I remember seeing a training video of a Japanese company whose members sang the company song and pledged allegiance to the company. The company had a lifetime employment contract or understanding with its employees. Could you see that happening in America? Pledging allegiance to a company, which has haphazardly downsized or transformed itself. I don’t think so!
Many US companies had a simple approach to organizational commitment – trust coming down the organization was rewarded with trust going up. The problem is this has been broken. Many believe trust was broken with downsizing, reengineering, and the other improvement initiatives that resulted in people departing and those who remained having to work longer hours.
What did the downsizing of the last few years do? “If loyalty is dead in some companies, it’s mostly because it has been murdered by business practices like downsizing at the first sign of trouble and subcontracting out all ‘nonessential’ positions.” Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford Graduate School of Business.[i]