Business-Zombie (n.) — A worker who accepts the status quo because of fear and/or lack of conviction or common sense. At work, he/she hides behind procedures and processes; there’s little respect shown for colleagues, and even less for customers. Challenges, and changes in the status quo, trigger anger. At the end of each “it is […]
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Business-Zombie (n.) — A worker who accepts the status quo because of fear and/or lack of conviction or common sense. At work, he/she hides behind procedures and processes; there's little respect shown for colleagues, and even less for customers. Challenges, and changes in the status quo, trigger anger. At the end of each “it is what it is” workday, the zombie moans and gets on with a shallow existence.
With that definition in mind, we need only to look at recent headline-making “walking dead” examples at United Airlines (dog placed in overhead bin and died) and Southwest Airlines (a father and toddler removed before takeoff because the toddler was “unruly” for confirmation. While these incidents captured the attention of millions, there are customer-service missteps that we've all experienced that left us with the feeling that the companies involved were brain-dead.
The authors are spot-on with their belief that business-zombies exist because of the lack of internal and external communication about corporate identity, values and expectations, all of which shape an organization's culture. That culture revolves around “how members of the organization relate to one another. Their interactions and behaviors demonstrate the values they share.”
In human-based, rather than walking-dead organizations, employees and other stakeholders engage in up-down-sideways communication that produces questions that don't go unanswered and ideas that are evaluated. The openness of communication creates continuous improvement as the firm sees change as the way to improve.
