Let Your Employees Know What Is Expected Of Them

Today’s best managers get involved with their employees to help improve their working relationships and their performance. Get involved with your employees when their work is not up to par, when there are personnel problems, and when there is a serious conflict. Help employees generate ideas, by showing them that it is OK to speak up and voice their views. Give employees the courage to risk failure and try new, innovative ideas. Realize that the success of the company rests on future leaders, so help develop the leaders of tomorrow for your organization.

Source: Bossidy, L. 2008. What your leader expects of you: And what you should expect. Leadership Excellence, 25/2, p. 6.

Not Meeting Employee Expectations May Not Be As Bad For Organizations As Was Thought

Managers know that unmet employee expectations on the job can negatively affect: organizational commitment, job performance, absenteeism, motivation, job satisfaction, and turnover. However, today’s best managers know that the influence of unmet employee expectations on job attitudes and behaviors may be less powerful than was once thought. Instead, actual experiences may play a more important role than meeting or not meeting employees’ expectations. Although meeting employee expectations is still important, today’s best managers can worry less about the negative results that doing so might have on employees’ behaviors and attitudes on the job.

Source: Brown, S. A., Venkatesh, V., Kuruzovich, J., Massey, A. P. 2008. Expectation confirmation: An examination of three competing models. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 52-66.