Globalization, outsourcing and ever-changing technology – all are issues challenging businesses as they evolve to stay competitive. At the same time, managers are working to keep the team at top performance amid growing concerns about specialization and job security. A new book co-edited by two University of Cincinnati researchers takes a psychological approach to addressing these challenges.
The book, Relatedness in a Global Economy, co-edited by Edward B. Klein, UC professor of psychology, and Ian L. Pritchard, a doctoral candidate in the UC Department of Psychology, explores how consultants and managers can supervise the impact of the ever-changing workplace and help employees maintain a balanced view of their work and their lives. Published by Karnac Books of London, the book carries a retail price of $34.50 and can be purchased through Amazon.com for $22.77.
The book delves into three key questions involving globalization and the workplace:
- Can a combination of social systems and psychoanalytic theories help business leaders understand the dilemmas of relating in a complex, competitive global economy?
- How can business leaders apply the theories described in the book to their own workplace?
- Using the perspectives described in the book, can managers and consultants affect how we relate in the new economy?
Klein explains that one of the obstacles of the modern workplace is that time's too short to focus on anything other than getting the job done. "People are hired by companies to be very good problem solvers. They have engineering degrees, MBAs and technical skills. But there isn't enough time to think and there isn't enough time to listen," he says.
The book is a resource for leaders in industry, government, health and education. The book's nine chapters examine actual case studies, contributed by authors in the United States, England, Australia and India. The cases vary, such as the family in France that's using high technology to save the family farm, but it's looking more like a business and less like a farm every day. Or, there's the builder in England who's torn between either buying local or paying less for steel abroad, putting him at a disadvantage with English manufacturing companies.
Klein writes about a top team with a Midwest company, struggling with a member who's accused of falling short on the job amidst his drinking and womanizing – pulling down the entire team. Brought in as a consultant to address the situation, Klein found that every team member was struggling with personal issues, but projecting the qualities they disliked about themselves onto this one team member.
Perhaps one of the most profound case studies centered on an executive whose company was located on the 87th floor of the first building of the World Trade Center. Everyone on that floor was killed in the World Trade Center attacks, including the executive's brother, brother-in-law and entire board of directors. The only reason the executive was alive was because he had gone down to the first floor to get a haircut. The CEO lost 39 percent of his company's employees in about eight seconds.
Besieged with this great personal loss and also struggling with his business, the CEO had to call his remaining employees together. "He couldn't arrange a meeting anywhere in lower Manhattan because of the tragedy," Klein explains. "So he rented an aircraft hangar in New Jersey, called his employees together, and spoke of what it meant to him to lose the board of directors, his brother and his brother-in-law. And then he cried. He advised his employees to mourn their losses, but continue with their work, and by acknowledging his own loss, he became more credible.
"The kind of leadership that the world needs now doesn't just mean getting the employees on your team, but it also involves acknowledging your own concern about the situation. If you don't acknowledge it, that makes you a papier mâché leader," says Klein.
For more than 30 years, Klein has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, health and governmental agencies on issues relating to leadership, executive development and organizational dynamics. He joined the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychology in 1975 and earned his PhD in psychology from Columbia University.