true value of a company. Today’s managers and employees want to identify with
their product or service, and with their company – after investing a large part of
their time and energy in their work.
3.2.8.1 Meaningful Work
Sigmund Freud maintained that mental health results from love and work. There is
little to add to this, I think. Work should be one of the anchors for our psychological
well-being and balance. This anchor can and should help us to find our individual
identity, foster personal development, and strengthen self-esteem by providing
successful experiences and satisfaction. But if work is to be healthy in this sense,
the organizations – and their top executives – have to start investing into meaning.
Manfred Kets de Vries confirms this: “It is for the company as a whole extremely
important that the individual employees feel good; and therefore efficient, account-
able leadership is an essential factor in the health equation at work” (de Vries 2002,
p. 245).
Work is a central factor in human beings’ search for meaning. A work that
satisfies and fulfills a person gives them the feeling of being important, offers
guidance and continuity in a discontinuous world, and through financial prosperity
provides a form of confirmation. Beyond this individual level, work also has
a social meaning and generates value for the public.
For most people today, however, work first and foremost means something else:
stress. From interns to CEOs, more and more people are suffering from their normal
work. It burdens them and overshadows all other areas of life. The causes are high
pressure; lack of recognition, personal responsibility and prospects; the fear of
unemployment and a lack of commitment to the company. “Companies refuse
to keep playing the (previously acquired, consciously or unconsciously) role of
the ‘container.’ The company’s management no longer provides a supportive
environment in which people can feel secure, and thus the stress is increasing
at the workplace instead of decreasing. And employees’ mental health suffers”
(de Vries 2002, p. 257).
According to a Fortune ranking, the most successful companies in the U.S. are
characterized by an inspiring management, excellent resources and meaningful
work. If the employees trust the managers, are proud of their work and their
company, and a comradely atmosphere and humanistic culture are dominant,
a company is successful.
What does such a climate look like? In order to answer this question we need to
go back to Maslow’s pyramid of needs (see, Sect. 2.3.2.1). Primarily two of the
described five levels are relevant for work: firstly, the need for ties and group
affiliation and the urge to be part of a larger context. The yearning for closeness and
commonality is universal and cross-cultural. Secondly, the need for knowledge
and confirmation is important. This includes the ability to play, to learn, to think and
work, and thus forms the basis of efficiency, competence, flexibility, autonomy,
initiative and diligence.
172 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of