CREATING HIGH-COMMITMENT ORGANIZATIONS 309acceptable in one country may be totally unacceptable for people in a
culture where job security is a major life anchor — and yet a global
manager lacking a geocentric orientation would apply that mentality
universally. For example, one Spanish entrepreneur I worked with was
delighted that high - potential employees were voluntarily leaving the
local subsidiary of a large global corporation in droves, because many
of them were coming to work for her. They joined the Spanish entre-
preneur after being, in their words, ‘ burned out and used up ’ by the
constant rounds of restructuring in the large global organization. Inci-
dents of employee dissatisfaction like this clearly illustrate the signifi cant
diffi culties faced by global organizations in their attempts to implement
a geocentric orientation and a culture in which all employees feel part
of the global ‘ family. ’
Unfortunately, feelings of mistrust and anxiety are frequently
common among employees in global organizations. Too often, the ‘ FUD
factor ’ dominates the organizational culture, meaning Fear, Uncertainty,
and Doubt poisons the atmosphere. And the presence of these negative
attitudes is ominous since it is important that all employees, down to
the shop fl oor, feel part of the global team. But achieving a strong sense
of teamwork makes considerable demands on organizational leaders.
How can the loyalty of the thousands or hundreds of thousands of
employees in a global organization be generated?
Almost all the global leaders I interviewed said (often without
knowing exactly how to do it) that one of their main priorities was to
establish and maintain a corporate culture that transcends cultural dif-
ferences and to establish ‘ beacons ’ : values and attitudes that are compre-
hensible and compelling for employees with diverse backgrounds and
cultural differences. So how does a leader create that kind of corporate
culture? What can be done to diffuse employee anxiety and foster
loyalty, trust, and teamwork among widely diverse groups?
Motivational need systems
The conclusion that I reached after completing the interviews was sur-
prisingly consistent across the companies involved. The leaders in the
organization have to provide focus, are seen as decisive, need to be
viewed as possessing integrity and honesty — all conditions favorable to
high performance — but the most effective leaders also connect with a
universal layer of human functioning that prompts people to make a
greater - than - usual effort. Such leaders recognize (consciously or uncon-
sciously) the existence of the basic motivational need systems present in