Three C's in the start up equation

Commitment, Communication and Control

So this my 2nd week at Starburst Solar, and things are moving along in the correct direction, over the weekend I was thinking over the previous weeks activities and was thinking over the the 3 C's of the start up equation, so here they are..hot from the desk of GW and I don't have a stack of cash to give you to invest, but I may help you to make some more money with what you have.......I will address the three C's over the next couple of days...

Commitment:

When you first start out you are 110% commited to the adventure, up early and late to bed if at all !!!, and when you start to hire others you expect the same, well you think it is the norm, and if someone is not as "commited" as you then they have a problem, don't they see how this is such a great adventure, vindicating your ideas, making your company a success, and making you a bundle of cash possibly, this is yoru life how can they not see that they need to work longer ,harder, faster and better....well it may come as a supprise to you but they don't have the same agenda yet as you do, Commitment is relative, "Commitment means to duty or pledge to some thing or someone" ref. Wiki.

Synonyms to commitment:
allegiance engagement guarantee loyalty liability must need obligation ought pledge committal committedness consignment dedication devoir duty promise responsibility undertaking vow word charge

There are different levels to an individuals commitment and it is relative to how much a person is engaged with the task, it also can be the "Whats in it for me" factor , as a founder it is up to you to engage there passion and make sure they will be rewarded as well, this may not be a major factor in early days but as a company develops and relalizes value it will be. According to Meyer and Allen's (1991) three-component model of commitment, prior research indicated that there are three "mind sets" which can characterize an employee's commitment to the organization:

Affective Commitment: AC is defined as the employee's emotional attachment to the organization. As a result, he or she strongly identifies with the goals of the organization and desires to remain a part of the organization. This employee commits to the organization because he/she "wants to".

Continuance Commitment: The individual commits to the organization because he/she perceives high costs of losing organizational membership ,including economic losses (such as pension accruals) and social costs (friendship ties with co-workers) that would have to be given up. The employee remains a member of the organization because he/she "has to".

Normative Commitment: The individual commits to and remains with an organization because of feelings of obligation. For instance, the organization may have invested resources in training an employee who then feels an obligation to put forth effort on the job and stay with the organization to 'repay the debt.' It may also reflect an internalized norm, developed before the person joins the organization through family or other socialization processes, that one should be loyal to one's organization. The employee stays with the organization because he/she "ought to".

Note that according to Meyer and Allen, these components of commitment are not mutually exclusive: an employee can simultaneously be committed to the organization in an affective, normative, *and* continuance sense, at varying levels of intensity. This idea led Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) to argue that at any point in time, an employee has a "commitment profile" that reflects high or low levels of all three of these mind-sets, and that different profiles have different effects on workplace behavior such as job performance, absenteeism, and the chance that they will quit.

Meyer and Allen developed the Affective Commitment Scale (ACS), the Normative Commitment Scale (NCS) and the Continuance Commitment Scale (CCS) to measure these components of commitment. Many researchers have used them to determine what impact an employee's level of commitment has on outcomes such as quitting behavior, job performance, and absenteeism. However, some researchers have questioned how well these scales actually assess an employee's commitment. There is a another major factor in determining commitment od an employee and that is to do with culture, do employees in other countries/cultures experience commitment the same way as employees in the US or UK for instance, I have found the in the US and the UK depending on the area you are based the commitment is different, if you are based in a heavy industrial area then there is normally a greater level of commitment, where as if you are in a more rural area or an HQL area then you will get a lesser commitment to work and more to increasing there QL.

So be aware of these factors as you start and grow yoru business, it is up to you in part to make sure people keep commited to the company vision and misson.

Slainte

Gordon