ETHICAL DILEMMA
Stressing out employees is Your Job
Some of the most admired business leader argue that the only way to get the most out of people is to stretch them. Both business anecdotes and research evidence seem to back this view. “ If you do know how to get there, it’s not a stretch target” former GE CEO Jack welch has said. “we have found that by reaching for that appears to the impossible, we often actually do the impossible ; and even when we don’t quite make it, we inevitably wind up doing much better than we would have done.”
As foe the reseach evidence, we noted in Chapter 7 that goal-setting theory-whereby manages set the most difficult goals to which employees will commit – is perhaps the best-supported theory of motivation. The implication is that to be the most effective manager you need to push, push, and push more
But does this pose an ethical dilemma for manager? What if you learned that pushing employees to the brink came at the expense of their health or their family life? While it seems true that managers get the performance they expect, it also seems likely that some people push themselves too hard. When Kathie Nunley, who travels more than 100 days each year, had to miss the occasion when her son won an art competition, the only person she could share her news with was the Delta ticket agent. “It hit me how sad it was that I was sharing this moment with an airline agent rather than my son.” She said.
On the one hand, you may argue that employees should be responsible for their own welfare, and that it would be paternalistic, and encourage mediocrity, for organizations to “café for” employees. On the other hand, if your stretch goals mean your best employees are those who give it all for the organization – even putting aside their own personal or family interests-is that what you wish your results as a manager to be?