Page 37 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

Business on Planet Earth, No Longer as We Know It 17

looking for a roommate, a dog walker, a career makeover, soft-
ware, a new car, or a travel companion.
In today’s cyberspace world, we seem to be losing contact

with our neighbors. Heck, we don’t even know who our neigh-
bors are any more. Yet, we crave contact with them. It’s the
same thing in most companies today. Throughout virtual work-
places everywhere, employees crave contact with fellow work-

ers and their managers. That’s the human condition.
And that’s where Craigslist comes in. Founder and CEO
Craig Newmark knows about community and he also knows
how to bolster pride, enthusiasm, and excitement among mil-
lions of people with his virtual community bulletin board for the

Bay Area. A day doesn’t go by when an online visitor isn’t
screaming, “Hey, why isn’t there a craigslist in my city?!”
So now you’re thinking, “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m hav-
ing a hard enough time creating high morale in my own organi-
zation, let alone try to boost the good feelings of an entire city

of online followers. How does he do it?”
Newmark says that his intent is inclusive, to humanize and
democratize the Internet. He created Craigslist to give people a
voice and a sense of belonging. That’s what creates high morale
among community members and that’s what creates high

morale among your employees.
The right kind of forum connects people to each other,
building a community. That forum doesn’t have to be on the
Internet, of course: that’s just a medium.

Newmark suggests considering the structure of a large
organization—corporate, government, or other. Over time, peo-
ple on the frontline start to feel stifled and unappreciated
because they don’t feel like anyone is listening to them or they
have a voice. That’s when morale takes a dive and people give

up trying. To counteract this tendency, a manager can take
steps to ensure that employees have a voice.
That’s what Newmark has done with Craigslist. Every per-
son can be heard in a particular forum. The Craigslist commu-

nity is about people helping one another and caring about one