November 2002

Changing a Culture of Entitlement into a Culture of Merit

By Dave Anderson

Entitlement, as described by Judith Bardwick in her book Danger In the Comfort Zone (AMACOM, 1995), is an attitude where people believe they do not have to earn what they get. They believe they deserve what they get or what they want: They are owed it because of who they are, not because of what they do. In such a culture people take what they have for granted, keep asking for more, and are never satisfied. 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 as a whole has moved increasingly toward a culture of entitlement over the years, corporate America is not blameless. The culture of entitlement in business hit full stride in the years following World War II, when there were so few workers to fill jobs in a booming economy that it was nearly impossible to get fired and individuals doing mediocre work were promised lifetime job security. When managers no longer required results and corporations stopped demanding performance as a condition for keeping a job or getting a raise, the culture of entitlement spread.

The points on this checklist can help determine if a workplace has a culture of entitlement:

• Promotions are based on tenure, not job performance.
• Bonuses are given because it is bonus time, not because recipients earned them.
• Annual raises are given because there is money in the budget, not because people met challenging goals.
• Enormous sums are spent on incentive programs and contests that enrich everyone regardless of past performance.
• Managers hold politically correct employee reviews and evaluations rather than tell employees that they need to improve.
• Managers set no-brainer performance standards designed to make people feel comfortable rather than stretch them with higher expectations.
• Managers spend equal amounts of time, energy, and resources on all employees instead of focusing on the top performers that have earned them.
• Managers would rather be well liked and popular than hold employees accountable for results.

Creating a culture of merit in a workplace requires a strong refusal to let political correctness seep into one’s business psyche. Society’s entitlement model says: Weaken the strong to strengthen the weak. This is evinced in tax rates that increase as earnings increase.

The culture of merit needed in the workplace conflicts with many of society’s entitlement models. Here are seven characteristics of a merit-based workplace culture:

• A culture of merit mandates that the strongest people in the workplace be fully supported and leveraged, and weak people weeded out.
• A culture of merit distributes recognition, rewards, and opportunities based on what each individual works for, earns, and deserves—not equally to all.
• A culture of merit holds people accountable. Employees that do not meet performance standards will lose their jobs.
• 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 and instills positive peer pressure to perform.
• People in a culture of merit feel a healthy level of anxiety to produce 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 culture of merit, people want to be held accountable. Living in a gray area demotivates them.
• 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 is because she wasn’t a good fit for the job.

Creating a culture of merit requires running a business more like a team than like a family. While appealing, the family model has flaws when compared to the culture of merit needed in business. People on a team must earn their way and are judged and rewarded based on their contribution. There is pressure to perform and team members are held accountable for results, not effort.

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. New expectations must be set and accountability established; the pressure to perform must be sustained long enough to let people know that the “good old days” are over. Employees must also be shown how they can earn their way into merit. They must be given the tools, coaching, support, and leadership to make the transition.