1. Empowerment: A magic wand management waves to help traumatized survivors of restructuring suddenly feel engaged, self-managed, and in control of their futures and their jobs.
Anonymous. Fortune (February 15, 1995)
2. Employees may feel responsible for producing what is required of them, but they will not feel responsible for the way the situation is defined.
Chris Argyris (b.1923) U.S. academic and organizational behavior theorist. Flawed Advice and the Management Trap (2000)
3. Twenty-first-century corporations will find it hard to survive…unless they get better work from their employees. This does not necessarily mean harder work or more work. What it does necessarily mean is employees who’ve learned to take active responsibility for their own behavior.
Chris Argyris (b.1923) U.S. academic and organizational behavior theorist. “Good Communication That Blocks Learning,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 1994)
4. I don’t think a manger can work with a person day in and day out and not develop some sort of personal relationship.
Mary Kay Ash (1915-2001) U.S. entrepreneur, business executive, and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. On People Management (1984)
5. Don’t be condescending to unskilled labor. Try it for a half a day first.
Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984) U.S. critic and essayist. Theatre Arts (1956)
6. Perhaps the most important principle on which the economy of a manufactory depends is the division of labour among the people who perform the work.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871) British mathematician and inventor. On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacture (1832)
7. At nights and on weekends we cry out for human rights and freedom of speech, and then we go to work and become strategic and cautious about our every word for fear we will be seen as disloyal or uncommitted.
Peter Block (b.1935) U.S. writer. Stewardship (1993)
8. Many companies say they want to change, but they need to empower people below.
Marvin Bower (1903-2003) U.S. C.E.O. of McKinsey & Company. The Will to Manage (1966)
9. An art can only be learned in the workshop of those who are winning their bread by it.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) British writer. Erewhon (1872)
10. The only irreplaceable capital a organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their competence with those who can use it.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) U.S. industrialist and philanthropist. Quoted in Intellectual Capital (Thomas A. Stewart; 1997)
11. If your employer starts upon a course which you think will prove injurious, tell him so, protest, give your reasons, and stand to them unless convinced you are wrong. It is the young man who does this, that capital wants for a partner or for a son-in-law.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) U.S. industrialist and philanthropist. “From Oakland: How to Succeed in Life,” The Pittsburgh Bulletin (December 19, 1903)
12. The inventory goes down the elevator every night.
Fairfax Cone (1903-77) U.S. advertising executive. Quoted in The Trouble with Advertising (John O’Toole; 1981)
13. Having formal empowerment programs is a way of showing employees that management does not care about them.
Philip B. Crosby (1926-2001) U.S. business executive and author. Quality Is Still Free (1996)
14. The paternalism of Pullman is the same as the self-interest of a slave-holder in his human chattels. You are striking to avert slavery and degradation.
Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) U.S. politician and labor union leader. 1894. New York Times (1999)
15. Few top executives can even imagine the hatred, contempt, and fury that has been created-not primarily among blue-collar workers who never had an exalted opinion of the “bosses”-but among their middle management and professional people.
Peter F. Drucker (b.1909) U.S. management consultant and academic. Quoted in “Seeing Things as They Really Are,” Forbes (Robert Lenzner and Stephen S> Johnson; 1987)
16. The worker under capitalism was totally dependent on the machine. In the employee society the employee and the tools of production are interdependent.
Peter F. Drucker (b.1909) U.S. management consultant and academic. Post-capitalist Society (1993)
17. People are the lifeblood of any airline, and it is the people of BA who will deliver its future success.
Rod Eddington (b.1950) Australian business executive and C.E.O. of British Airways. Marketing (May 2000)
18. Although colleagues provide high-quality input to multisource processes, they often are insufficient as the only source.
Mark R. Edwards (b.1949) U.S. writer. 360 Degree Feedback (co-written with Ann J. Ewen; 1996)
19. Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does not force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them…”If you don’t like to be frizzled in my frying-pan, you can talk a walk into the fire.”
Friedrich Engels (1820-95) German social philosopher and political economist. The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)
20. For any action whatsoever, an employee should receive orders from one superior only.
Henri Fayol (1841-1925) French business executive. General and Industrial Management (1916)
21. How come when I want a pair of hands I get a human being as well?
Henry Ford (1863-1947) U.S. industrialist, automobile manufacturer, and founder of Ford Motor Company. My Life and Work (co-written with Samuel Crowther; 1922)
22. You should see some of the research people. If they were in sales they’d never get past the first base. Brilliant minds, but no social graces whatsoever.
Elaine Garzarelli (b.1951) U.S. C.E.O. and president of Garzarelli Investment Management. Quoted in Women of the Street (Sue Herera; 1997)
23. Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft would become an unimportant company.
Bill Gates (b.1955) U.S. entrepreneur, chairman and C.E.O. of Microsoft Fortune (November 1996)
24. We rely on skilled foreign workers for their math, science, and creative abilities as well as their cultural knowledge, which helps when localizing products for world markets.
Bill Gates (b.1955) U.S. entrepreneur, chairman and C.E.O. of Microsoft. New York Times Syndicate (December 20, 1995)
25. We can’t run the business. We learned over twenty-five years ago to let the business run itself. Commitment, not authority, promotes results.
Wilbert Lee Gore (d.1986) U.S. founder of Goretex. Quoted in A Passion for Excellence (Tom Peters and Nancy Austin; 1985)
26. You can’t treat your people like an expense item.
Andrew S. Grove (b.1936) U.S. entrepreneur, author, and chairman of Intel Corporation. Quoted in In the Company of Giants (Rama Dev Jager; 1997)
27. At the peak, we had 30, 000 people working in these businesses. There was no way they could feel I was their boss.
Guy Hands (b.1959) Zimbabwean C.E.O. of Terra Firma Capital Partners. Management Today (October 1999)
28. There is practically no area of business where the difference between rhetoric and actuality is greater than in the handling of people.
John Harvey-Jones (b.1924) British management adviser, author, and former chairman of ICI. All Together Now (1994)
29. I can charge a man’s battery and then recharge it again. But it is only when he has his own generator that we can talk about motivation. He then needs no outside stimulation. He wants to do it.
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. Harvard Business Review (January/February 1968)
30. If you have someone on a job, use him. If you can’t, get rid of him.
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. Harvard Business Review (January/February 1968)
31. KITA-kick in the ass.
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. Harvard Business Review (January/February 1968)
32. One more time, how do you motivate?
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. Harvard Business Review (January/February 1968)
33. It seemed that the human being was forever debarred from rational understanding as to why they worked.
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. Harvard Business Review (January/February 1968)
34. True motivation comes from achievement, personal development, job satisfaction, and recognition.
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) U.S. psychologist. The Motivation to Work (1959)
35. Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively you can’t miss.
Lee Iacocca (b.1924) U.S. president of Ford Motor Company, chairman and C.E.O. of Chrysler Corporation. On how to run a successful company. Talking Straight (1988)
36. The first and primary motive for setting up this company was to create a stable work environment where engineers who had a deep and profound appreciation for technology could work to their heart’s content.
Masaru Ibuka (1908-97) Japanese cofounder and chief adviser of Sony Corporation. Referring to the origins of Sony. In 1958 Totsuko’s brand label. Sony, was adopted as the company name. Founding Prospectus of Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (Totsuko) (May 7, 1946), Introduction
37. I’m completely convinced of the necessity of encouraging everybody to accept the maximum amount of personal responsibility and allowing them to have a say in every problem in which they can help.
Elliot Jacques (b.1917) Canadian psychologist and sociologist. Radio broadcast (August 1997)
38. My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: “We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.”
Mother Jones (1830-1930) U.S. labor leader. 1902. Speaking before the Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, Indianapolis, Indiana. Quoted in New York Times (2000)
39. Security no longer comes from being employed. It comes from being employable.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (b.1943) U.S. management theorist, academic and writer. Changing Workplace Alert (1997)
40. If the employees aren’t satisfied, they won’t promote the product we need.
Herb Kelleher (b.1931) U.S. businessman and founder of Southwest Airlines. Aviation Week and Space Technology (March 1990)
41. The more time I spend with our people, the more I find out about our business.
Herb Kelleher (b.1931) U.S. businessman and founder of Southwest Airlines. The Nation’s Business (October 1991)
42. I keep six honest serving men
(They taught me all I know)
Their names
Are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) British novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Just So Stories (1902)
43. At Koch, we have a new vision of employees. In this vision, employees don’t have jobs; rather, they have a set of rights, responsibilities, and rewards that enable them to best contribute.
Charles G. Koch (b.1935) U.S. management theorist, author, chairman and C.E.O. of Koch Industries. Speech, Kansas State University (March 4, 1996)
44. The personnel in India are more versatile.
They’re simply more hungry for work.
Lycourgos Kyprianou (b.1955) Greek Cypriot entrepreneur recently under investigation for fraud and insider dealing. Forbes (August 2000)
45. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) U.S. president. Speech (December 1861)
46. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) U.S. president. Speech (December 1861)
47. In the United States, the shareholders are the owners. Period. They have the final say. But here…it is first the employees and then the shareholders. So if you think of who owns the company more broadly-as we do-then you are obliged to think from a longer-term point of view. I think that is an advantage.
Minoru Makihara (b.1930) Japanese president of Mitsubishi Corporation. Interview, Strategy + Business (Joel Kurtzman; January-March 1996)
48. Always be smart enough to hire people brighter than yourself.
Caroline Marland (b.1946) Irish former managing director of Guardian Newspapers. Management Today (September 1999)
49. The gravy train has hit the buffers.
Robert Maxwell (1923-91) British publisher, business executive and politician. Referring to the newspaper print union strikes. Daily Mirror (London) (November 1986)
50. I really like my staff. I try to give them room. I’m probably like Bill Clinton. I want everyone to like me so I say “yes” all the time. But that’s more useful in cable TV than I think it is in Washington.
Judy McGrath (b.1952) U.S. president of MTV. “The Century’s Business, Career, and Money Heroes,” Society and Politics (2000)
51. We had better start admitting that the most important people in an organization are those who actually provide a service or make and add value to products, not those who administer the activity.
Rene C. McPherson (1924-96) U.S. C.E.O. of Dana Corporation. Quoted in “Rene McPherson (1924-96) U.S. C.E.O. of Dana Corporation. Quoted in “Rene McPherson: GSB Deanship is his way to Reinvest the System,” Stanford GSB (Fall 1980-81)
52. Microsoft’s only factory asset is the human ingredient.
Fred Moody (b.1949) U.S. journalist and author. New York Times Magazine (August 1991)
53. When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for a job, I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him.
Akio Morita (1921-99) Japanese business executive. Quoted in In Search of European Excellence (Robert Heller; 1997)
54. Japanese people tend to be much better adjusted to the notion of work as honorable.
Akio Morita (1921-99) Japanese business executive. Made in Japan (1986)
55. You can be totally rational with a machine. But, if you work with people, sometimes logic has to take a back seat to understanding.
Akio Morita (1921-99) Japanese business executive. Made in Japan (1986)
56. American managers are too little concerned about their workers.
Akio Morita (1921-99) Japanese business executive. “Overhauling America’s Business Management,” New York Times Magazine (Steve Lohr; January 1981)
57. Human resources are the greatest assets of any company. You can raise tariffs or prevent MNCs from entering, but one can’t stop the employees from leaving if they are dissatisfied.
Narayana Murthy (b.1946) Indian founder and C.E.O. of Infosys. “Employee Satisfaction Crucial to Success,” Hindu Business Line (2000)
58. If you were to hire household staff to cook, clean, drive, stoke the fire, and answer the door, can you imagine suggesting that they not talk to each other, not see what each other is doing, not coordinate their functions?
Nicholas Negroponte (b.1943) U.S. academic, cofounder and director of MIT Media Laboratory. Referring to the pressure on work relationships in an office. Being Digital (1995)
59. Many organizations view people as “things” that are but one variable in the production equation.
David M. Noer (b.1939) U.S. writer and human resources consultant. Healing the Wounds (1993)
60. The root cause of layoff survivor sickness is a profound shift in the psychological employment contract that binds individual and organization.
David M. Noer (b.1939) U.S. writer and human resources consultant. Healing the Wounds (1993)
61. If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
David Ogilvy (1911-99) British advertising executive, founder and chairman of Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy on Advertising (1983)
62. Japanese management keeps telling the workers that those at the frontier know the business best.
Kenichi Ohmae (b.1943) Japanese management consultant and theorist. “The Myth and Reality of the Japanese Corporation,” Chief Excellence (Summer 1981)
63. In a recession, people want to test me to see if I’m brave enough to have a lay-off. I’m willing to take that ridicule because it’s paid off to hold on to our people.
Ken Olsen (b.1926) U.S. computer designer and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation. Speech (1982)
64. Corporations want singles-they work harder if they don’t have family ties. They don’t have to worry about being home in the evening or on weekends.
Yoko Ono (b.1933) U.S. artist and musician. Interview, Playboy (January 1981)
65. The one thing I know through experience…is that people don’t know why they come to work until they don’t have to come to work.
- Ross Perot (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and politician. Inc. (January 1989)
66. You can’t look the troops in the eye and say, “It’s been a bad year, we can’t do anything for you,” but then say,”By the way, we’re going to pay ourselves a $1 million bonus.”
- Ross Perot (b.1930) U.S. entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and politician. Referring to his resignation from the General Motors Board in 1986 following GM’s decision to freeze profit-sharing payments to workers while going ahead with executive bonus payments. Quoted in Thriving on Chaos (Tom Peters; 1987)
67. If future competitiveness depends on treating people as an important part of the institution, at least respectful thing I can imagine doing to a human being is asking him to urinate in a cup.
Tom Peters (b.1942) U.S. management consultant and author. Said in testimony before the California state legislature. November 28, 1993. New York Times (1993)
68. The average employee can deliver far more than his or her current job demands and far more than the terms “employee empowerment,” “participative management,” and “multiple skills” imply.
Tom Peters (b.1942) U.S. management consultant and author. The Tom Peters Seminar (1994)
69. I think many people just work as a way of not confronting themselves.
Gerry Robinson (b.1948) Irish chairman of Granada Television and chairman of the Arts Council of England. Management Today (April 1999)
70. The next phase of advanced capitalist expansion will hark back to Robert Owen’s enlightened experiments…which proved at the very beginning of the industrial Revolution that a major investment in employee morale more than paid for itself in productivity.
Theodore Roszak (1933-81) U.S. historian, writer, and editor. Person/Plant: the Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society (1977), ch. 8
71. There was a nationwide strike-or as the newspapers of the day called it, “a Workman’s Holiday”-to campaign for an eight-hour workday.
Pete Seeger (b.1919) U.S. singer and songwriter. Referring to a strike in 1886. Carry It On (co-written with Bob Reiser; 1985)
72. I trust my employees. They’re looking for success as much as I am.
Ricardo Semler (b.1959) Brazilian business executive and president of Semco. “The Mavericks,” Fortune (June 1995)
73. I am a big believer in insight and insightful people are hard to find.
Ric Simcock (b.1965) British advertising executive. Marketing (September 2000)
74. I felt the only way to turn things around was to get people to think like owners.
Jack Stack (b.1951) U.S. C.E.O. of SRC Holdings Corp. former plant manager of International Harvester, and author. “The Mavericks,” Fortune (June 1995)
75. I needed to teach anyone who moved a broom or operated a grinder everything the bank lender knew. That way they could really understand how every nickel saved could make a difference.
Jack Stack (b.1951) U.S. C.E.O. of SRC Holdings Corp. former plant manager of International Harvester, and author. “The Mavericks,” Fortune (June 1995)
76. Be ruthlessly meritocratic. If you are on top, you want people who wil try and try again.
Dennis Stevenson (b.1946) British company director. Management Today (April 1999)
77. Hardly a competent workman can be found who does not devote a considerable amount of time to studying just how slowly he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good place.
- W. Taylor (1856-1915) U.S. engineer and author. The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
78. The exact facts will have in this way been developed and they will constitute a series of laws which are destined to control the vast multitude of our daily personal acts which, at present, are the subjects of individual opinion.
- W. Taylor (1856-1915) U.S. engineer and author. The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
79. You know as well as I do that a high-priced man has to do exactly as he is told from morning to night.
- W. Taylor (1856-1915) U.S. engineer and author. The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
80. Get to know your people. What they do well, what they enjoy doing, what their weaknesses and strengths are, and what they want and need to get from their job.
Robert Townsend (b.1920) U.S. business executive and author. Further Up the Organization (1984)
81. Our philosophy is that management’s role is simply to get the right people in the right places to do a job, and to encourage them to use their own inventiveness to accomplish the task at hand.
Sam M. Walton (1918-92) U.S. entrepreneur and founder of Wal-Mart, Inc. “Wal-Mart, the Model Disaster,” Dun’s Business Month (March 1982)
82. Our early emphasis on human relations was not motivated by altruism, but by the simple belief that if we respected our people and helped them to respect themselves, the company would make the most profit.
Thomas J. Watson, SR. (1874-1956) U.S. founder and president of IBM. Quoted in A Business and its Beliefs (Thomas J. Watson, JR.; 1963)
83. They (employees) have to feel the rewards that go with winning-in the soul as well as in the wallet.
Jack Welch (b.1935) U.S. former chairman and C.E.O. of General Electric. Speech (November 1989)
84. I don’t like the word empowerment. I think the word we’re really talking about is involvement…We want everyone to have a say.
Jack Welch (b.1935) U.S. former chairman and C.E.O. of General Electric. Industry Week (May 1994)
85. They are not the workers, nor are they the white-collar people in the usual, clerk, sense of the word. These people only work for the organization. The ones I am talking about belong to it as well.
William Whyte (1914-2000) U.S. author. The Organization Man (1956)
86. Most men are individuals no longer, so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) U.S. president. Speech (August 1910)