Human Resources from an Organizational Behavior Perspective
Human Resources from an
Organizational Behavior Perspective:
Some Paradoxes Explained
Jeffrey Pfeffer
American workplaces exhibit three facts which, taken together, could constitute anomalous or paradoxical organizational behavior, especially when seen through the lens of the rationality and competitive market efficiency concepts so often used in economic theory. First, workplaces in America and elsewhere show pervasive job dissatisfaction, distrust, and disengagement, with the evidence suggesting that these problems are getting worse and have a number of negative consequences for employers as well as employees. Second, how people are managed and their job satisfaction and job attitudes are both substantively and statistically significant predictors of a number of dimensions of organizational performance. Comprehensive evidence from studies in numerous industries and countries establishes this point and also helps us identify high-performance management practices. Third, in spite of the fact that much of what is required to build engaged and successful organizations is at once well known and not always costly to implement, many, maybe most, organizations have failed to take appropriate actions, thereby, in some sense, “leaving money on the table.”
Theories and empirical research in organizational behavior and social psychology offer insights and explanations about how these three facts can coexist and even persist. These explanations are built on the fundamental insights that both employees and organizations are embedded in a social context that provides taken-for-granted ways of thinking and doing things; social influence matters so y Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior, Graduate
School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California. His e-mail address is
^pfeffer_Jeffrey@gsb.stanford.edu&.
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 21, Number 4—Fall 2007—Pages 115–134 that companies imitate
Organizational Behavior Perspective:
Some Paradoxes Explained
Jeffrey Pfeffer
American workplaces exhibit three facts which, taken together, could constitute anomalous or paradoxical organizational behavior, especially when seen through the lens of the rationality and competitive market efficiency concepts so often used in economic theory. First, workplaces in America and elsewhere show pervasive job dissatisfaction, distrust, and disengagement, with the evidence suggesting that these problems are getting worse and have a number of negative consequences for employers as well as employees. Second, how people are managed and their job satisfaction and job attitudes are both substantively and statistically significant predictors of a number of dimensions of organizational performance. Comprehensive evidence from studies in numerous industries and countries establishes this point and also helps us identify high-performance management practices. Third, in spite of the fact that much of what is required to build engaged and successful organizations is at once well known and not always costly to implement, many, maybe most, organizations have failed to take appropriate actions, thereby, in some sense, “leaving money on the table.”
Theories and empirical research in organizational behavior and social psychology offer insights and explanations about how these three facts can coexist and even persist. These explanations are built on the fundamental insights that both employees and organizations are embedded in a social context that provides taken-for-granted ways of thinking and doing things; social influence matters so y Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior, Graduate
School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California. His e-mail address is
^pfeffer_Jeffrey@gsb.stanford.edu&.
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 21, Number 4—Fall 2007—Pages 115–134 that companies imitate