The Ideal Employee: What Organizations Should Know

Most managers can describe their “Ideal Employee”. Pretty logical!

But, where does this image come from?

And why does it need to be carefully managed by organizations?

In the past two years I asked 320 leaders in the USA and Europa about their Ideal Employee. This is what I I found in a nutshell:

In manager' eyes, an Ideal Employee should “fit in” with the prevailing work context and culture, and be similar to the manager him/herself.

Non-conformity? Individuality? Creativity? Complementing qualities? 

Not really on the list of desirable traits.

What drives leaders' preference for conformity?

My studies found an astonishing degree of alignment between work context, organizational culture, leaders’ own personality and the way they form expectations for staff members. For example, managers in highly formalized and regulated work contexts prefer efficiency over creativity in staff members; and while open-minded leaders expect their employees to be creative, very conscientious managers are also looking for employees who just get the job done within the given limits. Lastly, organizational culture strongly affects their opinion what’s good about subordinates: hence, leaders will form their employee image according to the values endorsed at work.

What’s the problem here? Take lack of diversity and gender inequality for a start.

In my dissertation, I argue that leaders’ Ideal Employee image can be hazardous for leadership effectiveness. An 'Ideal Employee' image or 'employee prototype' can become rigid if strengthened by organizational values or processes. And, inflexible expectations determine leaders’ behaviors towards employees, their personnel related decisions and consequently, their work relationships. They can lead to idealized or unrealistic assessments and to great difficulties in hiring new team members.

A lack of cultural, intellectual or social diversity, as well as gender inequality in organizations are the direct result of people's prototypical expectations excluding non-conforming individuals. It's not their lack of skills, it's the organization's inability to register their skills.

What can organizations do about their leaders’ Ideal Employee image?

Now that we know that the work place co-determines the way leaders want their Ideal Employee to be, organizations can start managing their managers’ (unproductive) expectations. They can:

·         Find out what their leaders’ Ideal Employee profile is

·         Assess the prevailing organizational culture and other organization-related elements

·         Think about ways this Ideal Employee image may be at work on a daily basis

·         Be aware, manage and change the nature of their Ideal Employee image

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Apart from working as independent management trainer and coach since 2006, I am currently finishing my PhD dissertation in Economics with a focus on Leadership and Organizational change. Part of my work has been published this month in the Leadership & Organization Development Journal[1]. All throughout my career, I have been working closely with organizations in both Europe and the USA; my goal is to provide answers to real-world organizational problems on the basis of management science.

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[1] Derler, Andrea, and Weibler, Juergen. 2014. “The Ideal Employee: Context and Leaders’ Implicit Follower Theories.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 35(5):386–409.