In the realm of the 21st century global economy, sustainability is considered one of the essential principles that any organization must be based on. However, maintaining a consistent balance in the use of the resources available, the relationships between the staff members and the communication with customers, partners and competitors creates a rather stressful environment, where the possibility of a mistake is increased considerably.
In his study, Pfeffer (2010) questions the possibility of maintaining sustainability in the environment where the human factor persists. The research results show that the human factor does affect the sustainability of an enterprise in a rather negative way, leading to the threat of developing such problems as inequality, poor job design and the resulting increase in stress rates among the staff, a conflict between the personal and professional life of the staff (e.g., a number of employees have to choose between earning more and spending more time with their families), etc.
In order to solve the issue and provide a strategy for creating sustainable environment within an organization, Pfeffer advises to incorporate the visibility of outcomes and design a strong ideology in order to create a sustainable environment, where the staff could feel secure and motivated for fulfilling their potential and carrying out their duties.
Pfeffer’s article has a lot of strong aspects, especially concerning the overview of the dependent and independent variables. The author did an extremely good job by outlining the key factors affecting the staff’s performance, motivation and, therefore, the overall sustainability rates within an organization. Pfeffer evaluates every single element that has the least bit of influence on the staff and the efficacy of their performance, therefore, allowing the researcher to identify the strategies for enhancing the effects of positive factors and isolating the organization from the negative ones. Finally, the fact that Pfeffer drives graphic examples in order to prove the point, mentioning such well-known companies as BP, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc., and, therefore, allowing the readers to have a clear perspective of what the author is trying to convey, is a major advantage of the article.
The study has certain problems, however. While the motivation issue as one of the key elements contributing to the organization’s sustainability has been touched upon, the choice of a proper leadership strategy, which is an essential factor in motivating the staff, has been omitted. The mentioning of the qualities that a leader must possess in order to be able to reduce possibility of a mistake caused by the human factor might have led to the discussion of the concept of transformative leadership, thus, providing the reader with clear directions regarding the most efficient method of managing a company.
The idea of integrating the human factor into the analysis of organizational performance is, in fact, not new (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009), and neither is the introduction of corporate social responsibility into the organizational behavior framework as the key tool for maintaining the sustainability of an enterprise (Damanpour, Walker & Avellaneda, 2009). However, unlike other researchers, Pfeffer ties the concept of sustainability and social responsibility together, therefore, suggesting an efficient and elegant solution to the problem. Moreover, Pfeffer’s study seems to be the only one that mentions the employees’ personal life as one of the key factors in their performance quality. Pfeffer’s article is a solid research with a decent strategy to address the issue of poor performance.
Reference List
Aguinis, H. & Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 451–474.
Damanpour, F., Walker, R. M. & Avellaneda, C. N. (2009). Combinative effects of innovation types and organizational performance: A longitudinal study of service organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 64(4), 650–675.
Pfeffer, J. (2010). Building sustainable organizations: The human factor. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(1), 34–45.