Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of Business, recently wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, “The One Question You Should Ask About Every Job.”
Grant covers issues surrounding work, values and motivation for the paper.
In his recent article, Grant explores how one’s fulfillment in the workplace can depend largely upon its culture—the “values, norms and practices” of the organization. He describes the experience of a friend, who, when hunting for a job, realized that while her title, salary and responsibilities were of utmost importance in her decision, equally important was the culture of the prospective workplaces.
Grant’s friend set out to talk with people from all levels in the organizations she was considering joining. Her top choice companies had one thing in common—their members all shared common stories about the businesses’ core values. Thirty years ago, Professor Joanne Martin of Stanford University Graduate School of Business published seminal research on the seven major stories that workers typically share when asked about the cultures of their jobs. Martin discovered that while employees tend to believe that their workplaces are unique, there are common cultural aspects that many businesses share.
These can be summarized, as Grant notes in his article, as follows: ‘Is the Big Boss Human?’; ‘Can the Little Person Rise to the Top?’; ‘Will I Get Fired?’; ‘How Will the Boss React to Mistakes?’; ‘Will the Organization Help Me When I Have to Move?’; ‘What Happens When a Boss Is Caught Breaking a Rule?’; and ‘How Will the Organization Deal With Obstacles?’.
Adam Grant is the author of Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World.