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The Power ofCulture-Driving Today's Organisation Series Editors Carolyn Barker and Robyn Coy Sydney New York San Francisco Auckland Bogotá Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi San Juan Singapore Tokyo Toronto Text © 2004 Australian Institute of Management Illustrations and design © 2004 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd Additional owners of copyright are acknowledged on the Acknowledgments page. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher, marked for the attention of the Permissions Editor, at the address below. Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge copyright material. Should any infringement have occurred accidentally the authors and publishers tender their apologies. Copying for educational purposes Under the copying provisions of the Copyright Act, copies o
Chapter 1: The Power of Culture:Turning the Soft Stuff into Business Advantage About the author Carolyn Taylor Carolyn grew up in a family typical of the fast disappearing culture of the English aristocracy. In rebellion, she set out for Australia to prove that she could reinvent herself without familiar cultural artefacts. Along the way she became entranced by the burgeoning personal development movement, and taught personal growth across the world. In 1985, she formed Corporate Vision to harness the thinking, values and behaviours of people to an organisational cause. The Corporate Vision team discovered first-hand the profound influence of culture on individuals and teams. They concluded that investment in culture was a key plank of organisational performance and built their expertise around this premise. Corporate Vision is a pioneer of culture work in Australia. Carolyn has personally worked with the top teams of many blue-chip organisations, both here and overseas. She has a repu
Chapter 1: The Power of Culture:Turning the Soft Stuff into Business Advantage
Executive summary Culture can be a significant competitive advantage and it is not easily replicable. However, most organisations are not investing in culture at the level that will set them apart from their competitors. To build the case for investing in cultural improvement requires a thorough understanding of the cost of the current culture. The business case is strong in the areas of speed, accountability, rigour, collaboration and attractiveness to customers and employees, and it is in these areas that the link between culture and performance is most easily demonstrated. Culture is the result of messages that are received about what is really valued. People align their behaviour to these messages in order to fit in. Changing a culture requires a systematic and planned change to these messages, whose sources are behaviours, symbols and systems. This chapter selects three highly desirable cultures (Performance, Customer-Centric and One-Team), describes each, shows their impact on pe
Introduction I have had the privilege of working with organisations in the sphere of human behaviour for over 18 years. When we started our consulting company, Corporate Vision, in the mid-1980s, leadership was a term rarely used in a management context in Australia. Culture was associated with the arts or tribes in New Guinea and people were just starting to consider vision and values in an organisational context. Eighteen years is a long time, and yet the development of methodologies to establish culture as a competitive advantage is a discipline still in its infancy. Compare it to the journey of marketing since the 1960s, when organisations first grasped the benefits of understanding and influencing the behaviour of their customers. There is much more to come in the culture space. Culture poses some particular challenges that make it a harder path than it first appears and necessitate an investment of time, money and resources. However, because it is a hard path, it is also difficul
What is culture?This is the definition that we use at Corporate Vision: Culture is what is created from the messages that are received about how people are expected to behave in your organisation. We are tribal animals; we are hard-wired to fit within our tribe. We read the signals about what it takes to fit in, and we adapt our behaviour accordingly. If we absolutely cannot do this, we either leave the tribe, or the tribe throws us out. These signals-the messages we receive-come from many sources, and most are non-verbal. To get a sense of how messages are picked up, imagine a little boy born in Italy. By the time this child is five years old, he is unmistakably Italian-his gestures, his expectations, his expressions, how he treats women, how he treats food, what he thinks about his home and his possessions. How did that occur? Somehow, along the way, this child picked up signals about how to be, and these signals were different from those picked up by, for example, an English child.
Performance enhancement: the business case for culturalchange The business case for cultural change escalates when the benefits extend beyond ‘making this a nicer place to work'. In the past, the human resources section of an organisation was often given responsibility for dealing with the ‘issue' of culture. This is possibly why there seems to be a belief within the business community that culture is the ‘soft and fuzzy stuff' that we do in addition to running the real business. Wrong! Your organisation's culture is involved every time you make a decision. It is your organisation's culture that causes: your projects to run over budget your strategy never to be implemented your customers to get frustrated and walk away your business to fail to see a major threat until it knocks you over. Culture is your business, not something you have on the side. Culture influences what we value and what we believe is important. It influences how we feel, and our motivation-it is either motivating or
Focusing on the right cultural opportunityOver the years, I have studied many cultural change efforts, both successes and failures. A key differentiator has been specificity (or lack of it) about what is required, and why. When approaching cultural change or enhancement, it is natural to start with something of a ‘wish list' of desired cultural attributes for the organisation. To be successful, however, it is necessary to focus on the areas of greatest opportunity for your organisation. There are many opportunities for cultural focus. There are business opportunities in each, and each has different levers for change, a distinct business case and a particular mind-set. Over the years, however, Corporate Vision has found that there are three types of cultures that can be developed by most organisations, and that can result in considerable business gain. We have given them the titles: Performance Culture Customer-Centric Culture One-Team Culture. They are summarised in table 1.3 and are d
Three desirable cultures The next sections are designed to help you gain a clearer picture of the three cultures. As you read about the cultures, consider how difficult each would be to implement in your organisation. Consider what you have in place already that will facilitate the process, and which culture will contribute the most to the success of your business strategy. The Performance Culture This can be defined as: A culture in which individuals, teams and the organisation achieve what they agree to achieve. Other words that can be used for this are: accountability, achievement, focus, speed, delivery, discipline, meritocracy and rigour. In a Performance Culture people deliver on their promises. When they say ‘I can do this', whether it is to meet an annual target or fulfil a commitment to complete a report by Friday, it occurs. Rewards and consequences are aligned to delivery. The results are speed and focus because people are conscious of what they commit to; they assess risks
Becoming a values-driven organisation Every time I have the privilege of working in an organisation that exemplifies one of the three cultures I have described, I am overwhelmed by how utterly different it is from the vast majority. These organisations are simply playing a completely different game. What is the difference? They are values-driven. As stated earlier, when building a culture, you must change behaviours, symbols and systems in such a way that the existing messages about ‘what is expected around here' are altered forever. In this way a new value-set emerges, and you have built a new tribal norm. Creating a culture that is a competitive advantage requires a shift in the hierarchy of values amongst a critical mass of people in positions of influence and power, underpinned by a simultaneous change in enough of the messages so that everyone in the organisation realises that things really have changed. Once this occurs, the culture change process speeds up incredibly. For a whil
How to start the journeyTo plan and implement a journey to establish your culture as a competitive advantage, I recommend you focus initially on two key steps: understand the role of the top team and get their buy-in to the process undertake a cultural diagnostic. The role of the top team Significant culture change can only occur when the behaviour and mind-set of the top team changes. Culture change is not something that you can drive from the bottom up. Organisations are hierarchical by nature. Those at the top have more power than the rest, and their opinions, decisions and behaviour impacts on more people than those in any other part of the organisation. Culture is about messages. People read messages and adapt their behaviour to fit what they see as the required norm. What creates the required norm? More than anything else, it is the behaviour of the boss. After all, in a hierarchy the boss ultimately has the power to determine his or her people's future career advancement, remune
ConclusionCulture is your business, whether you choose to focus on it or not. Your organisation's reputation, and yours, can be damaged by superficial attempts to change the culture. If you are not sure your organisation is really ready to put in the investment of time, money and priority necessary for cultural change, then investigate the business case and test the resolve of your top team. If after this stage you conclude that it is not right for you, do yourself and your people a favour and walk away from it. There are moments in time when you will have enough of the ingredients in place to do culture well. In this chapter I have sought to provide you with a picture that will enable you to consider that decision for your organisation. If you embark on the journey, you will find it the most satisfying, frustrating, confusing, personally challenging and thrilling experience of your career. Along the way, your customers, owners and employees will be pretty damned pleased as well. I wis
For further exploration J Collins & I Porras, Built to last, Random House, London, 1988. The most compelling of the books that seek to definitively link culture to performance. N Tichy & S Sherman, Take control of your destiny or someone else will, Doubleday/Currency, New York, 1993. The journey of the cultural change process in GE, as told by the consultant who helped them do it. A Roddick, Body and soul, Crown Publishers Inc, Great Britain, 1991. The story of Anita Roddick, a woman who worked it all out as she went along. The result was The Body Shop, one of the first companies to take a very public values-based stand. R Prebble, I've been thinking, Seaview Publishing, Auckland, 1996. A serious attempt by a government (that of New Zealand) to change the culture of a country. T Parks, An Italian education, Random House, London, 1996. An important influence on Corporate Vision's model of culture being about messages received, this book documents an English father watching his son growi
Acknowledgments Material for this chapter is drawn from the years of experience of the large Corporate Vision team of consultants, whose work on major cultural change projects with clients all over the world has taught us what we know about how it is done. All tables, models and frameworks in this chapter are reproduced from Corporate Vision's Culture Planning Tools. They appear with the permission of Corporate Vision Pty Ltd, the copyright holders. The frameworks in this chapter are the work of many members of our team. Special thanks to my business partner, Liza Spence, for her input.
Notes T Parks, An Italian education, Random House, London, 1996. J Collins & J Porras, Built to last, Random House, London, 1994.
Chapter 2: Cultural Change Agent:Leading Transformational Change About the author Terry Lee, BA, BSpEd, MEd, MAPS Terry Lee is the director of Leadership Psychology Australia. He was formerly Head of Leadership at the Mt Eliza Business School in Melbourne, where he ran their flagship program-the Advanced Management Program (a four week residential for senior leaders from around the world). He is now an associate of the business school and conducts the Strategic Leadership Program and the Mt Eliza Business Leadership Program, which he also directs in association with the University of Queensland. Terry has worked with a wide range of senior leadership executive teams on vision and values workshops, senior leadership team effectiveness, values-driven culture change projects, and culture and strategy alignment projects. This has included work with senior teams from Cisco Systems (recent winner of ‘Best Employer to Work for in Australia 2003'), Bunnings Warehouse (acknowledged culture lead
Chapter 2: Cultural Change Agent:Leading Transformational Change
Executive summary It is now well established that the performance of any organisation is, in large measure, a reflection of its culture. And it can be shown that the most significant determinant of that culture will be the leadership style of the managers at all levels of the organisation. In a highly competitive, rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable world, organisations with a traditional (hierarchical and bureaucratic) culture no longer produce anywhere close to the results required. It is also clear that such cultures are extremely resilient and, in fact, highly resistant to change. Leaders who attempt to change a traditional culture often find it to be a difficult and highly frustrating process. In traditional cultures, it is possible to produce incremental change (for example, through a continuous improvement or traditional change management program). For dramatic change and dramatic performance improvement, however, something more substantial is required-a transformati
Introduction The organisations of today are more like the organisations of the past than the organisations that are yet to come. Basic organisational models have not changed greatly over the last century. That this is so is a testament to the enduring power of the hierarchical and bureaucratic organisations that were introduced at the beginning of the industrial revolution. These organisational models have stood the test of time and have resisted change. It is remarkable that methods originally designed to handle the influx of low-skilled workers into the workforce over 200 years ago are still prominent, despite the dramatic changes in the economic, social and political environment of the past 50 years. In 2002, the researchers Bartlett and Ghoshal analysed the challenges facing modern corporations. They found that, although the strategic challenges today are more complex and occur more frequently than ever before, these challenges are ‘acted on faster than the transformations needed t
The new performance standardIn a highly competitive world, where performance standards have soared, organisations can no longer afford to deploy people who give only the required effort, do only that which is necessary and do only what they are told to do. This is a significant under-utilisation of human potential. No team of players can compete successfully if its members contribute only that which they are required to. Today, our organisations are like sporting teams with salary caps; we can no longer put more players in the team and on the field. Instead, we must get more out of the people we have by finding ways to develop their potential, by helping them to play more effectively as a team, and by confronting whatever it is that limits their performance. Success comes when people give discretionary effort; that is, effort above and beyond that required by their job description. High performance organisations secure discretionary effort from their people by securing high levels of c
Culture and corporate performanceCorporate culture and cultural change are hot topics in business today. The issue of culture has risen to prominence because of the considerable body of evidence that now firmly establishes the relationship between culture and performance outcomes. Over the past decade, substantial evidence has accumulated demonstrating that, although strategy might create opportunity and the point of difference for an organisation, it is culture that will deliver on strategy's promise. Much of the contemporary interest in corporate culture and performance was kick-started by the work of Kotter and Heskett[7] from the Harvard Business School. In the early 1990s, they presented compelling evidence that organisations that have strong and adaptive cultures-that is, cultures that are highly inclusive, where people feel strongly that they are part of a team, and yet at the same time are adaptable and amenable to change-significantly outperform those that do not. Their report
Strategy or culture?But what of strategy? And which is more important, strategy or culture? If you take research by Mike West[10], from the UK's Aston Business School, comparing the impact of strategy and culture on both performance and productivity, then the key variable for improving both is clearly culture. Over an eight-year period, West examined 100 firms, mostly from the manufacturing industry. He reported that 17% of the variance in their performance was attributable to culture, while strategy accounted for a mere 2% of the variance. What this means is that merely having a great strategy will not improve business performance much. What really increases both performance and productivity is a culture that will deliver on the strategy. Sure, there are factors such as market conditions and competitive pressures that affect outcomes, but of the factors that we can control, the evidence shows that culture is a major contributing factor in competitive performance. In his recent best-se
AlignmentIf an organisation's vision is to be realised, then its strategy and culture must be aligned. They, in turn, must align with the attitudes and abilities of the individual employees who are deployed to implement strategy. The men and women who provide the goods and services to customers and clients must translate strategy and culture into meaningful action throughout the organisation. For example, a customer service strategy is fairly meaningless without service people who are skilled in service delivery and passionate about being of service. This is illustrated in figure 2.2. Figure 2.2: Alignment model The high-level strategic view must be consistent with the view on the ground. For the vision to become a collective aspiration that provides direction at both the macro and the micro levels, it must be powerful enough to provide guidance to the group as well as to the individuals in the field. Patrick Lencioni, in his article, ‘Make your values mean something', put it well when
Transformational changeTransformational change seeks substantial changes in outcomes in the areas that today are critical for success-performance, commitment, retention, enthusiasm, initiative and accountability. In general, there is an acceptance (at least at the intellectual level) that, when it comes to running our organisations and managing our people, ‘more of the same' is not sustainable in a world of rapid change and steep learning curves. It is clear that traditional organisational models must be replaced, but it is also clear that these models are strong, resilient and difficult to change. Over the last few decades, many change initiatives achieved very little in the way of increased sustainable performance. Change management did little more than tinker at the edges and restructuring invariably failed to affect the performance or commitment of the individuals concerned. Although the strategy was often clear (for example, lift customer service, boost innovation or increase know
Cultural stages I see transformational cultural change as a journey with four stages; the end result being a revitalised organisation. All organisations are at one or other of the stages (for some, different parts of the organisation are at different stages of the process). I describe them as: Stage 1-the Administrative Culture Stage 2-the Performance Culture Stage 3-the Learning Culture Stage 4-the Unique Culture. The strategies and characteristics of each are summarised in table 2.1. Table 2.1: The four cultural stages Stage Administrative Performance Learning Unique Strategy more of the same better smarter different Characteristic rules goals knowledge ideas Values compliance achievement innovation imagination Leadership directive coaching inspiring visionary So where do these cultures come from and what are the constituents that need to be changed to enable the organisation to revitalise itself by moving through the stages? The Administrative Culture In the past strategies didn't c
Transformational pathwaysThe majority of organisations seem to progress through this sequence of change. For most, establishing a Performance Culture comes before the innovation of a Learning Culture, and both are a precursor to the highly distinctive Unique Culture. It should be noted that some organisations, such as entrepreneurial and start-up businesses, may progress through the stages in the opposite direction. That is, they start with a Unique Culture and progress through the stages to an Administrative Culture. For example: A visionary starts a new enterprise or team. She attracts adherents and harnesses their imagination and ideas (Unique Culture). However, she struggles to operationalise her vision and so passes it on to the innovators in her enterprise (Learning Culture). They refine the vision and find ways to bring it successfully to market. They in turn pass it along to the managers in the team who will improve efficiencies and effectiveness (Performance Culture). Finally,
Leading cultural transformationOrganisations tend to move through the various stages of culture as their strategies shift in response to, or in anticipation of, changes in their external environment. The speed of this process is related to the degree of turbulence in the environment, the nature of the competition they face and the expectations their stakeholders have. Usually the urgency for change, and the complexity of the issues addressed, leaves it beyond the scope of a mere change exercise and puts it into the province of transformation, with all of the associated implications for leadership, culture and values. What type of leader can successfully take on the challenge of transformational culture change? It certainly needs a leader with courage and persistence, but it also requires a leader who has what I call ‘reciprocal openness'. This is a leader who is open with others, candid and tells it like it is. This is also a leader who is open to others, can be influenced, shows a gen
ConclusionToday there are great expectations placed on leaders to transform cultures. Apart from strategic necessity and competitive reality, much of this is driven by the new workforce and, most particularly, by the talented workers who are so keenly sought by global companies. Starting with Generation X, but now generally demanded by large and growing sections of the workforce, employees no longer respond to the management techniques so long tolerated by the baby boomers. Members of the new workforce are more willing to leave when their basic needs are not met, and are much less likely to perform for leaders whom they do not respect. They want to work with inspiring leaders who share knowledge. And they want to work for organisations that are genuinely admired and successful. The expectations of all stakeholders, whether they are investors, customers, employees, the government or the community, have risen dramatically. Today, there is a clear realisation that, although it is strategi
For further exploration M Buckingham & C Coffman, First, break all the rules, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1999. Buckingham and Coffman are from the Gallup Organisation. This is a refreshing look at organisational culture and the leadership that drives it. J Collins & J Porras, Built to last, Harper Collins, New York, 1994. Collins and Porras are from the Stanford Business School. This book stimulated much of the debate about culture and performance and is a classic text. S Ghoshal & C Bartlett, The individualized corporation, Heinemann, London, 1998. The authors are from the London and Harvard Business Schools. This book provides a transformational framework and a number of case studies. G Hubbard, The first eleven, John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane, 2002. Hubbard is from Mt Eliza Business School. This is a well-written and comprehensive research report into what are described as ‘winning organisations' in Australia. M Seligman, Authentic happiness, Random House, Sydney, 2002. Martin Seligma
AcknowledgmentsThe following appear with the kind permission of Terry Lee & Associates Pty Ltd: Figure 2.2: Alignment model Figure 2.3: Bunnings' leadership model Table 2.1: The four cultural stages. The following appear with the kind permission of Leadership Psychology Australia: Figure 2.1: How leaders drive towards the vision Figure 2.4: Pathways to transform culture.
Notes C Bartlett & S Ghoshal, ‘Building competitive advantage through people', Sloan Management Review, Winter, 2002, pp. 34-41. ibid. D Harrington, H Milers, A Watkins, A Williamson & D Grady, ‘Putting people values to work', The McKinsey Quarterly, no. 3, 1996, p. 163. J McFarlane, from a personal conversation with the author, July 2001. ibid. L Gerstner, Who says elephants can't dance, Harper Business, Sydney, 2002. J Kotter & J Heskett, Corporate culture and performance, Free Press, New York, 1992. J Collins & J Porras, Built to last, Harper Collins, New York, 1994. D Denison & A Mishra, ‘Towards a theory of organisational culture and effectiveness', Organisation Science, vol. 6, no. 2, 1995, pp. 204-23. M Patterson, M West & R Lawthom, ‘Do employee attitudes predict company performance?', The Foundation for Manufacturing and Industry Brief, November 1997, pp. 1-3. Collins & Porras, op. cit. P Lencioni, ‘Make your values mean something', Harvard Business Review, July 2002, p. 8. Bu
Chapter 3: Unwritten Ground Rules:The Way We Really Do Things Around Here About the author Steve Simpson, M Ed Admin (Alta), CSP Steve Simpson heads up Keystone Management Services. He is an author and speaker who has addressed audiences in Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa. Steve has been accredited by the National Speakers Association of Australia as a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), the highest international speaker recognition, which is held by only 43 people in Australasia. He has featured at two World Conferences on Customer Service Management in the USA, where he was rated as one of the top ten speakers. He has recently spoken at the European Conference on Customer Management in London and the joint International Customer Service Association/HDI Conference in Las Vegas. He is the creator of the UGRs® concept and has written two books and numerous articles. He was an invited member of an international research team studying stand
Chapter 3: Unwritten Ground Rules:The Way We Really Do Things Around Here
Executive summary It is now widely acknowledged that a corporation's culture is the key determinant of its organisational performance. Paradoxically, at a time when most managers recognise the importance of their culture, few understand it in simple and practical terms. This chapter proposes that the unwritten ground rules (UGRs®) of a company constitute its culture. UGRs are people's perceptions of ‘the way we do things around here'. UGRs are compelling in so far as they dictate acceptable and unacceptable practices within a company. Surprisingly, they are rarely, if ever, discussed. Early research into UGRs has shown that they are most often negatively oriented. When this is the case, the overall performance of an organisation is severely inhibited. Two broad approaches to cultural change are identified in this chapter. The first, and by far the most common approach, is the indirect one involving implementation of a range of customer-related and employee-friendly initiatives. This is
Introduction The concept of corporate culture is hot. The combination of a variety of influences, including more than a decade of downsizing, acquisitions and mergers; a heightened focus on the importance of corporate governance; and a number of large corporate collapses, has caused managers to realise that culture is the key to their organisation's future. This heightened awareness of the importance of culture should not come as a surprise. There is now ample empirical evidence of the substantial business and people benefits that flow from improvements to a company's culture.[1] What is surprising, however, is the general lack of understanding about what corporate culture really means. I believe this is compounded by many academic and business writers, who have generated a broad awareness of organisational culture, but have provided little in terms of practical strategies to improve it. Even worse, their often theoretical and lengthy definitions of corporate culture have contributed t
How are UGRs created?UGRs arise from the observations that employees make of the actions of senior managers and how people in the organisation react to events, customers, suppliers, other staff and managers. Senior managers play an important role in creating UGRs. Whenever there is a perception that there is a difference between what the managers say and what they do, negative UGRs will prevail. For example, a senior manager may be heard to say that ‘customers are our top priority'. If the manager is subsequently heard to be talking disparagingly to a customer, a UGR will be established such as: ‘Around here, the company is not serious about customer service as even the bosses don't worry about it'. UGRs are also created as a consequence of behaviour at regular events. For example, if people arrive late for meetings without consequence, a UGR is then established that says: ‘Around here, a 9 am meeting really means a 9.15 am meeting'. A more problematic UGR may also arise: ‘Around here,
The power of UGRsI experienced the very real power of UGRs when I was asked to give a presentation on UGRs to the 20 most senior people, including the CEO, of a relatively large organisation. Prior to this session, I had given presentations to many groups over the years, including one to an audience of 1000 people which was successful despite my nerves. On this occasion however, in front of only 20 people, I totally lost my confidence 15 minutes into the presentation. I became so nervous that I had to stop. For the whole of those first 15 minutes every person in the room, including the CEO, had their eyes fixed firmly on the table in front of them. This was something I had never experienced before! I stopped my presentation. I gathered my thoughts. Then I summoned up some courage and said: ‘I think I'll stop my presentation here. To be honest, I'm picking up a UGR in this room right now. I understand that I may be wrong in my perception, but I'm seeing everyone's eyes fixed firmly on t
Research into UGRsIn recent years, the concept of UGRs has developed considerably. An important milestone was a joint initiative, involving my company, Keystone Management Services, Professor Geoff Soutar from the University of Western Australia and Professor Alma Whitely from Curtin University, to undertake research into UGRs in five Australian organisations.[4] The research into UGRs was based around the use of the Group Support Systems (GSS) technology that enables up to ten people to simultaneously enter their responses to a given question via an individual keyboard and monitor. Once entered, their responses are transferred to a central computer. Anonymity of response is ensured through the GSS, which does not link comments to individuals. The first phase of the research provided respondents with five typical yet demanding service scenarios. For each of the scenarios, the respondents were invited to provide the official organisational policy for dealing with that situation, followe
Using UGRs to change cultureIn broad terms there are two options available to managers to improve their culture. I call these the indirect and the direct approaches. By far the most common approach is the indirect approach. The indirect approach to cultural change When the indirect approach is deployed, organisations may mention the term ‘culture', but the strategies and tactics do not address the culture directly. The indirect approach involves adopting special initiatives or strategies in the belief that the culture will improve indirectly. Recently, Customer Magazine, an Australian journal dedicated to customer service, featured an article on organisational culture entitled: ‘How do you develop a service culture within your organisation?'[6] The article summarised interviews with four managers from different organisations. The content of the interviews is typical of the indirect approach to cultural change. The article provided a summary of useful strategies that each organisation h
Things that can go wrongI genuinely believe that, used appropriately, UGRs can be a powerful tool for effective change. However, the concept of UGRs is no ‘silver bullet'. Changing the culture of an organisation is difficult. It is a slow process that is often iterative, and many good managers have tried and experienced limited success. From experience, I know that many things can go wrong when using UGRs for cultural change. Some of the major roadblocks to success include introduction challenge; positive UGR overload; leaving the UGRs out to dry and isolated UGRs. Introduction challenge The way in which UGRs are introduced to management and staff is crucial. The management team may need to see the empirical evidence that there is a strong relationship between corporate performance and culture. Then their hearts need to be won about the potential that UGRs have for improving the existing culture. At a staff level, there may be degrees of cynicism to be overcome, particularly if there h
ConclusionMany managers have recognised that culture is the key aspect of their leadership, but because of a variety of factors, they have felt powerless to change it in any substantial way. Most academic and business texts talk of culture in such complex ways that it is not surprising that managers feel a sense of impotence when it comes to identifying practical strategies that will make a positive impact on their culture. In the knowledge that a team's culture is not a complex, academic and theoretical concept, groups can now work on their culture in a direct, positive and productive way. Through using the UGRs concept, there are now some wonderful opportunities for organisations to profit-in the broadest sense-from a dramatically improved culture. Some tips for using UGRs to change culture Remember that people cannot manage what they don't understand. The concept of UGRs enables people to understand culture in simple and practical terms. When introducing people to UGRs, make sure yo
For further exploration T Dean & A Kennedy, The new corporate cultures, Texere Publishing Pty Ltd, London, 2000. Provides empirical evidence of the impact of corporate culture, within the context of more than a decade of downsizing, mergers and re-engineering. S Simpson, UGRs: cracking the corporate culture code, Narnia House Publishing, Queensland, 2000. The first and only book written to date on UGRs.
AcknowledgmentsEarlier versions of some of the material contained in this chapter have appeared in S Simpson, ‘Managing the invisible: unwritten ground rules of corporate culture', Customer Relationship Management, 2001, pp. 16-19.
Notes See, for example, T Deal & A Kennedy, The new corporate cultures, Texere Publishing Pty Ltd, London, 2000. W Ouchi & A Johnson, ‘Types of organisation control and their relationship to emotional well-being', Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 23, 1978, pp. 292-312. E Noelle-Neumann, The spiral of silence: public opinion-our social skin, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1984. S Simpson, ‘Managing the invisible: unwritten ground rules of corporate culture', Customer Relationship Management, 2001. pp. 16-19. E Schein, Organisational culture and leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1992, p. 5. Australian Customer Service Association, ‘How do you develop a service of culture within your organisation?', Customer Magazine, June 1999, pp. 24-7.
Chapter 4: Building HealthyOrganisations: Managing the Emotional Aspects of Workplace Culture About the authors Neal M Ashkanasy, PhD Neal Ashkanasy is Professor of Management in the UQ Business School, University of Queensland. He came into academic life after an 18-year career in engineering and management and has since worked in the schools of psychology, commerce, engineering, management and business. He has research interests in leadership, organisational culture and business ethics and is currently focusing on the role of emotions in organisational life. He has published in international journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive and Journal of Management; and co-edited three books (The handbook of organisational culture and climate, Sage, 2000; Emotions in the workplace: theory, research and practice, Quorum, 2000; Managing emotions in the workplace, ME Sharpe, 2002). Neal is on the editorial boards of leading journals such as Academy of Manag
Chapter 4: Building HealthyOrganisations: Managing the Emotional Aspects of Workplace Culture
Executive summary Organisational culture and climate, although similar in some respects, are distinctly different. ‘Organisational culture' refers to deeply imbued cultural values held by the members of the organisation, while ‘organisational climate' represents the collective mood of organisational members. Nonetheless, both phenomena are founded in the way organisational members feel about their organisation and in their emotional reactions and states. In this chapter we trace this association, starting with a description of the neurobiology of emotion in individuals and working up to the idea of culture. We describe how emotions are a part of human physiology, but are not always under conscious control. Employees react to ‘affective events'-the uplifts and hassles of working life-and their reactions determine the way they subsequently think and behave. These reactions to events are also influenced by personal qualities, including personality and ‘emotional intelligence'-the way that
Introduction Although emotion has always been present in the workplace, you would not know it by reading much of the management literature produced over the past half-century. The view that emerged in conjunction with the ‘modern era' was that organisations are cold, rational places, where there is no place for the expression of emotion. All emotional impulses are to be suppressed. Not only was this happening in the workplace; organisational consultants and scholars were encouraged to perpetuate this idea in their writings. Organisational interventions were designed to improve the bottom line, and scholars who studied emotions in organisations were considered to be out of the mainstream of current thought. This has resulted in a distorted and unreal view of organisations, possibly even contributing to the recent well-publicised corporate failures in Australia and the USA. To counter this, a small cadre of scholars and practitioners has been striving to reverse the trend, and to re-focu
Emotions in organisational culture and climate ‘Organisational culture' and ‘organisational climate' are among the most misunderstood terms in the management literature, and are often confused. So it is appropriate to make a clear distinction between them at the outset. Organisational culture is based on deeply ingrained beliefs, values and fundamental assumptions about the nature of the organisation, and about the roles of managers and employees. It is a relatively stable phenomenon. Organisational climate embodies the collective mood of organisational members toward their jobs, the organisation and management. It is less stable over time than culture. In terms of the role of emotions in organisations, noted organisational culture scholar Edgar Schein makes it clear that the assumptions that underlie an organisational culture are associated with deep feelings.[1] Similarly, organisational climate is closely linked to the idea of emotional climate, defined by sociologist Joseph De Rive
The neurobiology of emotions One of the reasons for the recent upsurge of interest in the study of emotions in psychology and sociology, as well as management and organisational behaviour, is the major advances that have been made in our understanding of the neurobiology of emotion[9]-the basic electro-chemical processes that take place in the human brain. An understanding of this neurobiology can also help us to understand behaviour in organisational settings. At the centre of our emotional brain lies the limbic system, located at the base of the brain. The limbic system comprises three main components: the (anterior) cingulate cortex, two amygdalae and the hypothalamus. Recent research has demonstrated that other parts of the brain also play a role in determining our emotional feelings and states, including numerous neural pathways that connect nuclei throughout the human brain. As research advances, our picture of the emotional brain becomes more and more complex, so it is not surpr
Affective events Emotions can be influenced by what are called ‘affective events', where ‘affect' is a broad term that encompasses both mood and emotion. Emotion refers to specific reactions to events, such as anger following an unfair decision, sadness over a loss, or joy following a successful outcome. Mood, on the other hand, is more diffuse and longer-lasting. Sometimes, we are not even sure why we are in a particular mood. Of course, mood and emotion are closely linked-we are more likely to display positive emotion if in a happy mood and vice versa. In general terms, affect is seen to be either positive (emotion or mood) or negative, and can vary from weak to strong levels of arousal. Affective events therefore constitute the positive ‘uplifts' and negative ‘hassles' that people experience as day-to-day occurrences. They are largely responsible for engendering the types of unconscious emotional reactions and mood states that we described in the previous section and that are illust
Personality and emotionA number of personality factors or dispositions can also play a role in the way that individual employees react to and deal with their emotional states. Mary was always smiling and laughing at work. She could always see the positive side of any situation, no matter how challenging or difficult it seemed. She was never angry or frustrated, even when her work colleagues felt this way in light of their work requirements. Mary also seemed to offer more suggestions and more creative solutions because she did not let the negativity of others or the situation distract her from her task at hand. While emotions and mood are relatively transient phenomena, ‘trait affect' is a personal disposition. Some people tend to be bubbly and pleasant under any circumstances, like Mary in the example above. Others always seem to be in a grumpy mood. This predisposition has been studied extensively by David Watson and Auke Tellegen, who proposed that affect can be described in terms of
Emotional intelligence Another personal quality that affects the way people react to and deal with emotion is emotional intelligence. It is different from the ideas of personality we have already described in that it represents an ability, rather than a predisposition, to think or act in a certain way. Anne described her boss as someone who ‘has his ups and downs', ‘has emotional times' and ‘sometimes rubs people the wrong way' because of this. She said that her boss ‘needed to put up a sign on his door to let people know if he was in a good or bad mood, so they could avoid bearing the brunt of his stress'. Anne half-joked however that ‘he would not be aware of what mood he was in anyway'. As noted earlier, recently emotional intelligence has generated enormous public interest. The concept remains controversial, however, with critics maintaining that it is vaguely defined and probably little more than just a commercially popular name for the Big Five factor ‘neuroticism versus emotiona
Emotions in face-to-face encountersSo far in this chapter, we have discussed the biological bases of emotion, how emotions can vary with the occurrence of affective events and some of the personal factors that play a role in the way that individual employees react to and deal with their emotional states. Organisational members, however, do not work in isolation. It is also important to consider the role of emotions in interpersonal relationships and in group situations. Employees working in a customer service department explained how their job could be really tiring and extremely stressful at times. Ben said that having to be patient and nice to customers all the time was draining. He said that, although he was not doing physical work, he was worn out by the end of a day. For Samantha, her main problem was dealing with angry customers. She said that although she tries to ‘keep in control' while on the telephone with such people, if they are yelling over the phone, she finds it difficul
Emotions in groups and teamsIt goes without saying that in groups-collections of two or more people-the effects that we have already outlined will also be operating. In effect, each member of a group is interacting with each other member, so the processes of emotional display, emotional work and emotional perception are likely to be continuously present; all the more so in teams, where the members are seeking to work collaboratively towards a common goal. Moreover, teams introduce notions of cohesiveness, collective values and leadership that multiply the effects even further. In many ways, teams are cauldrons of emotion, where emotions need to be carefully managed. Even within the seemingly sterile conditions of the operating theatre, research has shown that there is a constant interplay of emotional display and management.[32] Employees in a particular department did not get along. There were continuous arguments between these employees and not much work being completed due to the di
Leadership and emotionIt almost goes without saying that leaders play an important role in expressing, communicating and managing emotions in groups and teams. Adam's manager continually evoked emotional responses from him. Sometimes these emotional responses were negative, due to the manager's misuse of his power-Adam would feel emotions such as fear, terror, anger and loathing. At other times Adam felt positive-his manager aroused high intensity excitement. Here Adam's manager was trying to arouse Adam into a state of frenzy, such that Adam felt so excited he would take hasty actions without thinking. One important aspect of managing the emotions of groups is ‘symbolic management'. Blake Ashforth and Ron Humphrey have proposed that ‘symbolic management involves orchestrating, summarising and elaborating symbols to evoke emotion that can be generalized to organisational ends'.[37] By symbols, Ashforth and Humphrey mean the aspects of the organisation that make organisational life mean
Building a healthy climate and cultureWe have presented the argument that emotions play a central role in organisational behaviour. Yet an analysis of the neurobiology of emotions reveals that people are not always in control of their behaviour and attitudes. In this chapter we have discussed: Affective events-the series of ‘hassles and uplifts' that employees encounter in their daily work-which determine emotional reactions that can, over time, become positive or negative moods that can have both short-term and long-term effects on attitudes such as satisfaction, commitment and productivity. Emotional states that are continually changing, although personality factors and emotional intelligence are relatively stable and play a role in governing the way emotions are felt and displayed. In particular, scholars and consultants alike have promoted emotional intelligence as a panacea to the emotional ills that beset organisational members on a daily basis. Emotions in interpersonal relation
Conclusion We have provided a broad introduction to the role of emotions in creating a healthy organisational climate. Although emotions, and the role they play in determining the way people think and behave in the workplace, have not been a focus of advice to managers in the recent past, the recognition of emotion is leading to a new way of thinking about management. In this chapter, we began with a description of how emotions are processed in the human brain, then discussed how people react to hassles and uplifts in their everyday work life, and the role played by personal factors such as emotional intelligence. We have argued that these processes affect every aspect of organisations, at personal, interpersonal, group and organisation levels. We do not suggest that a healthy emotional climate is easy to achieve. Changing the way people feel about their work life is clearly more difficult than just changing award systems or implementing a training program. Daniel Goleman, among others
For further exploration Emonet (the Emotions in the Workplace Network) This email discussion community has over 400 subscribers worldwide and conducts biannual conferences on this topic. The web site has links to other emotions web sites and to some handy reference lists for further reading. To subscribe, go to <http://www.uq.edu.au/emonet/> Orgcult (the Organisational Culture Caucus) This email discussion community has over 300 subscribers worldwide and is affiliated with the US-based Academy of Management. To subscribe, go to <www.aomonline.org/> select ‘People and Communities', then ‘Listservs'. NM Ashkanasy, W Zerbe & CEJ Härtel (eds), Managing emotions in the workplace, ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2002. This book provides a ‘primer' for managers who want to find our how the latest research into emotions in workplace settings can be applied. The final chapter, in particular, provides a more elaborated list of ‘tools' than we give here. S Fineman, Understanding emotions at work, Sage Pub
Acknowledgments‘Some tips for managing the emotional aspects of workplace culture' is based on the work of: NM Ashkanasy & SD Daus, ‘Emotion in the workplace: the new challenge for managers', Academy of Management Executive, vol. 16, no. 1, 2002, pp. 76-86. NM Ashkanasy, CEJ Härtel & W Zerbe, ‘What are the management tools that come of this?', in NM Ashkanasy, W Zerbe & CEJ Härtel (eds), Managing emotions in the workplace, ME Sharpe, Armonk, New York, 2002, pp. 295-6.
Notes EH Schein, Organizational culture and leadership, 2nd edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1992. J De Rivera, ‘Emotional climate: social structure and emotional dymamics', International Review of Studies of Emotion, vol. 2, 1992, pp. 197-218. NM Ashkanasy & GJ Nicholson, ‘Climate of fear in organizational settings: construct definition, measurement and a test of theory', Australian Journal of Psychology, vol. 55, 2003, pp. 24-9. CL Cooper & S Williams, Creating healthy work organizations, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1994; NM Ashkanasy & SD Daus, ‘Emotion in the workplace: the new challenge for managers', Academy of Management Executive, vol. 16, no. 1, 2002, pp. 76-86. BE Ashforth & RH Humphrey, ‘Emotion in the workplace: a reappraisal', Human Relations, vol. 48, 1995, pp. 97-125. See the ‘For further exploration' section for some of the books now available. D Goleman, Emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, Bantam Books, New York, 1995. N Gibbs, ‘The EQ factor: ne
Chapter 5: Cultural Motivation:Unlocking the Secrets of the Volunteer Organisation About the author Peter Saul, PhD Peter Saul grew up in Sydney's Western Suburbs in a single parent family at a time when this was very much the exception to the family norm. His mother communicated to both her sons her love for learning and her search for a higher purpose and meaning in life. After graduating from Sydney University, he joined IBM as a trainee computer programmer and systems engineer. Two stimulating years later, he commenced his PhD studies to learn more about how people (including himself) make sense of their work lives. Peter established his own consulting practice, Strategic Consulting Group, on the first day of April 1983-an ominous date that many of his friends and colleagues felt portended an early demise to this new career direction. However, he now has over 20 years consulting experience in both the public and private sectors in Australia and overseas. Recent consulting assignmen
Chapter 5: Cultural Motivation:Unlocking the Secrets of the Volunteer Organisation
Executive summary The worlds of business and government are undergoing transformative change. Old organisational forms and leadership/governance structures are collapsing and new ones are tentatively emerging from their ashes. Organisations that have been designed and managed (as if they were machines) on linear, hierarchical principles of organisational ‘engineering' are being replaced by dynamic networks or complex adaptive systems in which individuals and teams choose to come together to achieve important goals. Commonly expressed challenges facing leaders in today's organisations are to ‘do more with less', to ‘win the war for talent' and to promote greater corporate agility and risk-management capability in adapting to a turbulent environment. This chapter examines several examples of organisations that have created powerful cultures that motivate people to volunteer their time, energy and talents beyond the requirements of any formal employment contract. These volunteer organisat
Introduction During this transition period (since the year 2000), optimising business performance is no longer as important as adapting the business to a fundamentally new reality. Adam Hartung and Mark Youngblood[1] There are many signs that businesses and governments are struggling to reinvent themselves and to adapt to discontinuous change in their environments. Over the last few years, many companies have seen their stock prices plunge by 50% or more. Profit margins are being mercilessly squeezed by the growing low-cost enterprises in China and by the increasingly knowledge-based economies of South Korea, Ireland, Singapore, Finland and, of course, the USA. Corporate failures and scandals have caused investor confidence in corporate governance to plummet. Consequently, equity capital is not as readily available for innovative ventures as it was a few years ago. On top of that, younger workers are forcing business to accommodate their values and their expectations of greater balance
Why create a volunteer culture?To answer this question, here are two brief case studies that demonstrate what is possible when you create a true volunteer organisational culture. SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEER ORGANISATION NO. 1 Question: Which business achieves all of the following? It successfully entices thousands of people to volunteer weeks of their discretionary time to help it achieve its objectives. It regularly secures millions of dollars of free media coverage around the world. Its leaders have enormous global political influence. The world's top talent competes passionately to work for the organisation-for free! Public buildings in the nation's largest city carry the organisation's logo. Governments compete to provide the infrastructure for the organisation's next global franchise. Answer: The International Olympic Committee (IOC). In case you think that the IOC's amazing success story is unique, consider this second case study. SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEER ORGANISATION NO. 2 Question: Which
How to create a volunteer organisationThere are a number of critical levers of change that can be used to create a volunteer culture. They can broadly be classified as relating to: strategies, structures and stories complex leadership HR that is built in, not bolted on. The two success stories presented at the start of the chapter (the IOC and Al-Qaeda) will now be examined for clues on how leaders in the public and private sectors can create volunteer organisational cultures. Strategies, structures and stories (or how the IOC attempts to make volunteers of us all) Before proceeding to look at the case of the IOC, let's acknowledge that there has been widespread public disenchantment with certain aspects of the way in which the IOC has, at times, used its wealth and political clout to further its ends. There is nothing in the dynamics of volunteer cultures that insulates them against greed or unethical behaviour. However, for the purposes of this chapter, we are not interested in how s
Applying lessons from successful volunteer organisations At first sight, it may appear that organisations such as the IOC and Al-Qaeda are special or extreme cases and that other organisations cannot use similar tactics in building their own volunteer organisation. However, there are other well-known and successful mythology-rich organisations that have created a culture where people have been motivated to go beyond the minimum requirements of the paid job. Some that have already been mentioned are The Body Shop, IBM and Virgin. Let's examine now how some industries might apply the principles of successful volunteer organisations: Banking. Why couldn't a bank create a mythology built on the long tradition of banking and its role in helping individuals and businesses grow and realise their dreams? The bank could make customers, staff and shareholders aware of the individual, corporate and community dreams that it is helping to realise and invite people to be involved in celebrating mome
Volunteer organisations are not for everyoneAt the end of this chapter there is a list of steps that you can take to get started in transforming your organisation's culture into a volunteer culture. But how do you know if a volunteer culture is right for you or for your business? And what are the risks in developing such a culture? First, let's be clear that this is not an ‘all or none' decision. For example: You might decide that your organisation's competitiveness could benefit from a higher degree of self-organising, intrinsically motivated creativity (that is, volunteering) in some branches or divisions or regions but not in others. You might aspire to nurture volunteering or bottom-up initiatives for some activities (like customer service) but not for others (like workplace safety). You might decide that a volunteer culture would help the business be more profitable or competitive but that you would not personally like to work in such a culture, with its lack of detailed direction
Conclusion Any organisation can benefit from an examination of the organisational examples discussed in this chapter and from deep reflection on the lessons that can be learned from them for creating a volunteer organisation. I have discussed how the forces that nurture a volunteer culture might be inculcated in banks, manufacturing organisations, local government and other sectors, in order to reduce costs, promote knowledge creation and sharing and to enhance organisational agility in anticipating and responding to environmental changes. At the heart of the lessons we have learned about the volunteer organisation is the power that comes from nurturing a sense of historic endeavour, and the passion that can transform mere work into a source of meaning derived from opportunities to give full expression to important aspects of the human spirit. In successful volunteer organisations, leaders have managed to weave a mythology around their mission that makes contributing intrinsically rewa
For further exploration K Kelly, ‘New rules for the new economy', Wired Magazine, issue 5.09, September 1997, available online at <www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.09/> A stimulating insight into the new economics that govern the emerging world of global communication technologies and organisational networks. R Marion & M Uhl-Bien, ‘Complexity theory and Al-Qaeda: examining complex leadership', paper presented at Managing the Complex IV: A Conference on Complex Systems and the Management of Organizations, Fort Meyers, FL, December 2002, available online at <www.isce.edu/site/Marion_Uhl-Bien.pdf> A paradigm-busting examination of a new leadership form that has emerged in complex adaptive systems like the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation. T Petzinger, The new pioneers: the men and women who are transforming the workplace and the marketplace, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1999. A description of companies that operate in more creative, self-organising ways. P Saul, ‘Managing the organisation a
Notes Quote from A Hartung & M Youngblood, ‘Corporate survival: the accelerating pace of business mortality demands a new economy strategy' (subsequently retitled), unpublished manuscript, read by the author in 2003. Mark Koskiniemi, Vice President of Human Resources, Buckman Laboratories, quoted in S Greengard, ‘Storing, shaping and sharing collective wisdom', Workforce, vol. 77, no. 10, 1998, pp. 82-8. G Noonan, ‘Overseas student numbers surge 15%', Sydney Morning Herald, News and Features, 2 July 2003, p. 6. See <www.westernsydney.nsw.gov.au/home.html> and <www.knowledge.standards.com.au> The Noosa Knowledge Economy Partners, ‘Knowledge economies', booklet prepared for Moving Towards the Knowledge Economy Conference organised by the Office of Western Sydney, Sydney, 10-12 November 2002. For details see <www.westernsydney.nsw.gov.au> K Kluge, W Stein & T Licht, Knowledge unplugged: the McKinsey & Company global survey on knowledge management, Macmillan, Palgrave, 2002. K Kelly, ‘New
Chapter 6: The Last Laugh: UsingHumour to Drive Culture About the author Vivienne Anthon, LLB, Grad Dip Ed, MBA (Distinction), FAIM Vivienne has a rich and varied background in marketing, small business and education but it is wit, mirth and laughter that have formed the liet motif of her family and professional lives. She has owned, operated and consulted to a range of small businesses in the services sector, taking some of them from start-up to market leader and she has relied on humour every step of the way. She believes that humour has the power to educate, to influence and to inform even the most conservative of industries. Vivienne has a Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University, a Graduate Diploma in Teaching from the Queensland University of Technology and an MBA with Distinction from Griffith University, where she majored in services marketing. She is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Management. For ten years, Vivienne oversaw the operations and developme
Chapter 6: The Last Laugh: UsingHumour to Drive Culture
Executive summary The concept of humour in the workplace is gaining credibility and its use is gaining momentum. Yet, to conceive of humour as joke-telling is to profoundly underestimate its power to reflect and shape the culture of an organisation. Those who understand the link between humour and culture have a powerful tool and a competitive advantage. The word ‘humour' has taken on a broader, gentler meaning in recent times. It has come to encompass a range of human interactions where the spirit is lifted. Culture has become the glue that many believe holds the modern organisation together. When the two interact the results can be powerful. Sociology provides a lens through which to view the relations between those in a community, whether that is an organisation, a country, a family or a club. The dimensions of sociability and solidarity can describe all communities. Sociability refers to the emotional relationships that exist in a community. Solidarity refers to the expression of s
Introduction A headline in the business press trumpets ‘Laughter a Cure for Workplace Woes'. Another article refers to the general manager of Australia's largest retailer urging her staff to woo customers by having fun. A conservative metropolitan law firm advertises for legal staff and promises ‘a fun environment and a day off on your birthday'. Humour in the workplace has become a serious business and serious businesses are being public about its impact. The concept of utilising humour in the workplace is not a new one. Few would argue that employees prefer to be part of a happy and positive workplace rather than one where people are dispirited and demoralised. Fewer still would argue against the increase in morale and productivity that humour might bring. However, there is a need to look beyond the frenzied buzz, the upbeat generalisations, the generic checklist of fun activities and the ‘one size fits all' approach, and to consider humour for its unique ability to form, revitalise
What is humour in the workplace?Most definitions of humour revolve around the quality of being amusing and an ability to appreciate the comic. Yura and Walsh have stated that humour is not just an attractive trait but an essential human need-a need that must be satisfied in order to survive.[1] Humour is comprised of three components-wit, mirth and laughter. Wit is the cognitive experience, mirth the emotional experience and laughter the physiological experience. Laughter is often equated with humour, but of course you do not have to laugh to experience humour.[2] Indeed, the term ‘humour in the workplace' has matured into somewhat of an umbrella concept. It has moved beyond jokes, riddles, gags, kidding, clowning, mimicking, smiles and laughter to become something far more. Humour now encompasses anything that positively enhances wellbeing, such as gestures, music, rituals and recognition. Dr Stephen Lundin, co-author of the best-selling FISH series, reinforces this understanding by r
The benefits of workplace humourAlmost 400 years ago, the English writer and clergyman Robert Burton observed: Humour purges the blood, making the body young and lively, and fit for any manner of employment. A growing body of scientific and medical evidence supports the idea that ‘laughter is the best medicine'. Humour and laughter are the body's instinctive, cognitive and biological mechanisms for restoring homeostasis and equilibrium. There is also evidence that humour serves multiple purposes and functions that are of benefit to an organisation. In an organisation humour can be: a coping mechanism a negotiation facilitator a communication instrument a cognitive tool a motivator a creative force a stress diffuser an aid to learning a change agent a competitive advantage. There is unanimous agreement that humour serves to diffuse tense situations and can provide a therapeutic and cathartic effect when negative emotions are high. Recent studies have found that stress costs Australian w
Culture through the lens of sociologyOrganisational culture is the set of values, beliefs and understandings shared by an organisation's employees and it ranks among an organisation's most powerful tools. But the same values and beliefs that can mobilise an organisation to action can be a liability if they are inconsistent with the organisation's needs. You must understand organisational culture and needs in intimate detail before a judgment can be made about the strategic role of humour. British academics, Goffee and Jones, view culture as an outcome of how people relate to one another. They believe organisations rest on intricate patterns of social interaction that sustain them over time or contribute to their undoing. Their sociological perspective divides community into two distinct types of human relations-sociability and solidarity[11], where: sociability is a measure of emotional relations among individuals in a community who consider themselves friends and who share attitudes,
Changing culture through the power of humour Knowing how an organisation measures up on the dimensions of sociability and solidarity is an important leadership competence. Knowing how the company's culture fits the business environment is critical to competitive advantage. Business environments do not stay the same; organisations have life cycles. Successful leaders discern whether they have the culture they think they do; whether the cultural behaviours that at first glance can look positive, even welcoming, are in fact productive; and whether they have the culture they need at a particular time. This involves a very subtle appreciation of human relations and an adjustment of either sociability or solidarity, or both. Clearly the tools required to adjust each dimension are different and complex but targeted use of humour can assist both. Humour is a tool for studying the social forces in an organisation because the content and form of humour reflects social relations, power distributi
But first . . . understanding appropriatenessHumour can be used to shape or change a culture, but it is effective only where it is appropriate, properly introduced and timely, and where it meets standards and basically makes sense. Appropriate humour stimulates wit, mirth or laughter. It creates closeness and intimacy. Inappropriate humour creates pain and distance. It is appropriate to use humour in the workplace when: the situation is socially appropriate the humour is well timed and tied to the task at hand the employee has a strong relationship with the other person the employee aims the humour at himself or herself the humour is used to poke fun at a situation but not at another person or group the employee has established his or her work ethic and, competence to do the task or undertake the role allocated before using humour or a lighter style. It is not appropriate to use humour when: it is rude, crude, physically dangerous or counterproductive. other people are the butt of a jo
The strategic use of humourThe following case studies illustrate how humour can be used to adjust the sociabilities and solidarity dimensions of an organisation's culture and to facilitate change. Not all of the case studies are stories of successful cultural interventions. As mentioned earlier, humour is effective only when it is appropriate, properly introduced, timely, meets standards and basically makes sense. LEGAL PRACTICE A well-established metropolitan legal practice had experienced a period of trauma and change. The low levels of sociability and solidarity in evidence were typical of a fragmented organisation. The partners emerged from their bunker to acknowledge that, for the work to continue to flow, they had to act on two fronts. First, they recognised the need to set and communicate clearly defined goals. They participated in strategic planning sessions off-site with an external facilitator and then shared the results of their workshops with staff at a celebratory ‘relaunc
Conclusion Plato, it is said, believed that you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. The same can be said about the culture of an organisation. Those who understand the broad current dimensions of workplace humour, and the benefits it can bring, will be in a unique position to deploy humour strategically to shape the culture of their organisation. Those who understand the dimensions of sociability and solidarity as determinates of corporate culture can deploy humour to effectively adjust one dimension, or the other, or both to meet the changing demands of a dynamic business environment. Those who appreciate the relationship between humour and culture, and therefore understand the difference between workplaces that need to lighten up and workplaces that need a shake-up, will indeed have the last laugh. Some tips for using the power of humour Establish your credentials. Ensure that the people around you know you're doing your job competently
For further exploration D Whyte, The heart aroused-poetry and the preservation of the soul in corporate America, Currency Doubleday, New York, 2002. This text provides rich images and a powerful perspective on the dreams and needs of every soul who ventures to work each day. S Lundin, J Christensen & H Paul, Fish sticks, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2003. The latest in the Fish series, this text addresses the important issue not only of crafting a culture where light-heartedness is valued but of maintaining that culture in the face of competing demands and the natural cycle of organisations and people. B Kaye & S Jordan-Evans, Love 'em or lose 'em-getting good people to stay, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, 1999. This is an accessible and passionate book about a serious subject. The snapshots of people and places shouldn't be underestimated. The essence of what people in organisations really feel and the role of culture have been captured well. P McGhee, ‘The key to stress management,
Acknowledgments Figure 6.1 is based on the diagram that appears in R Goffee & G Jones, ‘What holds a modern company together?', Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996.
NotesH Yura & M Walsh, The nursing process, Appleton-Century Crofts, Norfolk, Connecticut, 1983. S Sultanoff, Humor matters FAQ at www.humormatters.com S Lundin, H Paul & J Christensen, Fish, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2000. P McGhee quoted in P Brotherton, ‘The company that plays together . . . The benefits of humour in organisations', HR Magazine, vol. 41, 1996. J Goodman, ‘Taking humor seriously' at www.humorproject.com K Kelleher quoted in G Barbour, ‘Want to be a successful manager? Now that's a laughing matter!', Public Management, vol. 80, July 1998. G Vaillant quoted in J Goodman, ‘Taking humour seriously' at www.humourproject.com As quoted in D Hemsath & L Yerkes, 301 ways to have fun at work, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, 1997. N Cousins, Anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient, WW Norton and Company, New York, 1979. J Cleese quoted in G Barbour, ‘Want to be a successful manager? Now that's a laughing matter!', Public Management, vol. 80, July 1998.
Chapter 7: Organisations BehavingBadly: The Pathology of Groups About the author Leon Gettler Leon Gettler is a senior business journalist at The Age and the co-editor of Management Today magazine. His main focus is on management, but he is interested in a range of issues including strategy, globalisation, corporate governance, leadership development, accounting, human resources, workplace relations, taxation and government relations. He has won awards for journalism, including the 1997 United Nations Media Peace Award and the Professor John Miller Award for Distinguished Achievement. Leon's critically-acclaimed book, An unpromised land (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1993), won a National Book Council award. He is also a jazz critic and musician. To read a selection of Leon Gettler's articles, visit <www.aim.com.au> and follow the links to Management Today. Leon can be reached at <LGettler1958@aol.com>
Chapter 7: Organisations BehavingBadly: The Pathology of Groups
Executive summary Psychoanalytic literature from the time of Sigmund Freud points to a strong link between individual and group dynamics. Just as disturbed patients retreat into a delusional state, so too do organisations. Organisations that are in the grip of a pathology become dysfunctional and exhibit traits such as suppression of dissent, fragmentation, a lack of awareness of the dysfunctional state, difficulties dealing with the outside world, delusion and disorganisation of the leaders' thought processes. All of these pathological traits occur in a structure where the organisation behaves omnipotently; that is, as if the group is invincible. Companies that have exhibited these traits include WorldCom, Enron, HIH and Andersen. However, all organisations show some signs of dysfunction. Dealing with these issues means embracing paradox, uncertainty and, inevitably, conflict and levels of discontent. Unfortunately, few organisations are prepared to go down this route.
Introduction Andersen's 1989 annual general meeting may well have marked a turning point in the history of the ill-fated accounting firm. Up until then, the meetings were never exciting. After all, this was a firm of accountants that saw itself as the supreme defender of financial integrity. But when partners took their seats at Loews Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas, they experienced something very different. The sound system pounded out the rock anthem, Eye of the Tiger (‘It's the eye of the tiger/the thrill of the fight'). Then a stagehand strode onto the stage with a live, snarling tiger as Jim Edwards, the head of Andersen's US audit division, exhorted the crowd to do better. What they needed, he said, were the eyes of a tiger. ‘Eyes that seize opportunities,' he shouted, ‘Eyes that are focused on the kill'. Pumped, the accountants rose to their feet, roaring their enthusiasm.[1] The radical change from the Andersen meetings of the past illustrated the upheaval that was happening at
The pathology of groupsThe pathology of groups goes to the heart of why competent organisations and smart managers make dumb decisions. As Friedrich Nietszche said in Beyond good and evil: Madness is rare in individuals-but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule.[5] Every person has a dark side. There is something that attracts us more to Macbeth than Duncan and fuels our fascination with the evil of Hitler and Stalin. Organisations, too, have a dark side-none are perfect. It is just that some organisations, like people, are better at containing their dark side than others. Aristotle noticed the link between the individual and group more than 2000 years ago. He noted that the state was a creation of nature and that man was, by nature, a political animal. As for the state, so it was with groups and organisations. In his work Group psychology and the analysis of the ego, Sigmund Freud said that individual and group psychology could not be differentiated.[6] According to Freu
Signs of pathologyLook beneath the surface and there could be many warning signs of pathology: a sense of invulnerability, fragmentation, internecine civil war between fiefdoms and empires, disorganisation and lack of clarity from the leadership team and a breakdown in communication systems. This section explores some of the pathologies that develop in organisations. The next section will tell the stories of three high-profile companies that became victims of their own pathologies. Trouble at the top Pathological traits occur in a structure where the organisation sees itself as invincible and omnipotent, and becomes narcissistic. (Narcissus, according to the Greek myth, was a beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection-he starved to death, ignoring his practical survival needs and dying of self-love.) Fragmented organisations respond to strong leadership, but not always to their benefit-strong leaders are not always good leaders. For example, Jeff Skilling of Enron and Ray
Some recent cases Enron The fallen energy giant Enron epitomised testosterone-inspired swagger and narcissistic omnipotence. Its culture bred innovation and creativity but it was also underpinned by a disturbing pathology. A competitive culture engendered fragmentation and breakdowns in internal communication; financial innovation resulted in accounting fraud, arrogance and disdain of the outside world. Enron was celebrated around the world for transforming itself from just another boring energy company into a management centrefold, a global trading entity that used complex derivative instruments to push into new markets such as broadband capacity and water treatment plants. In 1996-97, the energy giant crossed the line and went from bending the rules to breaking them, shifting its losses into off-balance-sheet structures that went under such Star Wars inspired names as JEDI (Joint Energy Development Investors). Enron stressed it had four core values: respect (‘We treat others as we wo
On the couch: confronting the truthPsychotherapy and psychoanalysis for individuals is confronting. Applying the same process to organisations is even more fraught as it cuts across so many more people and agendas. It is not surprising that few are prepared to go down that route. In all organisations, as in life, human behavior is never constantly rational. It means working with uncertainty and paradox. As Charles Handy writes in The age of paradox: ‘Paradox can only be ‘managed' in the sense of coping with, which is what management had always meant until the term was purloined to mean planning and control'.[33] And according to psychologist and educator Richard Farson, accepting paradox, vulnerability and even loss of control is the biggest challenge for managers today. Paradox is not just another organisational factor that can be brought into the workshop of the management technologist. It would be misleading to even suggest that it can be coped with in any systematic or rational way
Conclusion Analysing an organisation's pathology is not in itself a solution. Returning the organisation to a healthy state will involve a process that is confronting and painful, and that zeroes in on the group's vulnerabilities. The process seeks to uncover dark secrets and probe the weaknesses that allow the organisation to resist change and growth. But in the long run, failing to address these issues can be far more painful than ignoring them. Like people, no organisation is perfect. Conflict and paradox is embedded in any system that involves different types of people. The question is how these can managed. The best organisations know how to use these differences creatively in ways that bring out the best in people. An organisation seeking to strengthen its culture could start by considering an ancient Sufi teaching: You think that because you understand ‘one' you must understand ‘two' because one and one make two. But you must also understand ‘and'. Organisations are about people
For further exploration Those interested in psychoanalytic insights into group processes should consult: W Bion, Experiences in groups, Routledge, London, 2001. This is not easy reading and needs a great deal of patience, but it is well worth the effort. Practitioners and students of pyschoanalytic theory study Bion extensively. N Dixon, On the psychology of military incompetence, Pimlico, London, 1994. Professor Norman Dixon is from University College, London. This book contains some of the best insights into how group pathology can shape organisational behaviour. While Dixon's book focuses on the dyfunctional nature of military organisations, its insights are relevant for the broader community. An absolute must for anyone fascinated by the way group processes drive behaviour, and vice versa. Those with a keen sense of schadenfreude, and wanting to know about corporate failure, should go to the following: L Fox, Enron: rise and fall, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2003. R Bryce, Pipe
Acknowledgments I would like to thank Jacqueline Adler, a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist (and my wife), and psychoanalyst Eve Steel for their assistance, insights and patience when I was absorbing psychoanalytic literature. Special thanks also to Jamie Pearce for his insights into organisational pathology and psychoanalytic process.
Notes D Alexander, G Burns, R Manor, F McRoberts & EA Torriero, ‘Civil war splits Andersen', Chicago Tribune, 2 September 2002. D Measelle, quoted in ‘Merchant or samurai', Chicago Tribune, 1 September 2002. JP Chaplin, Dictionary of psychology, Dell Publishing, New York, 1968. J Laplanche & J Pontalis, The language of psychoanalysis, Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London, 1985. F Nietszche, Beyond good and evil, Prometheus Books, New York, 1989. S Freud, Group psychology and the analysis of the ego, WW Norton & Co, New York, 1975. J Steiner, Psychic retreats, Routledge, London, 1993. W Bion, Experiences in groups, Routledge, London, 2001. ibid. S Finkelstein, Why smart executives fail, Portfolio, New York, 2003. W Bion, op. cit., p. 123. Jay Conger, from an interview with the author, 2002. W Bennis, ‘A culture of candor', Management Today, March 2003. I Janis, Victims of groupthink, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1972. ibid. A Hopkins, Lessons From Longford, CCH Austra
Chapter 8: When the ConductorLeaves: Handing on the Cultural Baton About the author Anne Riches, BA (Hons), LLM (Hons), Dip Jur, FAIM, FAITD, AFAHRI, CSP Anne Riches began her career as a barrister and senior lecturer in law. Next, she became the first in-house counsel for the Australian Medical Association. Then she was human resources director for both an international merchant bank and a leading law firm. She was the first Education Director of the Judicial Commission and implemented the first comprehensive scheme of judicial education and training outside the USA. She is currently a Councillor of the NSW Division of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Governing Committee of the Ted Noffs Foundation. She is a member of the Ethics Committee of the NSW Institute of Psychiatry and the NSW Government's Bioethics Panel. Anne has also held numerous leadership positions including President of the Women Lawyers' Association of NSW, State and Territory Councillo
Chapter 8: When the ConductorLeaves: Handing on the Cultural Baton
Executive summary Failure to plan for succession has a cost. It can be measured in decreased performance and share price, and in lost intellectual capital, not to mention the cost of the hours spent by board members and senior executives in selecting the right leaders in a crisis or unplanned-for event. The cost is even higher if cultural issues are not taken into account. Leaders guide an organisation's strategic direction and implement its strategic objectives, but its culture is a significant contributor to the achievement of those objectives. Yet organisations, both in the corporate and public sectors, show little commitment to focused, long-term succession planning or to giving high priority to addressing the cultural elements of the baton change. Arguably, this is contributing to the extraordinary turnover in CEOs. Succession planning is an essential element of any risk management strategy and responsible governance. Boards and management need to take responsibility for this; foc
Introduction Ironically, these imports have often been some of the poorer performers. It also says little for Australian companies' succession planning. The scarcity argument would disappear if proper training, succession planning and less ego and politics were involved in the upper echelons of management. Elizabeth Knight[1] I don't intend to die. Rupert Murdoch[2] Inevitably, chief executives move on (other than Rupert Murdoch, perhaps) and the cultural baton passes from leader to leader. In this chapter, I wish to discuss what consideration should be given to cultural issues when leadership changes, whether in planned or unplanned circumstances. When Jack Welch was in Sydney recently, I asked him how important cultural issues were in the selection of his successor as CEO of General Electric (GE). I asked him this question for a number of reasons: A significant number of organisational change initiatives fail to achieve their objectives.[3] These initiatives are often driven by CEOs
Culture and succession planningSo that is why I asked Welch about the importance of culture in GE's succession planning. GE is a useful example because whatever the corporate performance of GE under Welch's successor, GE undertook the succession process with all the intense planning and preparation that you would hope for before major brain surgery. In December 2002, GE's selection of Jeffrey Immelt as the new CEO was the result of an in-depth and lengthy internal process that took six and a half years (although some commentators said they were simply dithering!).[4] GE did not do what many other organisations do. They didn't look outside the company. They didn't name the heir apparent. They didn't explicitly tell the people on the ‘potentials' list that they were possible successors (until the last few months of the decision-making process). Instead, the board spent thousands of director hours getting to know the ‘candidates', talking to each other about the candidates, and providing
Is succession planning worth it?Just how useful and justifiable is a sophisticated, expensive and time-consuming approach like GE's when, at the moment and around the world, the average tenure of a CEO is only 2.75 years?[11] Is succession planning really worth the effort? According to another review of the world's 2500 biggest public companies: In 1995, 72% of chief executives either died in office or retired. In 2001, only 47% left in those circumstances and 25% were pushed out because of poor performance. In 2002, 39% of all CEO departures were because of poor financial performance and external appointees were fired at a slightly greater rate than internal appointments.[12] So maybe Jack Welch was right to focus internally! Australia is not immune from this worldwide trend. In the first five months of 2003, eight of Australia's top chief executives exited having been in the job for three months or less. From June 2001 to May 2003, 30 CEOs of the top 150 companies by market capitalis
Confusion in the corporate sectorSo, does a planned baton change that includes cultural continuity, GE style, satisfy the market and bring a better chance of success? Woolworths sets up contest for chief executive job (headline from Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 2003) WOOLWORTHS Woolworths has worked at its succession planning. For example, when the then Chief Executive Harry Watts died suddenly in 1993 during a game of golf with Greg Norman, the board had three internal candidates ready to choose from-Reg Clairs, Roger Corbett and John Brunton. Clairs was appointed. When Clairs announced his intention to retire, Corbett was appointed in 1999 after already having been on the Woolworths board for nine years. Corbett was Managing Director of Big W from 1990 to 1993, Deputy Group Managing Director of Woolworths from 1993 to 1997, and Managing Director (retail) from 1997 to 1999. Despite his history with Woolworths, the share market reacted negatively to Corbett's appointment, saying that
The public sector perspectiveSimilar stories about stressful succession exist in the public sector, where cultural change has seemed difficult and slow though not impossible. It is possible that Kennedy will be reappointed for a further term. But should this not be the case, the search for a replacement would need to begin soon if a rerun of the debacle that preceded Kennedy's appointment is to be avoided. Joyce Morgan[24] Brian Kennedy's appointment, in 1997, as Director of the National Gallery of Australia was said to have been botched when both the Keating and Howard governments dragged their feet about making the appointment. Now there is mounting speculation about whether he will be reappointed or a fresh appointment made. This arena is obviously more complex because of the additional pressure of the capital ‘P' political process. Succession planning for chief executives or heads of departments who are appointed by governments, supposedly apolitically, might seem pointless when th
Planning for successionThe fundamental point of succession planning is that you have to work out what objectives you want to achieve through the succession. Selection is mostly driven by a focus on the ‘who' rather than the ‘what'. If the organisation has done well in the past, it is all too easy to say: We want another one of those, a clone. If the organisation has not been travelling well, then the selection committee may well react by saying that it wants someone entirely different.[29] Succession planning also may not take priority if the CEO is apparently fit and performing well. Or if it does not have the incumbent CEO's support. The CEO may not want to contribute his or her views about what an ideal successor might look like for fear of losing power or control, or being seen as not perfect. Indeed, forcing the CEO into succession planning can lead to what has been called ‘The Successor's Dilemma'. The incumbent CEO is so troubled by the process that the designated potential succ
ConclusionMy purpose in this chapter was to explore the significance of the cultural baton when the leadership changes, either in planned or unplanned circumstances. An organisation's culture supports the achievements of its objectives during changes in leadership, strategy, structure, system, process or policy. Where the culture is already doing this, the smooth and effective passing of the cultural baton should be an integral part of the succession plan. It deserves the highest priority. If the existing culture does not support the desired strategic direction and goals, then the cultural dimension of the CEO appointment is arguably even more significant. My preferred definition of culture is not ‘the way we do things around here' but rather ‘the way we do things around here when no-one is looking'. This is never more important than when management changes are taking place, diverting attention from performance. When Larry Bossidy was CEO of Allied Signal, he said: ‘At the end of the d
For further explorationSuccession planning is not a sexy subject and there is little exciting literature. But here are a few ideas that provide some background to this chapter. J Welch, Jack, Headline Book Publishing, Great Britain, 2001. J Collins & I Porras, Built to last, Random House, London, 1994. A Mant, Intelligent leadership, Allen & Unwin, Australia, 1997. N Tichy, The leadership engine: how winning companies build leaders at every level, Harper Business, USA, 1997. Harvard business review on corporate governance, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 2000. Dry reading, but thorough! W Rothwell, Effective succession planning: ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within, Amacom, USA, 2000. To find out more about what's happening in succession planning, and its impact on share price and performance, I suggest reading business newspapers and magazines such as Business Review Weekly and Australian Financial Review, and the business sections of the daily newspap
Notes E Knight, ‘CEOs aren't worth the money they're paid', Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 2003, p. 21. Rupert Murdoch quoted in J Thomson, ‘Teach the children well', BRW, 22 May 2003, p. 171. ME Smith, ‘Success rates for different types of organisational change', Performance Improvement, vol. 41, no. 1, January 2002, p. 26. J Micklethwait & A Wooldridge, The witch doctors, Heinemann, Great Britain, 1996, p. 176. J Welch, Jack, Headline Book Publishing, Great Britain, 2001, p. 421. ibid, p. 422. G Colvin, ‘Changing of the guard', Fortune, 8 January 2001. ibid. E Wahlgren, ‘Passing the baton peacefully', Business Week Online, 13 November 2002, www.businessweek.com L Schoolcraft, ‘Nardelli does handicraft at Home Depot', Atlanta Business Chronicle, 30 May 2003. Findings by DRM, Booz Allen Hamilton and US Journal of Business Strategy reported in D James, ‘Dancing with faceless men', BRW, 1 May 2003. C Lucier, R Schuyt & E Spiegel, ‘CEO succession 2002: deliver or depart', Strategy+business
Chapter 1: The Power of Culture: Turning the Soft Stuff into Business Advantage
Chapter 2: Cultural Change Agent: Leading Transformational Change
Chapter 3: Unwritten Ground Rules: The Way We Really Do Things Around Here
Chapter 6: The Last Laugh: Using Humour to Drive Culture
Chapter 1: The Power of Culture: Turning the Soft Stuff into Business Advantage
Chapter 2: Cultural Change Agent: Leading Transformational Change
Chapter 4: Building Healthy Organisations: Managing the Emotional Aspects of Workplace Culture
Chapter 1: The Power of Culture: Turning the Soft Stuff into Business Advantage
Chapter 2: Cultural Change Agent: Leading Transformational Change
Chapter 3: Unwritten Ground Rules: The Way We Really Do Things Around Here
Chapter 4: Building Healthy Organisations: Managing the Emotional Aspects of Workplace Culture
Chapter 5: Cultural Motivation: Unlocking the Secrets of the Volunteer Organisation
Chapter 6: The Last Laugh: Using Humour to Drive Culture
Chapter 7: Organisations Behaving Badly: The Pathology of Groups
Chapter 8: When the Conductor Leaves: Handing on the Cultural Baton
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