Affiliation In the Workplace

The dot-com era brought many things to the business landscape, including a seemingly endless willingness on the part of workers to jump jobs in favor of ever-greener pastures. With the pastures decidedly less green today, workplace loyalty may be back in style. No, it's not a return to the 1950s paternalistic career cocoon described in William Whyte's Organization Man, but author Ron Elsdon argues that after the storm of the late 1990s we need to focus on building meaningful relationships between individuals and organizations. He contends that spiraling attrition rates contributed to the loss of a sense of community on the job. Elsdon describes the "central dilemma" faced by leaders and HR departments as the tricky prospect of balancing and blending the needs of the individual with the needs of the organization. Incorporating real-life case examples with an appropriate amount of theoretical and empirical research, Affiliation in the Workplace offers concrete and inspiring suggestions for enhancing connections between the individual and the organization.