The cultural principles by which organizational leaders have led and managed their operations for at least the past century no longer seems practical and relevant in today’s fast changing environment. The organization as a whole must create a shared cultural framework that will be transparent and powerful enough to support telework and mobil work environment and to replace hierarchy.
That framework must not merely be a program or technique or a sophisticated new way to manipulate the future but must be based on fundamental principles, enhance the stability and transparency of workplace relationships, help define the new covenant, and enable managers to use common sense in making organizational and business decisions.
The new culture starts with the belief that a high level of motivation is most likely to come when all employees own their workplace culture and when their objectives and career goals are aligned with the organization’s strategic directions.
This new culture must have the following 8 core values:
1) respect for employees,
2) integrity and honesty,
3) ownership, belongings and alignment,
4) consensus on workplace principles
5) trust-based relationships,
6) full responsibility and accountability,
7) results-based performance; and,
8) recognition and growth.
Respect, trust, transparency, honesty and integrity, results-based, and growth are the most important ingredients. The new cultural framework must include the following 5 characteristics:
1) all operating agreements should be based on principles,
2) the process must be transparent, and not be done in secrecy,
3) everyone, teams, groups and the entire organization must engage in a significant shift in behavior,
4) behavioral and communication rules should be established to govern how individuals, teams of individuals, groups or organization will work together in normal situations and in emergencies or crisis.
5) rewarding creativity and innovation, and ethical, value-based behavior and results-based performance.
These characteristics will enable an organization to survive and prosper in the future and they constitute a profile of an innovative organization. What are your ingredients and characteristics of a desirable, new cultural framework in this advanced technology and the new economy? What are your requirements for an innovative organization? What are your thoughts on how we can develop an effective shared culture in which every employee owns and wants to be part of the organization?
By Dr. Phuong Le Callaway, (PhD) in Organization and Management/Human Resource Management
phuongcallaway2013's Blog 