Managing Service Organizations

Service organizations including academic institutions are confronted with unprecedented challenge of attracting and retaining capable people for past many years. The people who excel in serving are hard to find and harder to retain. My latest research in India Organization (Paper is yet to finalized), I found that managers look for:

a) Economic well being, thus leading to economic bond with the organization

b) Emotional well being, thus leading to emotional bond with the organization

Managers at senior level value emotional bond derived from openness, trust, empowerment, experimentation, collegial relations, recognition, vision and brand of the organization, fulfillment of psychological contract, enjoyment at work, and a sense of social contribution. Creation of such culture requires visionary leadership. Managers with strong emotional bond stay longer, take pride in their work and employment in the organization. They also excel in their work, provided economic well being is perceived to be reasonable by them.

Most of the service organizations including academic institutions need to adopt this approach. Institutions will have to pay reasonable compensation. Compensation need not be the best in the Industry. However, they will have to undertake various activities to ensure above stated culture through visionary leadership to ensure strong emotional bond. Unfortunately, my study also indicates that organizations are confronted with leadership crisis. Visionary leaders like E. Sreedharan of DMRC, who can create such culture, are few and hard to find.