July 2, 2007 |
Posted By Patrick J. Lamb |
0 Comments |
Some Insights Into The Role Of Culture In Firm Performance
I have written many times about the central role culture plays in achieving, well, anything of consequence. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Darci Riesenhuber, a Transformation Architect with tompeters!company, has written a terrific article in the July Tom Peters Times about the importance of culture. Here is a highlight:
"... employees will behave in accordance with their values, regardless of your business strategy. Hence, the reason culture must be aligned with strategy. If, for example, your aggressive, high growth business strategy creates an unstable environment that requires individuals to take risks, an individual valuing stability, security and consistency will feel anxious and begin to seek ways to remedy their discomfort. In some cases, they are able to adapt and learn the behaviors necessary to succeed. In others, the personal transformation is simply not possible and they fail. The best way to avoid this is to determine "fit" during the selection process. However, just as your strategy changes throughout the life of your business, so must your culture. Changing your culture is not impossible, as many would believe. You just have to carefully evaluate and adjust the factors that influence culture, such as your systems (reward, IT), structure (reporting, physical), policies, HR practices (selection, training), communication, leadership-style, etc ... As Tom says, "Culture change, that elusive goal, can be achieved one project at a time."
There is an old saying about the boat moving fastest when everyone is pulling their oar in the same direction. If there is not cultural alignment within a firm, it is hard to see how it can operate at its best.
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