Join the Conversation and Employee Satisfaction

This post is about future posts.  Two things hit my computer in the last couple of weeks that are going to take some time and energy to do just right.

Satisfaction Doesn't Cause Performance

First - I ran across this post on McArthur's Rant pointing me to a meta-analysis of the causal relationship between employee satisfaction and employee performance (hint:  it doesn't exist.)  The author is Dr. Nathan Bowling from Wright State University.  Wright State happens to be in Dayton, OH where I work a good bit of time - and I am an Alum from WSU - so I called Dr. Bowling and met with him briefly on this analysis.  We had a good chat - and I'm putting together some thoughts on that meeting and the implications his analysis may have on the whole employee satisfaction issue.

Starting the Conversation

Second - I responded to Joseph Jaffe's request for support of his new book:  Join the Conversation.  The initial post that started it all is here. 

The premise of Join the Conversation  - (from the site for the book:)

The future is bright for organizations that can join the ongoing dialog and leverage their consumer relationships to build win-win situations for businesses, brands, and individuals. Through the power of community, dialog, and partnership, marketers finally have the power to talk with consumers rather than at them.

You may know Jaffe from his first book "Life after the 30-Second Spot" published in 2005 or from his blog - or from his company Crayon. 

He is using the concepts from his book to prove his point and reached out to the blogosphere for folks to read and review the book - create conversations about it through posts and other web-enabled formats - and test,  through application, the premise of the book.  Very interesting.  I received my book on January 18 - and have started reading - I will post my review probably within a week.

In any event - I've got work to do this week.  I need to summarize the notes from my meeting with Dr. Bowling and read a book and write the review.  Should be interesting stuff.  Stay tuned.