Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job

Abstract

Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job Dennis W. Bakke PVG (2005) 314 pages, Hardcover, $24.95 In Dennis Bakke's vision of a joyful workplace, people have the freedom to use their talents and skills for the benefit of society. They exercise individual initiative, have a substantial amount of individual control, and make meaningful decisions about outcomes that are important to the organization. These characteristics result in a workplace, which the author defines as one that is rewarding, exciting, creative, and successful. Right away, the reader is put on notice that this book is not a typical leadership or management tome. In fact, the word revolutionary in the title is an apt characterization of many of the concepts discussed in this book. The author is a former CEO of AES, a worldwide energy corporation, who founded the company on the premise that work can be fun and the workplace joyful if people adhere to four shared values: integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and fun. He views these values as a way to achieve three goals that he believes should drive ail organizations in equal measure: (1) service to society, (2) economic health, and (3) ethical values. Although the author's philosophy about the role these goals and values play in creating a joyful workplace is rooted deeply in his Christian religious beliefs, the reader need not share those beliefs to appreciate this book. While the author highlights AES's successes in creating a joyful work environment in locations around the world, he does not shy away from describing the obstacles he faced in operationalizing the shared values and in getting others to buy into them. He also chronicles the organization's, and his own, failures to live by those values. This book is appropriate for a variety of audiences, including students, academics, business leaders, and workers - in short, anyone who has an interest in the workplace. In general, readers who approach with an open mind the experience of a CEO whose goal was to provide an enlightened and humane workplace while achieving economic success are likely to find at least some of their ideas about current business practices challenged in ways that may surprise them. For example, the author uses sports and games as analogies to explain why his approach to creating a joyful workplace makes sense. He also traces many of today's accepted business practices (e.g., systems, controls, decision-making, leadership styles) back to assumptions made about workers during the Industrial Revolution and poses this question: if these assumptions are no longer valid, why has there been so little real change in large organizations in the last 250 vears? Although there are several provocative aspects of this book, there are three in particular that are worth noting. First, the author believes that people who work for AES should be held accountable for the shared values both inside and outside of the workplace. For example, if an AES person was found to have violated one of the company's values in his or her personal life, that person would be asked to leave the organization. …

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