Motivation, Beliefs, and Organizational Transformation

Why does management encounter people problems whenever organizations attempt to change? Green and Butkus say this occurs because organizations overlook one of the most critical problems of change: how employees react it emotionally. Change is not about work processes or information systems alone. It is also about what people believe and feel--emotions such as anger, anxiety, confusion, and fear. Yet managers are usually unaware of these things, and those who are aware usually lack skills to manage these emotions effectively. They tend to rely on traditional incentive systems, which usually do not work. What does work? The one approach that has been applied consistently with positive results is Green’s belief system of motivation and performance.

Green and Butkus show how the belief system helps to bring negative feelings and convictions to the surface. They provide ways to identify the underlying emotional problems and find effective solutions. The belief system works, say the authors, because it goes directly to the source of the problem--employees themselves--to discover why motivation and performance problems occur and what can be done to solve them. This book describes applications of the belief system in a variety of work situations, including a recent effort at organizational transformation with AT&T’s Business Communications Services (BCS) Division. It outlines in detail the process that BCS used to implement the belief system, starting at the highest management levels and cascading down to the organization’s front lines. With a clear exposition of the belief system’s theoretical underpinnings and nuts-and-bolts methods, Green and Butkus provide executive decision makers and planners throughout the organization with critical insights into the pitfalls in the implementation process and workable guidance on how to avoid them.

THAD B. GREEN is a management consultant specializing in the people problems associated with organizational change. Founder and principal of The Belief System Institute, a center for the advancement of motivation and performance based in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Green has taught management at the University of Georgia, Auburn University, Mississippi State University, and Emory University. Among his present and former clients are corporations such as AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Metropolitan Life Insurance. He is author or coauthor of more than 11 books, including three published by Quorum: Performance and Motivation Strategies for Today’s Workforce (1992), Developing and Leading the Sales Organization (1998), and Breaking the Barrier to Upward Communications (1999, with Jay T. Knippen).

RAYMOND T. BUTKUS worked for AT&T for many years in various management and executive positions. In his most recent assignment he served as Sales Vice President in AT&T’s Business Communications Services Division where he led a 1000-member group selling communications services to middle-market companies throughout the Northeast. He is author of numerous articles on sales management, telecommunications, and marketing and is currently Vice President and General Manager for Intelliquest, a New York City consulting firm.