Circuit City announced last week the firing of 3,400 sales associates who the company considered overpaid. According to The Baltimore Sun, the terminated salespeople earned 51 cents more per hour than what the company called the "market-based salary range for their role." To complete the repulsive act that company officials labeled a "wage management initiative," the electronics retailer said it would replace the fired salespeople with lower-paid workers.

There's no better example of an organization violating its values than this action by Circuit City. On its Web site, the company's list of values includes the following statements:

Our associates are our greatest assets. What former, current, or future associate could ever believe this statement knowing that management fires those "greatest assets" making 51 cents an hour too much?

What's in it for you? We foster an environment of engagement where associates are invested and involved in the future of the company. What's "in it" for the associates is the hourly wage that the company offered them when they joined up -- that is, when they invested their efforts into Circuit City.

Our integrity must never be compromised. Too late! Management has destroyed its integrity with the company's employees forever.

Consistency between an organization's stated values and its leaders' actual behavior is critical to credibility. With such discrepancy between what its leaders say and what they do, Circuit City employees will immediately and rightly recognize their leaders as frauds.

Labels: credibility, integrity, values

Bookmark this post on del.icio.us