Most HR managers intuitively know the self-reinforcing relationship between employees and customers: if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.

But let’s take this one step further: Do happy employees ensure organizational success?

The answer is: it depends. It depends on a lot of factors, such as the utility and value of a company’s offering, market demand, and competition, to name a few. If a company offers a product or service that doesn’t meet market needs and/or has little real (or perceived) value, or if competitors are doing a much better job at satisfying the market, then a company won’t be able to stay in business for long no matter how happy its employees are.

The answer also depends on an organization’s business model. The marketplace can change rapidly, putting pressure even on those firms with happy employees and customers. And some companies with a toxic workplace culture do well in spite of themselves (sad, but true).

So let’s get real – sometimes bad things happen to good companies, and sometimes good things happen to bad companies. But which type of organization would you and your employees prefer to be associated with?

Information courtesy of Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care