The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want, Second Edition

14. Translating Partnership Theory into Partnership Practice

We advocate a partnership culture as the surest path to a high-performance organization. Partnership works because it harnesses the natural motivation and enthusiasm that is characteristic of the overwhelming majority of workers. Other management modes dampen that motivation and enthusiasm. (Some come close to destroying them.) The partnership organization is effective precisely because it is based on the assumption that most workers are, by nature, motivated. Rather than a vicious circle (assume and expect the worst and you get the worst), a partnership philosophy generates a virtuous circle (assume and expect the best, and that’s what you get).

Does partnership always work? Nothing ...