Despite the public proclamations and writings, have company managers really understood the need to secure their employees' commitment to whatever they are trying to achieve?  And have they found a way of doing so?  Let's be honest: it doesn't seem so. 

I think this is due to a fundamental misreading, or mis-assumption, by senior management in considering the dimensions in which commitment is driven.  (Let's assume that there is no-one left who believes that employee commitment is not A Good Thing).  It is also due to a failure to understand that external groups view, assess and behave towards competing companies on a variety of levels and in reaction to a variety of stimuli. 

In fact, it all comes down to a question of whether the employee feels good about himself or herself while at work - whether there is a strong fit between the individual's own values and needs, and those of the organisation. 

This in turn depends on the answers to five basic questions, which senior management should address for all levels of employees, in all of their strategic positioning and communication: 

Who are we? 

Where are we going? 

How will we get there? 

What's expected of me? 

What's in it for me? 

Experience suggests that very little attention is given to the last two questions.  The third question involves much more effort, and reliance, and this is where "process" often takes over and employee commitment slips away. 

A number of recent studies point to the attritional effect of processes and decisions that are handed down: experience, knowledge and old-fashioned care about the company are often missed in the drive to tick off the relevant boxes on wall charts.  So people gradually notice that the things they are most concerned about are never referred to, and the issues that need to be resolved are never addressed.  For instance: "Why don't we seem to care about customers, or ourselves, as much as the shareholders?" or "The personal touch, that sense of pride in working here, is going.  Why?"  All of this makes it very difficult for an individual to keep up beliefs or feel that it's worth putting in the same effort. 

Such an ethos leads to staff defection, and very often it is the people whom senior management expect to stick with them who leave.  It also leads to the failure of important change programmes and initiatives, because they are not seen to be relevant to the people who are charged with delivering them. 
 

This takes us back to where we began.  Until senior managers to recognise the need to make corporate values fit with individual values, no mission statement on earth is going to work at the level it needs to.  And those greatest of assets - the employees - will never reach their potential.