perceivedthat the eight Employee Passion actors were highly present in their organizations. Thegroup that scored low on the fve Employee Passion questions did not perceive that the eightEmployee Passion actors were as highly present in their organization.

Second, having completed two passes o an EFA (exploratory actor analysis) we thensubjected the actors to a CFA (confrmatory actor analysis) which confrmed the resultsrom the EFA.

A Scale to Measurethe affect ofEmployee Passion

Our survey also included fvequestions designed to measure theaect or positive emotional stateo mind o the respondents. Thesequestions, shown below, werecorrelated to the eight actors testedin regard to Employee Passion. eound that all eight actors must bepresent to inuence individualscommitment to the organization,their commitment and passion abouttheir current job, their intent to stay

with the organization, and their intentto recommend the organization toothers.

e also ound that the concept oMeaningul ork was most closelylinked to an individuals commitment,enthusiasm, and passion or the joband the organization, and the desire towork overtime.


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Conclusions

Employee Passion is the positive emotional state of mind resulting from perceptions of worthwhile work,autonomy, collaboration, growth, fairness, recognition, connectedness to colleagues, and connectedness to

leader, all of which lead to standards of behavior that include discretionary eort, long-term commitmentto the organization, peak performance, low turnover, and increased tenure with the organization.

Employee passion is a concept that extends beyond the meaning o some o the presentresearch on employee engagement. It includes but is not limited to satisaction, morale, andperormance. Employee Passion arises rom a combination o hard and sot measures thatinclude satisaction, engagement, motivation, and willingness to exert discretionary eort. Itis a complex end state, dependent on, and achieved through,a balance o the eight critical success actors, which include

Meaningul ork

Collaboration

Fairness

Autonomy

Recognition

Growth

Connectedness with Leader

Connectedness with Colleagues

Employee Passion is a positive emotional state o mind, which drives desired attitudes andbehavior including a willingness to apply discretionary eort, long-term commitment to theorganization, peak perormance, and job satisaction.

Organizations must provide meaningul work, autonomy, and opportunities or growth,encourage collaboration and recognition, and address the concept o airness in order to

maximize Employee Passion. hen Employee Passion is maximized, it in turn leads todevoted customers, which results in sustainable growth, profts, and higher stock value.


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For a list of our offices worldwide, visit

www.kenblanchard.com

Ab out The Ke n Blanch ardCompanies

The Ken Blanchard Companies is one

of the worlds leading training and

development experts. We create lasting

behavioral change that has measurable

impact on the organizations we work

with. We provide training that makes adifference.

Our programs are based on behavioral

models that add a situational context to the

training experience, so individuals learn to

be more productive in real-world scenarios

and make the shift from learning to doing

more quickly and effectively.

As the innovator of the most widely used

leadership development system in the

world, Situational Leadership II, we

provide groundbreaking thinking and

a memorable learner experience. We

begin with a collaborative diagnostic

process identifying your unique needs

and business issues, then develop an

appropriate leadership strategy.

To learn more, visit

www.kenblanchard.com.

About the Researchers

Dr. Drea Zigarmi is coauthor oAchieve Leadership Genius in 2007, The Leader Within in2005, and codeveloper o a number o The Ken Blanchard Companies products, includingSituational Leadership II and the widely used Leader Behavior Analysis instruments.

Dobie Houson is Director o Marketing Research or The Ken Blanchard Companies and is

responsible or competitive, market, and customer intelligence.David Witt is a Marketing Manager and Researcher or The Oce o the Future, The KenBlanchard Companies think tank and R&D division.

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