Case Study

For instance, let’s address the problem of employee retention. Analyzing the issue requires a comprehensive study of recent employee departures and a mapping of the reasons for their exit. In the upper left, there are internal issues for the individual. The person may have left because his individual career goals were not being met or supported by the company. Perhaps the person felt depressed and discouraged about his current path. In the upper right, we can see external factors affecting the individual. Perhaps the employee feels physically burnt out. The affects of stress over time may have deteriorated the individual’s immune system and ability to cope.

Within the lower left perspective, there are factors dealing with corporate culture. A person can feel as though she is not a part of the group character and even a victim of organizational gossip. Perhaps the corporate vision is not being properly expressed to the employee. Or the company may have been unsuccessful in replacing an old corporate identity with a new one, leaving the employees with no group identity at all.

The lower right quadrant is a common trouble zone with regards to retention. Corporate restructuring and frequent management changes increase the insecurity felt on the individual employee. The person may feel as though he is on the bottom of a giant totem pole that is only growing taller. There can be a subsequent feeling of claustrophobia and professional suffocation.

Once the issue has been mapped into all quadrants, solutions can be found through a second tour through each perspective. The employee should reflect on actions he can take as an individual. Upper left and right difficulties may require individual counseling or a visit to a personal physician. Lower left and right issues could be addressed through conversations with fellow employees and management representatives.

Simultaneously, the company itself should not ignore its responsibility to its employees. There are many proactive measures that the organization can take to alleviate a retention problem before it leads to a decimation of staff. Within the upper left, management must make an effort to reach out to each employee as an individual. This may require an increase in one-on-one conversations between the employee and members of the management team. Leaders need to step forward and discover the aspirations of their employees. They must take more time to listen to the insights that lower level employees posses, then work to incorporate those insights into observable corporate actions.

In the upper right, management can take steps to reduce the continued stress felt by its staff. Too few people doing too many tasks will lead directly to employee burnout. Additional staff needs to be promptly hired. Training should be emphasized. Management must also be proactive in keeping affected employees up to date on the progress of these goals. If burnout has already occurred, the company can provide their employees with resources to address the problem. Perhaps time off can be granted to the employee as a reward. Perhaps the company can organize events or workshops with the primary goal of stress reduction. The organization should also take a long look at the medical benefits offered to its team.

Issues within the lower left may also be helped through company organized events. Leadership should be providing its employees with a clear vision for the future. Employees need to feel as though the vision is believable, that they are a true part of the vision, and that they can genuinely contribute to the future development of this vision. If the company’s agenda is laid upon the employees like a stiff blanket, it will never be accepted. Vision needs to be adopted at an internal level in order for it to be effective.

Also, management must be aware of negative beliefs and rumors that already exist. Action must be taken to counter-act a deflated, defeated corporate atmosphere and replace it with one of optimism and group pride. Again, this absolutely has to be addressed on an interior level. These changes can only take place within the “We” perspective. “Its” do not respond to a corporate vision. “Its” do not feel nor believe. True leadership is required to create enough mutual understanding so that all employees embrace the direction of the company’s goals.

Finally, actions taken at the lower right quadrant must be reviewed. Employees who feel they are not engaged in the system management, especially those who have many years of experience building the organization itself, will not remain with the company. Management will lose valuable resources if they present organizational restructuring in an insensitive manner and continually shut employees out of important decisions that affect their future.

Senior-level executives also need to be keenly aware of the indirect, threatening effects of their actions, regardless of their original intentions. Employees will read between the lines, filling in the gaps of what management is not saying, often incorrectly. Actions taken in the lower right by employers will have corresponding results within the other quadrants.

In many ways, the staff of any company can be viewed as a house of cards. Employees may be valuable assets to the company, not because of their actual duties and responsibilities, but because of the cumulative affect they have on other members of the organization. Being aware of multiple perspectives and the 4 quadrants can prevent the company from removing an essential element that is keeping the remaining house of cards together.