The "authentizotic" organisation: creating best places to work

Abstract

Worldwide, only twenty per cent of the workforce is engaged (Harter, 2021). In the current political, social, and economic context that has developed over the last decades and has been described as the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, leaders would be wise to create healthy places to work—places that contribute to, and reinforce adaptive functioning. The best places to work can be described as "authentizotic"—derived from the Greek words authenteekos and zoteekos. An organisation that is authentic inspires employees through the integrity of its vision, mission, values, culture, and structure. Zoteekos, meaning "vital to life", when applied to an organisational context implies that people are invigorated by their workplace and find in it a sense of balance and completeness. We describe twelve patterns that differentiate authentizotic organisations from more run-of-themill places of work. Whilst sceptics may find the idea utopian, it argues that now more than ever leaders would do well to imbue their organisations with authentizotic qualities and concludes with a checklist to help the reader identify authentizotic characteristics in their own workplace.