Reflections
THE VALUE OF THE PERSON
By Bill Chickering
You hate work. You dislike responsibility. And you don’t have an ambitious bone in your body. Does this description apply to you? Probably not.
And yet, according to employee relations consultant Wayne Alderson, it’s completely typical of the way too many American managers view their employees. "We manage to turn people against us," Alderson points out. "We hide things from them, try to manipulate and control them, give them no voice in their own future, and then call them disloyal at the first sign of confrontation."
Alderson is careful to temper this harsh assessment, however, with the observation that this management style springs more from bad habits than from callous hearts: "People coming out of management programs today are out of touch right from the beginning. They know how to manage the bottom line, but when it comes to dealing with people, they have no idea what’s expected of them. Meanwhile, the more seasoned management people want to change and they don’t know how. The business community wants to change and it doesn’t know how. They want to change their ways of thinking and acting, but haven’t developed a concrete, pragmatic way of doing it."
But there is a way, after all—a management approach that springs from biblical principles about the equal value of all human life. An approach that Wayne Alderson has developed through years of work in employee relations and more than his share of hard knocks.
Today, he shares his hard-earned insights in a seminar and a book, called "Theory R Management -The Value of the Person," which incorporates the following points:
Doing What Is Right—
The Fundamental Motivation and Guideline
You don’t practice "Value of the Person" so you can get more work out of people; you do it because it’s right.
Building Relationships—
The Fundamental Principle
Love, dignity, and respect must be at the center of all operations.
Reconciliation—
The Fundamental Goal
Management by confrontation is wrong because it violates love, dignity, and respect.
Responsibility—
The Fundamental Response
Theory R calls clearly for each member of an organization, family, or community to take responsibility for personal actions toward others.
Results—
The Fundamental By-Product
Positive results are an automatic outflow of this process.
When the fundamental motivation and guideline is doing what is right, the fundamental principle is building good relationships, the fundamental goal is bringing about reconciliation and the fundamental response on the part of everyone is responsibility, the by-product will be positive results for all persons involved.
Wayne Alderson calls his approach Theory "R," (Right, Relationships, Reconciliation, Responsibility, Results) to distinguish it from Theory X, the basic style of American management-by-intimidation. Douglas McGregor, in his book The Human Side of Enterprise, also proposed a Theory Y, which takes a more positive view of the average worker’s potential. Then there is the Japanese Theory Z, which emphasizes worker/management cooperation. In recent years, American managers have been running to the Japanese looking for ways to increase productivity here at home.
The trouble with most of these theories, Alderson says, is that they are born in the classroom and not on the factory floor. We seem to be asking everyone what the American worker wants except the American worker himself: "The American worker wants to hear, just once, that he or she is appreciated. It’s a basic truth of life that when people perceive that they are cared for, great things take place and problems dissolve."
It is on this foundation—worker appreciation—that any truly effective reform of American management must be built.
Will the "Value of the Person" hurt the value of your bottom line?
At this point, the average manager will probably throw up a red flag. Love, dignity, respect? Aren’t these pretty lame concepts when you’re talking about employee relations? How are you going to make sure your workplace doesn’t turn into a summer camp?
Alderson answers as though he’s heard the question many times before: "Let me answer by saying what the ‘Value of the Person’ is not. It is not a weak, sentimental approach to the tough, hard problems that face corporations and businesses today. It is a tough and disciplined style of leadership. Just because a manager understands his employees better doesn’t imply that he or she drops expectations or production quotas. Often, without even asking for it, productivity and quality will go up.
The fact is, I’m a born-again Capitalist. Profits, productivity, return on net worth—I know all those terms. The goal when I go into any situation is reconciliation that leads to productive relationships.
If you treat employees with love, dignity, and respect; and if you do it because it’s right—not because you think it’s a good way to boost productivity—then the results may be everything you hoped for anyway."
Is The Church the solution or just part of the problem?
Alderson encourages employees and managers alike not to buy into the culture that says you have to be a manager to be somebody. Non-management work is not demeaning, though society and the Church give us that message.
Yes, the Church. That’s where Wayne Alderson says his "Value of the Person" seminars are needed most.
"The Churches are controlled by managers," he says. "They come down on the side of the powerful and not for justice and mercy. They buy into the Jesus of success and not the Jesus of the cross.
What it really boils down to is that business has had more of an influence on the Church than the Church has had on business. Just look at the people on most any Church board. It seems that success in business at the managerial level is a requirement. As you climb the business ladder you climb the Church ladder."
Alderson is not standing outside the Church taking cheap shots. He’s been a member of the same Church for 43 years and been through all its struggles. It’s just that he sees as big a gap between the pulpit and the pew as he does between employee and management.
"When those in positions of Church authority begin to embrace true leadership and give the people in their pews the love, dignity, and respect they deserve; that Church becomes open to change. Too often, however, the Church leadership doesn’t want things to change. They’re locked into maintaining job security; that becomes the driving force in the Church.
The same thing goes on in parachurch groups," he says. "In order to maintain their existence and keep the machinery running, wealth and a serach for power take precedence over justice and mercy."
Reconciliation or Confrontation?
According to Alderson, there is more at stake here than "justice and mercy" within individual companies. The entire fabric of American society is at risk. The employee is being taken advantage of in this country, and if the current management by intimidation keeps up, and if the people of the Church continue to stay silent, or not live by biblical principles, there will be repercussions. "The ingredients are there," Alderson believes, "for confrontation."
One of the battlegrounds is the health care profession, specifically nursing: "The people in that profession have been treated so badly for so long," he says, "it’s only a matter of time before everything breaks loose. The signs are all there, but we’re ignoring them.
The answer, however, is not confrontation, but reconciliation. And this reform will not take place unless those who are committed to justice, righteousness and mercy are prepared to walk the talk."
Wayne Alderson learned about employee-management relations the hard way—by weathering years of tension and crisis at the Pittron Steel Corporation in Pennsylvania. But by applying biblical principles to the marketplace, he was able to resolve the problems at Pittron and moved on to become an employee-management consultant of national importance. His "Value of the Person" philosophy of labor relations has blossomed into a popular movement and is the subject of a seminar he teaches from coast to coast. In 1980, his story was told by R.C. Sproul, in the stirring biography, Stronger than Steel, published by Harper & Row.
While at Pittron Steel, Alderson observed that people didn’t pay much attention to what you said or what you promised, unless you lived up to your promise. If you walked your talk, you gained respect. He also learned that leadership involves service and loyalty, not perks. Leadership does not exploit; it does not betray.
Alderson truly believes that one person can make a difference. Bit by bit, he is breaking down the barriers that exist between employees and management. He is getting through to a Church that for too many years has been calloused and indifferent to the employee.
But through it all, the bottom line has been obedience. "I love Jesus with a passion." he says. "Pleasing Him is more important than pleasing any group of people or any accolade I receive."
With that kind of commitment, Christians can transform not only their personal lives, but the lives of the people they work with. They can take an industry, an economy, a country scarred by years of selfish conflict, and turn it into a vessel of God’s grace.
Networks, Fall 1988
[Ed. Note: Since this article was written, Wayne Alderson and his daughter, Nancy Alderson McDonnell have co-authored a book that outlines the Theory R Management principles, "Theory R Management; How to Utilize Value Of The Person Leadership Principles Of Love, Dignity, and Respect," published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN.
Wayne Alderson is president and founder of Value of the Person Consultants, a consulting firm specializing in human resource development and training. He is a nationally recognized seminar leader, motivator, and speaker in the areas of creative employee relations, productivity improvement, and communications. He has a background rooted in finance, manufacturing, labor management negotiations, and hands-on training.
Nancy Alderson McDonnell is executive vice president of Value of the Person Consultants and the daughter of Wayne Alderson. She received her degree in communications Magna Cum Laude from Grove City College in 1978. Since that time she has worked as the point person for Value of the Person Consultants in charge of seminars, promotional material, organizational development, and marketing.
To find out more about Value of the Person Consultants seminars, books and audio tapes, contact: Value of the Person-Theory R Consultants, 100 Ross St., Pittsburgh, PA 15219-2013. Phone 412-562-9070, or fax 412-281-2312.
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