Would you please read the case carefully? Which argument do you agree with (point or counterpoint)? Justify your debate; you can seek additional information from other sources to justify your reasoning.

Employer-Employee Loyalty Is an Outdated Concept

POINT The word loyalty is horribly outdated. Long gone are the days when an employer would keep an employee for life, as are the days when an employee would want to work for a single company for an entire career.

Professor Linda Gratton says, Loyalty is deadkilled off through shortening contracts, outsourcing, automation, and multiple careers. Faced with what could be 50 years of work, who honestly wants to spend that much time with one company? Serial monogamy is the order of the day. Many employers agree; only 59 percent of employers report feeling loyal to their employees, while a mere 32 percent believe their employees are loyal to them.

The loyalty on each side of the equation is weak. For the most part, this is warrantedwhy retain employees who are subpar performers? Its only a matter of the employer handling the loyalty of employees with respect. Admittedly, some breaches happen. For example, Renault ended the 31-year career of employee Michel Balthazard (and two others) on false charges of espionage. When the wrongness of the charges became public, Renault halfheartedly offered the employees their jobs back and a lame apology: Renault thanks them for the quality of their work at the group and wishes them every success in the future.

As for employees loyalty to their employers, that is worth little nowadays. One manager with Deloitte says the current employee attitude is, Im leaving, I had a great experience, and Im taking that with me. There isnt an expectation of loyalty. In fact, only 9 percent of recent college graduates would stay with an employer for more than a year if they didnt like the job, research indicated. But there is nothing wrong with this. A loyal employee who stays with the organization but isnt satisfied with the job can do a lot of damage. At best, this person will be less productive. At worst, they can engage in years worth of damaging CWB. For the worker, staying with an organization foreverno matter whatcan limit career and income prospects.

The sooner we see the employment experience for what it is (mostly transactional, mostly short-term to medium-term), the better off well be. The workplace is no place for fantasies of loyalty.

COUNTERPOINT

Agreed: The word loyalty is outdated when it refers to employers and employees. But the basic concept is valid in the workplace. We now measure loyalty with finer measurements such as organizational trust and organizational commitment. Employers and employees certainly show little loyalty to each other, but that isnt the norm.

Says management guru Tom Peters, Bottom line: loyalty matters. A lot. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. University of Michigans Dave Ulrich says, Leaders who encourage loyalty want employees who are not only committed to and engaged in their work but who also find meaning from it. Commitment. Engagement. Trust. These are some of the building blocks of loyalty.

The employer-employee relationship has indeed changed. For example, (largely) gone are the days when employers provided guaranteed payout pensions to which employees contributed nothing. But is that such a bad thing? Many employers have helped employees take charge of their own retirement plans.

Its not that loyalty is dead but rather that employers are loyal to a different kind of employee. True, employers no longer refuse to fire a long-tenured but incompetent employee, which is a good thing. These employees can bring down everyones productivity and morale. In a globalized world where customer options are plentiful, organizations with deadwoodpeople who dont contributewill not be competitive enough to survive. Companies are instead loyal to employees who do their jobs well, and that is as it should be.

In short, employees become loyaltrusting, engaged, and committedwhen organizations and their people act decentlyemployers with superior managers who empower their employees to obtain high levels of this kind of loyalty. A true reciprocal relationship is a stronger business model than employees staying with an organization for years in exchange for an organizations caretaking. Bonds of trust and loyalty rest on the relationships of individuals. Workplace psychologist Binna Kandola observes, Workplaces may have changed, but loyalty is not deadthe bonds between people are too strong.

The Answer needs to have at least three paragraphs:

1- Introduction (20% of your post): Start your discussion by summarizing and comparing points and counterpoints. In this section, highlight any aspect you find valid/invalid in both arguments.

2- Main body (70% of your post): Express your opinion/take a side, justify it, and make your argument. Use the information in the book and/or any other sources you might find suitable to support your claims (Don't forget to cite the sources you use). You are also welcome to share your work experience.

3- Conclusion (10% of your post): Have a short paragraph at the end, to sum up, your discussion.

Thank you!