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Meaning, Inc.

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Meaning, Inc.

The Blueprint for Business Success in the 21st Century

Profile Books,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Motivate your employees by injecting meaning into their work.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Declining morale, lower productivity, burnout and lack of advancement make work seem like a grind. Plummeting employee engagement is a global phenomenon, especially in developed nations, but there is a remedy: add meaning to your corporate culture. Author Gurnek Bains (writing with Kylie Bains) teaches that making your employees’ work more meaningful can reinvigorate their engagement, and improve your profits, productivity and public relations. getAbstract finds plenty of depth in Bains’ argument that companies prosper and people work better when they know that their labor serves a greater good. Using studies and analysis, he demonstrates why leaders who want energized employees should begin by explaining what their work really means.

Summary

The Price of Great Rewards

Businesses today ask more of their employees, clients and customers. At the same time, governments ask more from businesses. In the years ahead, increasingly powerful corporations will be asked to contribute more to society, over and above paying taxes. To put this in context, realize that Wal-Mart’s $287 billion gross annual sales in 2005 would have made it the 22nd largest nation in terms of gross domestic product. The World Bank and Fortune magazine found that two-thirds of the globe’s largest financial entities are corporations, not nations or public institutions.

As companies become more important, some executives are finding that they can encourage their employees to work harder by helping them reach for more meaningful corporate and personal goals. Companies such as Virgin, Starbucks, The Tata Group, ANZ Bank, Genentech and Southwest Airlines have realized that working toward purposeful objectives motivates employees and leads to greater profitability. Injecting meaning into daily operations gives employees a sense of purpose. The alternative is having workers who are no longer engaged in their work, thus undermining morale...

About the Author

Gurnek Bains is a founder of a corporate psychology consultancy with offices in London, Sydney, New York, Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Düsseldorf. He has been a senior corporate adviser on cultural and personnel issues for 20 years.

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