“The behaviour of individuals, almost by definition, reflects the values of the organization and not their words” (Guthrie, 2014).
Words hurt and they misrepresent. Whether it’s a disagreement on the playground or a legal appeal in court, behavioural evidence is always more reliable than word of mouth…after all, with no visual evidence how can you tell the difference between a truth and a lie?
Doug Guthrie, Forbes contributor, wrote an article examining how organizations are being judged for their language instead of their behaviour in the workplace. Because of this, many companies have misconceptions as to what it truly means to be a part of an organization. Guthrie goes on to explain one of his own experiences, in which he was working for a large-scale company regarding leadership and accountability concerns. After being turned down to speak to some of the company’s employees, the CFO instead urged Guthrie to watch a video of their employees instead of speaking to them first-hand, which stunned Guthrie.
It is the clash of worldview that makes this situation uncomfortable. The CFO believes that cultures and core values of a company can just be “declared” and by doing so, the company’s mission is undeniably clear, whereas Doug Guthrie believes that a company should be judged by its working atmosphere and the behaviours and attitudes of the working force.
Therefore, I side with Guthrie. Words can be manipulated, changed and warped, but a company’s spirit will forever be preserved and promoted. Only up close can we see a company’s true colours shine and only through this can we see the emphasis of employee wellbeing and genuineness a company should have. Nevertheless, the amount of hard working hands needed in a workplace cannot be summed up in just a couple of sentences, it’s pure determination.
Same idea goes with an irrelevant example. Everyone, when describing someone they just stalked on Facebook would say “he/she looks better in person.” Naturally, seeing something for yourself is much better than experiencing it second hand. Watching a movie in theatres is better than sitting at home watching it on your laptop, and the Eiffel tower looks much better in Paris than it does on Google.
Given these, sometimes words are meaningless and it is unfair to summarize a company using just explanations because “Building a healthy organization takes so much more than words and sentiment. It is hard work.” (Guthrie, 2014)
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