Do you matter to your organization?

Many people wonder if they matter to organizations. After all they go about doing their jobs and daily routines. How does all this aggregate at the organizational level? An organization is an aggregation of individuals driven by a common vision, bound together by the organizational culture. Even the lowest worker in an organization can and makes a difference, granted that the organizational culture and management practices shape them. A lowly worker can save hundreds of dollars each year by just doing some basic process innovation.

You can make a difference to your organization. Look at ways to save money or enhance revenue for it. It can be as simple as switching off the lights after a day’s work. Are you treating the company’s assets as if they were your own? You might be a Medical Sales Representative selling and promoting drugs to physicians. Have you made that extra effort in passionately describing your company’s latest drug to treat fever? Everyone needs to ask the question if they are passionate about the organization that they work for.

Very few organizations have been lucky to escape the effect of the economic recession. There have been widespread job losses. Do these job losses happen only in the junior ranks while the seniors go unscathed? Good organizations have helped survivors as well as those affected, cope with it and manage job loss depression by investing in outplacement and offering career counseling services to those impacted by corporate layoffs. We also tend to believe that in any corporate layoff it is the lower rung that gets affected most as the Senior Management takes care of itself. Since any organization has a pyramid structure with many more people in the lower ranks, we would see more number of people being affected. However if there are no corresponding loss of jobs in the senior levels, we would see a disproportionate ‘span’ which would make the entire process of job cuts meaningless.

We often feel that only Senior Management takes all decisions that matter. We feel powerless, too low in the hierarchy to make a difference. Nothing can be further from the truth. Even an office peon or janitor can make a difference by their disposition, commitment and quality of work.

Only those who believe that they can make a difference have successful careers. Make a difference to your job – for the right reason and success will all be yours.

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