Given the opportunity to describe Apple as a company in just a word or two most would respond
with adjectives like: Innovative. Design-conscious. Iconic. Some would probably even say:
Secretive. But here's another: Soulful. Yes Apple has a soul and it is not alone in that
respect. A select few organizations can similarly be said to exhibit similar qualities of soul
that inspire passion in their employees and set them on the path to high levels of sustained
organizational performance. But given that most organizations are plagued by low levels of
employee engagement and lackluster organizational performance how do high-performing
organizations do it? How do they ignite and sustain employee engagement and boost individual
and overall organizational productivity? That is exactly the question that organizational
expert David B. Zenoff sets out to answer in The Soul of the Organization. Based on the
author's extensive experience consulting to and observing some of the best-known organizations
in the world The Soul of the Organization (www.souloftheorganization.com) journeys into eleven
high-performing organizations operating in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds to
determine the underlying elements of soul that foster strong employee engagement at all levels.
What Zenoff finds in his inquiry is that organizations as different as home goods retailer
Williams-Sonoma and not-for-profit group Larkin Street Youth Services all share in common five
key elements of soul that taken together are powerful forces for fostering employee
engagement satisfaction and meaning. And he doesn't stop once he has identified the five core
elements of an organization's soul. Instead he goes on to offer both a conceptual framework
and a practical primer on how to leverage these key ingredients
