Is a culture of entitlement killing your company?

By Dave Anderson

Does your workplace reflect a culture of entitlement or a culture of merit? The answer to this question is vital to your organization’s success.

For decades, business has allowed society’s "all are equal" and "subsidize those who can’t make it on their own" entitlement models to encroach on the culture of merit needed to optimize performance within an enterprise. Entitlement as described by Judith Bardwick in her book, Danger In The Comfort Zone, is an attitude where people believe they do not have to earn what they get. They believe they deserve what they get because they are owed it and because of who they are – not because of what they do. 

In this culture people take for granted what they have and keep asking for more. What’s done for them is never enough. They focus more on what they are owed than what they owe. In a culture of entitlement, peer pressure to perform is supplanted by peer pressure to conform; looking good is more important than doing well.

While society has moved increasingly toward entitlement over the years, corporate America is not blameless. In fact, the culture of entitlement in business hit full stride in the years following World War II when there were too few workers to fill jobs in a booming economy. Because of this shortage, it was nearly impossible to get fired and droves of people doing mediocre work were rewarded with promises of lifetime job security. When managers no longer required results and wealthy corporations stopped demanding performance as a condition for keeping a job or getting a raise, the culture of entitlement spread like a plague.

Here is an eight-point checklist to determine if you have a culture of entitlement in your workplace:
• Promotions are given and people remain in jobs based on tenure, not because they are best for the job.
• Christmas bonuses are given because it is Christmas time, not because people earned them.
• End-of-the-year raises are dished out because it’s the end of the year, not because people went the second mile.
• Countless dollars are dumped into monthly incentive programs and contests that enrich everyone without regard to whether they deserve to participate based on past performance.
• Managers hold politically correct employee reviews and evaluations rather than tell people they are failing.
• Managers set no-brainer performance standards designed to make people feel comfortable rather than stretch them with a higher bar.
• Managers spend equal amounts of time, energy and resources on employees instead of pouring more into the top performers who have earned it.
• Managers would rather be well liked and popular than confront poor performance and hold others accountable for results.

To create a culture of merit in your workplace it’s imperative that society’s politically correct tendencies not be allowed to seep into your business psyche. For example, society’s entitlement model says: weaken the strong to strengthen the weak. This is evinced in tax rates that increase as you earn more and in the public schools where teachers are admonished to spend more time with the weak students to get them up to speed.

Society’s entitlement model says everyone should be given the same opportunities and have equal access to resources. Society’s entitlement model says that if you can’t make it on your own, government programs will subsidize tough times and if you can’t afford a lawyer, one will be provided. This is not to condemn or judge the worth of society’s model, but to point out how its values influence business thinking. What we read in the paper and hear on television takes root in our business psyche, diluting and perverting the performance-based philosophy required to create a culture of merit in an enterprise.

The culture of merit needed in the workplace conflicts with many of society’s entitlement models. Here are seven:
• A merit culture mandates that the strongest people in your workplace must be fully supported and leveraged and the weak links weeded out.
• A culture of merit distributes recognition, rewards and opportunities based on what people earn and deserve, not equally to all.
• A culture of merit holds people accountable and says that if you can’t meet performance standards, you lose your job, because in a merit culture leaders are not afraid to terminate those who don’t cut it.
• A culture of merit doesn’t allow tenure, experience or credentials to substitute for results.
• A culture of merit doesn’t blindly accept or tolerate employees because of who they are, but creates an environment hostile to mediocrity that instills positive peer pressure to perform.
• People in a merit culture feel anxiety to get results. While too much anxiety and pressure is detrimental to performance, so is too little, thus in a culture of merit an optimal level is attained and maintained. In a merit culture people want to be held accountable. Living in a gray area de-motivates them. This culture welcomes the championing of heroes and the punishment of slackers.
• In a culture of merit, ‘firing’ is not a bad word and everyone understands when an employee is forced to leave the company it is not for personal reasons or to explore other options; it’s because they didn’t get the job done.

To create a culture of merit, run your business more like a team than like a family. While having one big family sounds warm and fuzzy, as with society’s entitlement model, there are serious flaws with a family model when compared to a culture of merit needed in business. 

Family models are too tolerant and accepting to work well in business. In a family, no one is judged, but is accepted strictly because they belong, not because they perform. Family models are too generous, too forgiving and too tolerant to serve well in a culture of merit. No one can be fired from a family. Membership in a family is the epitome of entitlement; it is assumed and not earned.

On the other hand, people on a team must earn their way and are judged and rewarded based on their contribution. There is pressure to perform. Team members are held accountable for results, not best efforts. Non-performers find themselves off the team.

Moving from a culture of entitlement to a culture of merit takes time and courage. Entitled people resist stretching and accountability. During the transition from entitlement to merit-based performance, the morale of entitled employees will diminish. Thus new expectations must be set, accountability established and pressure to perform sustained long enough to let people know you mean business and the good old days are over.

However, people must also be shown how they can earn their way into merit. They must be given the tools, coaching and support to make the transition, because you can’t manage or administer your people from entitlement to merit; you must lead them there.

Back to top

Back to Web-exclusive articles archives