When a company is launching a new initiative, driving as a “all or nothing” path towards success is tempting, especially when the objective is to restore the status quo of years before, perhaps the business was more profitable.
But is it the best approach?
Not always, according to a new study co-written by Matthew LyleDeputy professor at the University of Binghamton Management school. Researchers have found that “all or nothing” strategies are more likely to weaken employees’ support from future initiatives if these plans fail to fully achieve the objective. Instead, managers should supervise new initiatives as chances of improving what they have done while relying on what they have done well.
“We know that the story can be very motivating – to come back to a proud period and use it as an inspiration to break with a terrible period – but we have noticed in this study that you can motivate people more effectively by telling them that even their attempt to implement the initiative is valiant,” said Lyle. “This is enough to bring people on board so you can get the support you need to make a change.”
Lyle and his co -researchers believe that a good way to start is to encourage the most experienced employees to share their memories of previous initiatives – success and failures – openly and honestly. This can create solid links that overcome a single strategic initiative, said Lyle.
Their study consisted in examining two trade union organizations within the main South Korean broadcasters. The two displayed distinct generations of cohorts shaped by experiences and memories of the democratization struggles of the South Korea in the late 1980s in the early 1990s.
Between 2009 and 2012, the new CEOs were appointed to each organization and during this period, journalists received internal pressure to provide biased coverage alongside stories involving public criticism. The unions of the two broadcasters went on strike in 2012 to withdraw their CEOs and defend their journalistic values, but the two strikes ended without achieving their objectives.
Lyle and her colleagues researchers have analyzed the data collected through direct interviews, the analysis of online electronic bababillas used by senior and junior members of the two unions to share news and opinions, and 30 YouTube videos produced by unions. A co-author of the study also spent a lot of time alongside the participants in the strike who attend the gatherings, demonstrations and informal rallies.
Based on the information collected, researchers have determined that when organizations speak of learning a completely positive past to prevent a disastrous future, failure leads people to avoid collective discussions on what happened and, therefore, the opportunities to learn from it.
Consequently, said Lyle, they develop a feeling of “learned impotence” and people tend to wonder or others, “what is it for trying?”
When another chance to organize a strike occurred in 2014, one of the unions avoided it. Suball employees estimated that they had betrayed an organization that had always succeeded “, now describing it as being in a” vegetative state “, unable to try again when the previous failure has actually paralyzed them.
On the other hand, noted the study that the union exposed to “a largely shameful past” in 2012 jumped at the opportunity to knock again, considering this as an opportunity to finish what they had started when their shameful history ended – and their proud began – two years earlier. This union considered the simple strike in 2012 as a historic tour and endured failure. Their success to force the resignation of the CEO in 2014 was anchored in the way they motivated the participants in 2012, according to the researchers.
“There is good use for this research in any organization wondering if it can remain afloat. I encourage them to be more honest on what to be done and to recognize that, although they probably did not do it always Succeeded, everyone will do their best now to rely on these positive elements of the past to make a better future, “said Lyle. “Some might consider this concept as a” losing discourse “, but we have found that it is much more sustainable as a long -term strategy.”
The study, “Generation Gap?” The trendy influence of historical myths ”, was published in the review Organizational science.