Daily Lesson from Life 27 August 2008

"Wed, Aug 27, 2008 my paper

The unhappy lot of Asian workers

WHEN it comes to job satisfaction, nearly a third of Asian employees feel frustrated about their work, reveals a new study by Hay Group Insight.

Even those who are highly motivated do not necessarily turn in high performance. The frustration faced by Asian workers seems to stem from various management failures, said Hay Group Insight, the employee and customer research division of global management consultancy Hay Group.

Issues identified include ineffective work structures and procedures, poor leadership styles and unproductive work environments.


In general, Asian workers feel a lack of empowerment and professional development, despite being well-engaged by their bosses, said the study.

The study - conducted in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand - found that 29 per cent of Asian workers feel frustrated about their jobs.

Only 16 per cent believe that they are effective in their work.

This is in contrast to a similar Hay Group Insight study conducted in Britain, where only 21 per cent of British employees report feeling frustrated and 39 per cent consider themselves effective workers."

I normally do not like to quote consultant's survey but that is what most people wanted so here it is.

Lack of empowerment and professional development is cited as one of the key reasons for Asian workers feeling frustrated in this survey.

The lessons for me are:

1. empowered employees must be someone who had been envisioned and enabled 1st! If they know what they need to achieve and have been equipped with the appropriate 'ASK for TOP D' - some coming from themselves, it will be relative easy for their leaders to empower them;

2. to get the leaders to empower the employees, they have to show they are committed to the vision and engaged in the development of their ASK for TOP D enthusiastically and applied what they have learned and given;

3. if the employees are really frustrated, they will walk if the employment market is good. However, even if the market is not good, the really talented ones will not find difficulties in getting employed. So, the leaders have to pay attention to the developmental needs of their staffs and empowered them with authority to achieve the mutually agreed vision.

For the frustrated employees, do not be. Ask yourself what actions have your taken to overcome this? Have you been honest with your leaders, assuming your leaders are enlightened one. If not, perhaps you should be working for a leader who practices the 7e Way of Leaders!