Organizational culture reflects the personality of an organization by encompassing the assumptions, values and norms of organizational members and their behaviors. Culture normally echoes the prevailing management style as well as the established organizational structure. Many organizations spend time on developing appropriate models that could build a positive organizational culture. They envision developing a culture that benefits employees and customers and helps their businesses grow and prosper.
Changing organizational culture is the toughest task an organization ever undertakes because it requires organizational alignment and strong strategic consensus. Therefore, when effective leaders take on the task, they are determined to make real progress by focusing on common goals, quality of interaction and quality of information, strategic flexibility and clear communication channels.
Building a winning performance culture and having a shared direction is a two-fold procedure. From one side are the employees who need to understand the company’s direction and the role they play in meeting this direction. Holding employee workshops to define a new department’s goals and make sure employees are aligned with organizational culture, is a key element of having a shared vision. In addition, employees create personal commitment statements that are translated into concrete actions with specific outcomes in order to reach departmental and organizational goals. They also hold training sessions on how to give feedback and improve their personal productivity.
From the other side are the managers, who must able to inspire high-performing employees.
In organizations that favor winning performance culture, at least 250 managers per year, from senior executives to team leaders, complete a special training program to help them understand how to build a winning performance culture. It’s a part of a broader learning curriculum, oriented towards developing management skills. Managers are measured on how effectively they engage employees and these employee engagement scores become part of their annual performance evaluation. Managers have also access to a comprehensive set of recognition programs, designed to recognize and reward top performers from individuals, leaders and team who display high performance behaviors and champion a winning performance culture.
Organizations need to create an environment in which poor people management would be unacceptable. Typically, organizations consist of two systems: the legitimate system, which involves the formal hierarchy, rules and communication patterns within the organization and the shadow system, which consists of hallway conversations, grapevines, and informal procedures for getting things done. Although in the traditional management theory, the shadow organization is often ignored as it lies behind the scenes, organizations need to take a holistic view and use every chance they can to influence people’s behavior. In that way, they will avoid unnecessary stress, insecurity and inertia.
In addition, they need to develop modern systems of performance execution by figuring out the best ways to simplify processes, reduce bureaucracy and get things done. Finally, they need to invest in human capital, which means providing new learning opportunities, developing leaders and embracing diversity. cmveletrhy.