Immunising a corporation from invisible attack

Managers must reflect on ways to unleash passion, a purposeful culture and positivity within the organisation

Unleash passion, purposeful culture and positivity. They constitute people power, which is the best immunisation for a corporation.

Abigail Disney, heir to the fortune and granddaughter of the legendary Walt Disney, last week launched a ti­rade against the company’s management. The reason was the management’s decision to reduce the pay of 100,000 workers while protecting executive bonus and dividends wo­rth $1.5 billion. She said, “Pay the people who make the magic happen with respect and dignity.” This demonstrates the dissonance between profit and people orientation.

Covid-19 has demonstrated that, like humans, organisations also need to guard against the invisible atta­ck­ers. We cannot assure thriving hu­man or organisational health while ignoring invisible attackers. I suggest an uncommon prescription to neutralise an invisible attack on companies: To unleash people power.

Reflective executives should use the quiet of the lockdown to plan the future agenda. The focus on unleashing people power can appear to be soft — centering at passion, culture and positivity — but it can make a company resilient in the face of atta­cks from new sources. Engaged pe­ople are the best immunity. Long-life companies, Unilever and Tata, have demonstrated that.

Corporate immunology

A company is prone to invisible, virus-like attack, like employee disengagement, inconsistent leadership behaviour and negativity in workplace. It is crucial for managers to immunise their company against invisible attacks. To connect immunology with a corporation, I studied the writings of Michael Watkins, an immunologist-turned-management academic, and I was inspired by his writings on HBR.org (June 11, 2007).

The immune system is an active communication network among a complex set of cells, antibodies and signaling mechanisms. These elements are arranged in three layers: the outermost is the physical layer, like our skin and the mucous system; the second is the innate layer, which is the protective layer of cells that we are born with; finally there is the adaptive layer, which refers to the mechanisms that recognise and respond to an attack.

What are the equivalents for a corporation? The finest immunity is provided by responsive people in the company, arranged in three layers: first, the physical, passion; second, the innate, culture; and third, the adaptive layer, positivity.

Passion: A highly engaged workforce is the physical layer of company immunisation. Engaged em­ployees care for the company deeply, recommend it to non-employees, work collaboratively and emotiona­lly guard it against unwelcome atta­ckers. Employee engagement data for the last decade-and-a-half shows that in most companies everywhere, employee engagement has steadily declined. This is an unfavorable tre­nd; perhaps managers are too fo­cused on efficiency improvements with diminished attention to people.

Culture: The human immune system works by recognising what is “self” and what is “non-self”, and by maintaining an equilibrium between over-reaction and under-reaction. Every organisation has a political sy­stem and culture, which defines what is perceived as “self”. Culture acts like the second layer, the innate layer of the immune system, by preventing destructive thinking from invading the company.

Every company has an articula­ted or implicit corporate purpose, whi­ch is the basis for the employees’ concept of “self”. For example, in normal times, technologists and in­frastructure-oriented managers scoff at consumer marketers and makers of soap or toilet cleaners. During Co­vid times, employees in Unilever-ty­pe companies get a sense of renewed purpose, just as hospitals and medical professionals do.

Positivity: Psychology professor Bar­bara Fredrickson is a thought le­ader in positive psychology. When the ratio of positivity to negativity is equal to three, then employees are positive and build resilience to ad­versity. Around 80 per cent of Ame­rican employees are less than three; I wonder what would be the score of Indian employees. Fredrickson has developed a technique to measure positivity and negativity. In my ex­perience, when leaders visibly practice good listening and empathy, positivity increases.  

Humans fight invasive threats through an adaptive mechanism — brain and senses, analogous to the top leadership and the far ends of the organisation respectively. The signals of external attack are first sensed at the periphery, that is, by the frontline salesmen and the factory wo­r­kers. Organisations must sharpen their listening and response mechanisms; they must welcome diverse expert opinions. That is how a corporation’s management can secure employee engagement and positivity, just as WHO recommends community involvement as the most important response to Covid.

In short, this is a call to managers to reflect on how to unleash passion, purposeful culture and positivity. To­gether, they constitute people power, which is the best immunisation for the company. Think about what you should do about this after the lockdown. Leaving it as a top leadership agenda is a mistake.

The writer is an author and corporate advisor. He is a distinguished professor of IIT Kharagpur. He was a director of Tata Sons and a vice-chairman of HUL 

Email: rgopal@themindworks.me