Week Eight: My name is Melissa and I am a control freak

My current position at a downtown law firm requires me to motivate, encourage and lead teams of staff and lawyers on pro bono legal projects, community service activities and employee giving campaigns.  I had previously viewed my responsibilities as creating the opportunity for employees to give back in altruistic ways.  More recently I changed my views after reading research about altruism vs. core competencies as employee motivators and realizing most employee volunteers are persuaded to do community service when it provides a personal return for them.  And now, after I read about the Organizational Identification and Control theory, I'm reconsidering what I think about the company reasoning behind such programs.  I had always viewed my position and my programs as a way to encourage employee satisfaction, increase business goals and provide training opportunities for workers.  However, I never really considered what I did as controlling in any way.  However, after reading the theory and the methods used to control in organizations - I definitely do.  I find myself using or encouraging the use of unobtrusive control and concertive control.  As soon as new employees come on, our department presents the Community Service mission and vision of Faegre & Benson to the new hires.  We then set up meetings with them to outline all of the opportunities we have for them to volunteer.  We also encourage their group leaders to be involved and inspire involvement.  We also employ concertive control by using team leaders/group leaders for each volunteer/service/giving program who then use peer pressure to persuade involvement.  I am not going to deny that I'm a bit of a controlling personality, however I was surprised at this new understanding of other ways I control people - for better or for worse.