Productivity and work ethics

Amanda Hamilton-Attwell: Amanda Hamilton-Attwell is a Managing Consultant, National Productivity Insitute, Pretoria, South Africa

Introduction

The problem is that:"

These young people just do not work as hard as we do.

They are not committed to the organisation.

Employees on the operational levels do not want to work.

They take less pride in their work than we do."

I am convinced that you have heard these statements before - perhaps you have said so yourselves. All these statements affirm the perception that if they (whoever "they" may be) can only have our work ethic, productivity in the organisation and consequently in the country will improve.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a work ethic that would really make a significant impact on the productivity of a country. The following aspects will be considered:

- Work ethic.

- Change in work ethic.

- Historical perspectives.

- The impact of values.

- Work ethic in winning nations.

This ends with recommendations on installing a productive work ethic in an organisation.

Work ethic

Trying to define "work ethic" at this point would be presumptuous because we still have to determine what it actually is. However, it is important to have a basic understanding of the concept. Work ethic may be described as the basic belief that a person should do work that has some basic moral worth and that every person should do his or her very best, irrespective of reward. However, it is important that we remain aware of the difference between work behaviour - what people do in the workplace - and work ethic - a set of beliefs and perceptions about work (Yankelvich, 1982, p. 5).

The change in work ethic

Employees' perceptions about work no doubt changed. Research identifies three schools of thought regarding this change in work ethic and also indicates how this change should be dealt with (Rose, 1985, p. 13). The three schools are:

(1). It belongs to the past.

(2). We can teach them.

(3). Different strokes for different folks.

It belongs to the past

This is by far the most widely accepted perspective of work ethic. It is assumed that, at some earlier age, things had been different, that advanced societies actually possessed a...