单项选择题
"This job is killing me!" That statement may seem to be an exaggeration, but in looking closely at the work environment, it has become apparent there is a serious problem affecting the productivity of organizations. This problem has been coined "professional suicide", by a company which was among the first to become aware of the problem.
Professional suicide, a widespread but rarely studied phenomenon is costing companies not only dollars and cents, but the talents and skills of many bright and creative key employees. The syndrome (症状) affects the talented hard-driving employees with strong accomplishment needs. Those who are most likely to be affected are good employees who constantly operate in a crisis situation because of management’s lack of planning or leadership. These initially highly-motivated employees begin the suicidal process within three to five years after developing a solid record within the organization. The despair of not achieving what they want in what seems by now to be an absolutely hopeless situation has begun to influence their self-confidence.
These upwardly mobile employees suddenly reverse course. Their work begins to become worse. They lose interest and fail to keep up with new on-the-job developments. They develop physical complaints and seem unable to change this downward trend. Sometimes they take another job beneath their capabilities. Many times they do things they surely know they will be fired for doing. In short, in many ways they rapidly and illogically destroy their careers and sometimes themselves.
What causes this apparent self-destruction It is the result of a battle between specific characteristics of both the individual and the organizational environment. In the individual, problems have arisen in the satisfaction of basic needs common to all human beings. These basic needs described by Maslow as the "Hierarchy (等级) of Human Needs" are recognition and a sense of self-respect, growth and development, a sense of purpose and a structure from which to view the world. When people are unable to meet these needs in the organization, they leave or become inefficient because they’re frustrated.
A frequent cause of professional suicide is that the behavior required for survival demands unacceptable violations of a person’s values. Not being able to be totally frank with individuals on projects is one example. On projects, the rule is that team effort is expected, but in the end, individuals aren’t rewarded—the team is king. If an individual works only in team efforts, they will seldom receive individual recognition. This lack of individual recognition begins to affect their egos and self-respect.
If the way to survive in an organization requires individuals to lie or to be deceptive, they will either avoid doing what it takes to get ahead in that organization, or do what it takes and feel guilty when they survive and progress. The degree to which the situation degrades, devalues, or shames the person is highly individual.
The organizational characteristics that create professional suicide are in direct opposition to basic individual needs. These characteristics become obvious by management’s lack of setting specific goals and objectives or the "rules of the game" are confusing. Evaluation, feedback and individual performance reviews are carelessly managed or ineffective. Reward systems based on organizational resuks are non- existent or poorly defined. Anxiety, competition and guilt, rather than a reward system are used as motivators.
This lack of clear communication provides a powerful scapegoat (替罪羊) for managerial incompetence. If employees in lower positions get into trouble when tasks were poorly defined, they take the blame, after all, they were told—albeit the communication was confusing.
Dr. Donald W. Cole, author of Professional Suicide, a Survival Kit for You and Your Job (1981, McGraw-Hill) conducted a study of corporate life. The style of corporate leadership he identified as necessary for keeping people healthy and productive offered a clear vision for the future—engage the employees in goal setting and planning; provide performance evaluations on a regular basis along with recognition and rewards. This style of management may seem self-evident as a good one, but it has proven remarkably difficult to convince many companies to implement it.
It has long been known that people need to have a sense of direction. People need to have the security to anticipate what is going to occur as a result of the actions they plan to take or have taken. They need to know if what they are doing is important and valued. And finally, they want to have a sense of belonging to an organization that provides opportunity for growth and development.
When management doesn’t provide adequate information for employees to anticipate probable outcomes, anxiety follows. Employees need to have feedback to stimulate growth and development. Without feedback, people begin assuming the worst and the anxiety that results from it leads to reactive behavior, which is actually a protective response. This protective behavior occurs so the employee can survive in what she/he perceives as an unfriendly environment.
Thus, the once bright and creative employee retires in place merely making no progress until official retirement. The cycle of productive decay is the deterioration (恶化) of the very skills companies need to stop the circle of productivity loss. These employees figuratively and literally get into a cycle of personal and professional suicide.
The threat posed by professional suicide to the employee and its equally dangerous threat to the organization is obvious—individuals lose their careers and the organization not only loses its best employees, but also leads to the expense of replacing them, which is estimated to be approximately $60,000 per person. In some organizations, this could mean the difference between success and failure.
In order to prevent employees and the organizational structure from the suicidal cycle, hiring practices need to look for managers and leaders with vision and the ability to set goals and define a purpose. Communication, feedback, support and encouragement provide a sense of personal worth and freedom from working overload.
A. It causes anxiety and shames.
B. It lowers their standard of living.
C. It destroys their talents and skills.
D. It influences their self-confidence.