7.

3 Company Loyalty
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define company loyalty.
2. Elaborate three degrees of company loyalty.

Two Kinds of Loyalty

loyal employee sticks with the company instead of looking for work elsewhere, especially during economic

booms when jobs are plentiful and moving on is easy.

This kind of loyalty, however, is in trouble according to an article from the Harvard Business School: The very

nature of the relationship between employers and employees has undergone a fundamental shift: Today,

workers not only dont expect to work for decades on end for the same company, but they dont want to. They

are largely disillusioned with the very idea of loyalty to organizations. [1]

Part of the reason for the shiftand part of the reason employees dont stay at companies for decadesis that

many employers dont hesitate to fire their workers at the drop of the hat when it serves the companys interest.

On the other side, according to the article, its also true that todays workers dont hesitate to move on to a new

job when a better one, or maybe just a different one, comes along. Regardless of who went first, the fact is

company loyaltywhether its going from the company to the worker or the worker to the companyisnt what

(we are told) it once was.

The broad definition of company loyalty goes beyond employment questions and measures an employees

willingness to sacrifice income, leisure time, personal relationships, family responsibilities, and general life

aspirations in the name of the organization. To create this dynamic of sacrifice, two distinct kinds of

relationships with the organization are required:

1. Attachment to the organization that is noninstrumental. This means the attachment isnt maintained only because it
serves the employees concrete interests, such as the need for a salary to pay the rent and grocery bills.
2. A deposited value in the organization that goes beyond any individual and their attachment; the organizations value
continues even without those who currently feel it.

Probably, theres not a lot of this kind of deep loyalty in the advertising field. Agencies are constantly stalking

new clients, even trying to steal them from others. For their part, most clients are constantly looking for better

deals and ways to refresh their image, and they are usually open to proposals from new firms interested in
handling their communication. More, companies that employ advertising agencies constantly put their

account up for review, which means the current account holder has to compete with new entrants just to

maintain the business. There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part advertising agencies are constantly

clinging to the business they have, seeking new opportunities, and always on the lookout for fast money. In that

kind of cutthroat environmentone where its your job to sing the praises of Burger King one day and

McDonalds the nextits going to be difficult for workers to feel as though they should (or even can) be true to

their current employer.

Other kinds of organizations seem more likely to instill feelings of loyalty. A religious huba church, a

synagogue, a mosqueis one obvious example. Most priests are attached to, and deeply concerned by, the

welfare of their church; they serve their institution and arent working there for the money (which probably isnt

great). Further, most also believe their institution has value beyond them: the importance was there before they

arrived (or were even born) and will continue after they leave. Taken together, these elements create space for

true employee loyalty to the organization. Something similarthe existence of a space for labor thats not about

money and similar rewardscould be found surrounding many who work for Greenpeace, Doctors Without

Borders, political parties, the CIA, the United Nations.

Other professions open on both sides of the linethat is, theres ample space for an instrumental relationship (I

keep this job because it makes me happy) and one based on broad loyalty. Some medical doctors are in it for the

money but others for the care, for the principle that bringing health to others is a good cause. Law is another

example. Ambulance-chasing lawyers just want payoffs, but some judges believe in the law as something larger

than themselves and a basic force for civilization thats worth serving. Moving down to street level, there are

police officers who just like a steady paycheck and others in the field to serve and protect: they see their work as

improving the lives of others and the general community.

Three Degrees of Loyalty

and free agency.

Obedience loyalty, which is an extreme case, works from the idea that the organization is worthy and the

employee is comparatively worthless or only worthwhile to the extent he or she serves the organization. This

extreme will be reached only rarely, but there are glimmers of it in some professional activities. One quick way
to identify these kinds of labors is to check whether the truly dedicated are willing to sacrifice even their lives

for the cause their organization embodies. The armed forces come to mind here. Some political organizations

command this devotion, especially in revolutionary times. Some workers devotion to their labor union has

been sufficient to put their lives in danger. The exploring scientist Charles Darwin believed in accumulating

knowledge and put his life at risk in the field as he tracked rare species and ecosystems.

Not so dramatic or extreme, some professions and organizations can suck the emotional life out of employees.

Or they may take vast chunks of the employees time. Undercover police work exemplifies by requiring a loyalty

reflected as self-sacrifice to an extent few of us would contemplate. April Leatherwood, for instance, went

undercover in Memphis for an entire year. Almost entirely separated from family and friends, she lived on the

street, wore the same clothes every day, went without brushing her teeth, and rarely bathed. That was an ugly

year of her life, one sacrificed for the job. [2]

Balanced loyalty is a situation where both the employee and the organization recognize in each other an

independent value. In this case, the employee can be expected to make sacrificespossibly even do things he or

she would normally consider unethicalin the name of serving the larger organization. One example would be

a lawyer working in a public defenders office, one who believes that the system of law and the rules of its

enforcement are noble and should be respected to some important extent that is independent of the particular

lawyers welfare and beliefs. The loyalty can be reflected in a number of ways. First, its simply the case that

most public defender positions dont pay as well as similar posts in private firms. Pushing further, the public

defender may be asked to represent and defend a client she knows (or strongly suspects) is guilty. In this case,

presumably, shes being asked to do something she wouldnt do in her day-to-day lifethat is, serve the

interests of a guilty man. More, presenting a full-blown legal case for the defendants innocence would

essentially be lying and, again, something the lawyer might not typically do.

At the same time, this lawyer probably wont be sacrificing everything; shell recognize that her life and

aspirations have value also, and there may come a point where she decides the sacrifices demanded by the job

are too great to bear. Perhaps shes just had a child and needs to up her income, or, maybe a man she helped set

free has committed a gruesome crime. However the situation might be, when the lawyer leaves the office of the

public defender for a higher paying job at a large private firm, she has demonstrated a balanced sense of loyalty.

Shes willing to sacrifice in the name of a larger organization she respects. But only up to a point.

Other demonstrations of balanced loyalty to the organization could include

Free agency is the extreme on the bottom end: the absence of loyalty. Some theorists propose that this should be

the default state for most employees for this reason: its ultimately impossible to be loyal to a typical company

because profit-making institutions just arent the kinds of things that can properly demand or receive any

loyalty. The entire idea of loyalty, the argument goes, only exists in a reality where individuals stand by others

to some extent without conditions (example: parents who love each other and their children unconditionally).

Money-making businesses, on the other hand, are incapable of that kind of unconditional fidelity. On the

contrary, the only desire most private enterprises know is the one to serve its own interests by making more

profits. If thats rightif companies have no loyalty to givethen its employees cant enter into that kind of

relationship. Instead, in the business world at least, you and I are forced to pursue our own interestsa higher

salary or whateverjust as the larger company pursues its own.

Translating this into the working world, the absence of company loyalty is the idea that workers find value in

their organization only because it serves their own interests. Of course its impossible to know the souls of

others, or exactly what their deepest values are, but there might be a hint of this free-agent loyalty in the Leo

Burnett case. Two high-level and highly paid workers served the company welland were compensated well

until they turned whistle-blower against the firm. When vice president Hamilton and comptroller Casey alleged

that Leo Burnett was overbilling the government for their work for the US Army, they werent just doing the

right thing, they were doing a lucrative thing for themselves since the False Claims Act promised 30 percent of

damages the government obtained. If the money is the reason they turned on the agency, they exemplify free-

agent loyalty. They worked hard for the organization because the pay was good, but the moment they saw the

chance to get even more money by turning against it, they jumped. At bottom, that means, their loyalty is only

to themselves.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Company loyalty defined narrowly concerns employees sticking with the organization instead of looking for
work elsewhere.
Company loyalty defined broadly emerges from the idea that the organization possesses nobility thats worth
serving, even if employees dont benefit personally from the contribution.
 The three degrees of company loyalty are obedience loyalty (the worker exists to serve the organizations
interests), balanced loyalty (workers and organizations share interests), and free agency (the organization exists to
serve the workers interests).

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Name an organization that might inspire obedience loyalty. Why is obedience inspired? What does the loyalty
look like?
2. Name an organization that might inspire balanced loyalty. Why is it inspired? What does the loyalty look like?
3. Name an organization that might inspire an attitude of free agency. Why is it inspired? What does the free agency
look like?
4. Take a career youre (considering) pursuing. On the scale from obedience loyalty to free agency, where do you
imagine most employees in that line of work are located? Why?