Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly produc-
tive on a daily basis. Imagine a company whose top executives, in a quest to create
the most “fun” workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions and push
decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor. Could such a company
compete in today’s bottom-line corporate world? Could it even turn a profit?
Well, imagine no more. In Joy at Work, Dennis Bakke tells the true story of this
extraordinary company—and how, as its co-founder and longtime CEO, he chal-
lenged the business establishment with revolutionary ideas that could remake
America’s organizations. It is the story of AES, a worldwide energy giant with
40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion.
Business is about doing what’s right. Principles are the bottom line.
Integrity – Principles and values must guide all decisions.
Fairness – Fairness means treating everybody differently.
Freedom – Eliminate management, organization charts and job descriptions.
Fun – Having the opportunity to make important decisions that contribute
to the success of the company.
Joy at Work offers a model for the 21st-century company that treats its
people with respect, gives them unprecedented responsibility, and holds them
strictly accountable—because it’s the right thing to do, not just because it makes
good business sense. More than any book you’ve ever read, Dennis Bakke’s
Joy at Work will force you to question everything you thought you knew about
corporate success.
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JOY AT
WORK
A Revolutionary Approach
to Fun on the Job
DENNIS W. BAKKE
PRAISE FOR
Joy at Work
“Joy at Work is simply the best book I have ever read about integrating human val-
ues and economic success. Bakke has changed the nature of the game of business
forever. The book is an answer to our cynicism and materialism and to the loss of
faith in our leaders. It is required reading for all who are in a leadership position,
are studying leadership, or know someone who is doing either.”
–Peter Block, author of Stewardship and The Answer to How Is Yes
“For too long, our nation’s laws and regulations have stifled our workplaces. Dennis
Bakke holds fast to the belief that when American workers are given freedom and
responsibility, they are more productive, creative, loyal, and joyful. He wonderfully
details the creation of an organization that recognizes the shared values of all the
stakeholders—owners, management, employees, and the community.”
–U.S. Senator Don Nickles
“For 20 years, as co-founder, president, then chief executive officer, Dennis Bakke
rode hard that great thoroughbred of American corporations, AES. And then
she stumbled. To see her at her best, to see her down, was in fact to see the same
animal—the most originally wired, finely wrought athlete to run the distance.
Joy at Work is Dennis Bakke’s brilliant making of the beast.”
–David Bradley, chairman and owner of Atlantic Media
“Can a corporation do God’s work—for its employees, its customers, and for
society—and still make a profit? Dennis Bakke showed as a CEO that it definitely
can and, in this compelling book, he shows how every company might.”
–Morton Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call and Fox News contributor
Joy at Work
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PREFACE