Loyalty — What is Loyalty?
An interesting article by The Wharton School in June 2012 regarding Declining Employee Loyalty started me thinking about this concept and the current management wish list of re-engaging employees. Much of what is discussed in this article has a foundation in good logic and some great experience.
They reference several early studies, including:
1. MetLife’s 10th annual survey of employee benefits, trends and attitudes released in March. This study indicates that employee loyalty was at a seven year old low. They predicted that 1 in 3 employees were planning on leaving by year end.
2. Reported in a 2011 Carerrbuilder.com report, 76% of the full-time workers would leave their current work place if the right opportunity came along.
3. Other studies indicate the average company loses anywhere from 20% to 50% of its employee base in a year.
Now I agree these are all valid studies but I also feel there is more to this picture than just the data. Loyalty is a very subjective noun, open to much variance in definition and interpretation so now 9 years later I have chosen to tackle it a bit differently.
I have worked in management within various companies since the middle 60’s and I don’t feel I have ever seen a truly employee loyal situation. Part of it is due to the cultural changes that took place starting with the end of WWII and the rise of the significant mobility that started to take place in the same period. The introduction of the book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green, published in 1998, has had a significant impact on the workforces view of loyalty.
Prior to this period people were much more apt to remain around the area where they were born and had family connections and the association of employee loyalty and local firms were not challenged by outsiders. However, with the introduction of television, new technologies and an expanded worldview being part of the late fifties and sixties the people began to look for expanded horizons. The importance of social media cannot be underestimated in this examination however this is a separate article.
For example, the town I grew up in had a massive steel mill that had been a primary employer for decades. When people looked for employment it was hard, dirty work but it was convenient, good pay and secure. I also remember the relationship between the mill and employees always being a tenuous one. But there was some level of loyalty. When times were good and steel was in high demand there was a good relationship, but when times were tough and there were layoffs or contract negotiations there was real animosity. Personally, I never wanted to work in this type of environment, I also pledged that I would manage my staff in a much more transparent and open fashion so people could have a voice.
Historically, there has been a tenuous relationship between employees and employers in most cultures. I don’t believe we have lost the loyalty of employees; we have just not found a way to cultivate a true, transparent relationship that warrants loyalty.
Is loyalty a requirement for effective business evolution, no, but it helps. There has been a lot of research on this topic in the last 9 years and while I see merits in it all, there is still a tremendous amount of bias in the studies and the results based on the roles, ages, and management styles being proposed.
According to Britannica:
“Loyalty, general term that signifies a person’s devotion (binding) or sentiment of attachment to a particular object, which may be another person or group of persons, an ideal, a duty, or a cause. It expresses itself in both thought and action and strives for the identification of the interests of the loyal person with those of the object.
Loyalty turns into fanaticism when it becomes wild and unreasoning and into resignation when it displays the characteristics of reluctant acceptance. Loyalty has an important social function. Only by an individual’s willingness, in cooperation with others, to invest intellectual and moral resources generously and wholeheartedly in something beyond a narrow personal circle has it been possible for communities of various kinds to emerge and continue to exist. “
(binding) was my addition to their explanation because in my experience you make the choice to bind your intellect and emotions to whatever the object of the loyalty is, so it is voluntary.
In working through a lot of the research I have categorized loyalty into 5 groups:
Absolute Loyalty — Usually to a group, country, or culture where the expectation is that the individual will accept all beliefs, practices, and behaviors required by the society in general. While there is always a choice to leave it may carry with it a deadly cost or perpetual isolation. Entrance is usually through birth but there are times where people have joined voluntarily based on their interpretation of those rules.
Imposed Loyalty — Similar to Absolute except that it is usually driven by a set of rules, roles, and demands make by a dictator, ruling party, or other unified head of the organization. Entrance is usually through birth but there are times where people have joined voluntarily based on their interpretation of those rules. Like Absolute, there is always a choice to leave but the cost may be too high for someone to make the leap, so they resign themselves to staying in the fold.
Reciprocal Loyalty — This is primarily a transactional based relationship where there are economic, or product exchanges involved. We often hear the term, Quid, Pro, Quo, attached to this type of loyalty. It is the basis of all customer loyalty programs and the loyalty will last if there are beneficial rewards associated. Can be perceived as manipulative but you always have the choice to depart.
Universal Loyalty — This is an attitude that is driven by the view that we are all in this activity of life together and everyone deserves our loyalty, unless they are causing harm to others in the whole. At that time, the loyalty link is broken.
Transcendental Loyalty — This is the most spiritual of the loyalties that implies that every livening thing deserves our loyalty as part of the over all eco system that we live in. This is overly broad and accepting so it requires much commitment and few expectations.
While these are the 5 categories I have chosen, they are not the only interpretations and some will disagree with me totally but in general this is, as I mentioned before a very abstract concept that we often want to make absolute and bound by rules imposed on others.
Ultimately, in my opinion, Loyalty is “PURE RELATIONSHIP” building based on love, forgiveness, trust, limited expectations, and above all transparency of communications and connection. Over the years I have had teams that operated in a very rarified loyalty environment with everyone being on the same wavelength and path, however, they also lasted only as long as the project lasted. Once they entered the mainstream of the company they had to adapt back to a much less loyal environment.
In summary, be careful when and how you use the word loyalty. Understand that when you do choose to jump in that you are binding to the person, team or object intellectually and emotionally so be prepared to continually evaluate the circumstances of your relationship.
