Values-Based Leadership: Rebuilding Employee Commitment, Performance and Productivity

This study incorporates anthropologist Emile Durkheim's concept of ``anomie'' (isolation) among workers to explain what the authors perceive as the decline of values and the pervasive sense of detachment in the workplace triggered by extensive U.S. corporate downsizings in recent years. The authors, management consultants in Chicago, call for a ``war for values and norms'' and posit that businesses must adopt traditional ethical systems based on norms and shared values previously inculcated by schools, religion and the family. They have developed practical models and analyses of human behavior to formulate a framework for achieving this goal. Some of their observations, however, stretch credulity: ``Snack-Well cookies by Nabisco... communicate healthiness and implicitly suggest `good-for-you.' The value of taking care of ourselves is instilled in this product.'' Illustrations. (Dec.)