Week Two Essay Organizational Values: A Roadmap for Success

Transcription

1 Week Two Essay Organizational Values: A Roadmap for Success Gretchen L. Blake LEAD 510 Leadership in Context James Morrison Spring

2 Gretchen Blake, LEAD Vision-Guided, Values-Driven Organization Values, the fundamental beliefs that guide an organization; almost every company has made the commitment to having them written and posted in their lobby, but how many use these values as a living entity to shape and keep the form of their culture? How does an organization embed these values into the way that things get done? In this paper, we will discuss why values are vital to an organization, how organizations have successfully implemented those values that are written on their walls, and how powerful leadership is the key to driving an organization through the use of their values. Why Values are Important Values can be defined as core beliefs. The infrastructure organizations are built upon and the essence in which the business operates is understood and respected by all employees. Organizational values define what are acceptable standards and acceptable behaviors that influence how employees conduct themselves while achieving results. Without values, employees would operate on their individual value systems which may not align with the organization s mission. Values are the principles that create organizational culture which can be defined as the collective behavior of people which is defined by organizational values, visions, norms, beliefs and habits. It is also collective behaviors and assumptions that are instilled which affect the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders (Barney 1986). Understanding the importance of values and how they drive an organization, one must first understand what Bruce Tharp outlined as the four organizational culture types; control (hierarchy), compete (market), collaborate (clan) and create (adhocracy). A control culture is highly structured and formal and a company that values rules, regulations and policy which

3 Gretchen Blake, LEAD govern activities. Stability, performance and efficient operations are long-term goals with a management style that focuses on security and predictability. A compete culture is a resultdriven organization that focuses on job completion. Employees are competitive and goal-oriented with leaders who demand productivity and the long-term focus is on competitive market share. In a collaborative culture, an open and friendly place to work with people that share of themselves much like family is fostered. Leaders are considered mentors and in the forefront on operation, there is a sense of group loyalty, consensus, tradition, and teamwork. Create culture is an organization that is vested in a dynamic, creative and entrepreneurial spirit in which innovation and risk-taking are embraced by both employees and leaders. A commitment to experimentation and thinking outside of the box are what unify and drive the organization. Longterm emphasis is on growth and the acquisition of new resources (Tharp 2010). Values are important because although abstract in thought, they are the morals, ethics and standards which define and matter most to an organization. Values guide organizational thinking and actions and develop the organizations culture; it is where people will spend their time and their energy. A company s organizational values let others know who they are, why the organization was created, and how it differs from their competition in essence, a roadmap for success. Hardwiring Organizational Values According to our text Bad Leadership (Kellerman 2004) James McGregor Burn s definition of transformational leadership is Leadership that occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. The first step then in building a vision-guided, value-driven driven organization is having leadership commitment to the process of change. If the leadership team is

4 Gretchen Blake, LEAD unable to embrace new values and new behaviors, then no one else in the organization will. In fact, organizations do not transform, people do. The next step is the process of evaluating the organization from the corporate level to look at the existing culture and parallel the organizational values to those of the employee s personal values. Once this assessment has been conducted, the organization must decide based on the findings whether to revise the current mission or to start with a fresh start. The Baldrige Criteria is a management model focused on assisting organizations to reach performance excellence. There are three versions of the Baldrige criteria that includes a business arm, not-forprofit organizations and a third arm for healthcare. Rooted in this criterion are nine principals who focus businesses on the core values necessary for obtaining service and operational excellence (Grizzel, 2011). In using the Baldrige framework, these principles focus on eleven core measures which include; a visionary leadership with customer-focused excellence, organizational and personal learning, valuing staff and partners, agility, focusing on the future while managing innovation, managing by factual data, fostering social responsibility and results that create value. Organizations who achieve Baldrige awards are those who have incorporated these values into the fabric of their organization and the action is so deeply embedded that employees effortlessly live these values during their daily work. Leading Through Strong Values Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and Queen Elizabeth I of England although centuries apart, the both share the title as two of the strongest and effective leaders in history and each employed many leadership principles discussed in modern theory which are still applicable today.

5 Gretchen Blake, LEAD Dave Plouffe in The Leadership of Queen Elizabeth I describes that overcoming a troublesome childhood, being declared disinherited from the family after her mother was executed for treason after being unable to produce a male heir, she had to overcome the fact that people did not believe that a woman was able to properly lead. Placing her personal life on hold in order to focus on leading the country, Elizabeth s strong sense of value and drive were the reason she never married, she believed in her vision and being potentially entwined in foreign political affairs through a marriage she believed would have complicated her ability to lead. Elizabeth I was well educated, charismatic, a great communicator, cared for her people and maintained a powerful stature and image throughout her reign as Queen of England. Jack Welch famous for coining the phrase boundaryless organization which essentially is the rule of thought that removing horizontal and vertical boundaries that constrain innovative development and stifling the flow of information and ideas allows innovation and collapses barriers. Although a Mr. Welch is a modern-time leader, in many ways, both Queen Elizabeth I and Jack Welch shared similar leadership qualities. Both believed in leading from the frontline and being involved directly with their people. Both believed in a strong focus and in removing barriers that keep success from happening this leadership qualities are timeless and show a true vision instilled in values. Conclusion Vision-Guided, Values-Driven Organization. For an organization to be on the road to success, strong values embedded in the very fiber takes excellence from being a burden and from being an effort, to just a part of how business is done every day. Thus, the true definition of leading through vision.

6 Gretchen Blake, LEAD References Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad Leadership. (1 st Ed) Making Meaning of Being Bad (pp. 34). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Barney, J. B. (1986). Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage? (3 rd Ed). Academy of Management Review ( pp ). Tharp, B. M. (2010). Four Organizational Culture Types. Organizational Culture Whitepaper. Retrieved from /download/ 30883/ /file/white-paper_four-organizational-culture-types.pdf. Grizzell, P., & Crouch, L. (2012). The Nine Principals A Roadmap for the Baldrige Criteria. Studer Group. Retrieved from /CustomerFocus/BaldrigeStuderGroupAlignment.aspx Plouffe, D. (2007) The Leadership of Queen Elizabeth I. Retrieved from /the-leadership-queen-elizabeth-i html?cat=37