Employeeship: A Construct

I used the term "employeeship" to describe what every employee needs to understand to become a "good" employee. However, "employeeship" is a construct that is sometimes used for research in leadership and organizational behavior. A construct is an idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence. Constructs are important for research, but they are also important for practical application.

Employeeship is a relatively new concept in management and reflects the Swedish approach toward management. Employeeship comes from the Swedish word medarbetarskap. The meaning of this word is hard to translate into English. The direct translation is "co-worker," but it has a much deeper meaning so the term "employeeship" was coined to distinguish it.

Employeeship, taken from medarbetarskap, is about equal treatment, participation, and the possibility to influence decisions. The concept of employeeship has to do with the responsibility and commitment among employees in an organization. This concepts reflects the Swedish way of acting and thinking--what is good for the employee is good, in most situations, also good for the employer--and vice versa. This reflects the accepted code of conduct in Swedish and Scandinavian work cultures (Moller, 1994).

The definition of employeeship is the responsibility and commitment among employees, in cooperation with fellow employees, to strive to do what is important to the organization and its customers and to continually develop and improve this ability (Sörqvist and Bergendahl, n.d.). The concept of employeeship has to do with responsibility and commitment among employees in an organization; it is about co-operation among people and a mutual effort to deliver results.

Employeeship has two perspectives that work in union--the perspective of the employer (leader) and the perspective of the employee (follower). Without each perspective, there is no employeeship. Employeeship is about the cooperative relationship between employees and between employer and employees. It is about a productive relationship and collaboration between co-workers and between leaders and followers. In short, employeeship is what it takes to be a good employee (Himanshu, 2012).

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Bertlet, J. (2011). An employeeship model and its relation to psychological climate: A study of congruence in the behavior of leaders and followers. Department of Psychology, Lund University.

Moller, C. (1994). Employeeship: The necessary prerequisite for empowerment. Empowerment in Organizations, 2(2), 4-13.

Himanshu, S. (2012). Competitive advantage through employeeship: A conceptual perspective. International Journal of Management Sciences, 1(4), 16-25.

Sörqvist, L., & Bergendahl, S. (n.d.). Employeeship with focus on quality, innovation and continuous improvements.

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Ok, so now I will say it in English.

"Employeeship" has been used for years in Sweden to describe the work relationship between employees and employers. Some aspects of the Swedish version of employeeship may not apply to American work culture, I use the word employeeship in a similar manner. Basically, employeeship is a broad term used to indicate what is required to be a good employee.

One important aspect to understand is that employeeship is NOT just about what an employee does, but it also refers to the cooperation between the employees of a company at all levels from top management to new hires.Future blogs will elaborate on the specifics of employeeship.  

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