{"id":34437,"date":"2026-09-17T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?p=34437"},"modified":"2026-09-17T15:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T22:30:13","slug":"expertise-motivation-and-ethics-the-trifecta-of-employee-optimization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/17\/expertise-motivation-and-ethics-the-trifecta-of-employee-optimization","title":{"rendered":"Expertise, motivation and ethics: the trifecta of employee optimization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Learning to manage employees is not an easy feat. That\u2019s why there is no shortage of resources dedicated to the subject, from webinars and classes to self-help and management books. It is also a point of interest for researchers such as Dr. Sundar Balakrishnan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A professor and associate dean for the University of Washington Bothell\u2019s School of Business<\/a>, Balakrishnan has more than 30 years of experience teaching and researching everything from marketing theory and practice to organizational behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his latest paper, \u201cTalent inside the diamond: a fluid, trifaceted framework for managing employees in knowledge-intensive workplaces<\/a>,\u201d Balakrishnan proposes three vital ingredients every employee needs to be successful \u2014 and how managers can foster that success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matrix for enhanced productivity<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to teaching and research, Balakrishnan has served in several administrative roles and is often asked to speak at and connect with other business schools around the world. A few years ago, he was asked to present virtually to an institution in India about his approach to managing faculty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Dr. Sundar Balakrishnan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His proposed matrix for identifying different types of employees and their needs was so well received that he decided to explore the idea in more depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past decade, Balakrishnan has been thinking about the issue of productivity. Stories such as the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal and accounts of Amazon employees being forced to urinate in bottles to keep up with daily quotas served as examples of productivity optimization gone awry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw that this was often the case \u2014 that managers and companies talk about increasing productivity, but that they\u2019re missing this underlying third rail, this other dimension, which is ethics,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, how do we incorporate ethics into this framework to ensure that what we are doing is not just trying to squeeze blood out of stone? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do we ensure what we do is leaving the world in a better place than we found it?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the literature around worker productivity focuses on two major aspects \u2014 knowledge or skill plus motivation \u2014 that, like the wheels of a bike, propel workers along toward success, Balakrishnan said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Balakrishnan includes both expertise and motivation in his framework, he takes it a step further by proposing that ethics is the third wheel that keeps an employee balanced and on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missing third wheel<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When all three elements are used as axes on a graph, Balakrishnan said, it is easier to see where each individual employee fits into the big picture. When plotting multiple people, patterns also start to emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes we think of our team members as \u2018this person doesn\u2019t work hard\u2019 or \u2018this person works like a dog,\u2019 but we rarely step back and say where they are in the big picture \u2014 and why,\u201d Balakrishnan said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his framework, he has identified eight common archetypes: four ethical types and their corresponding less ethical counterparts. Plotted on a four-quadrant graph, these types delineate a \u201cdiamond\u201d of optimal productivity. The axes represent expertise, motivation and ethics: <\/p>\n\n\n\n