The pages that follow present workplace culture profiles that you will use to identify characteristics of culture you believe to be most sound, and those that are typical of your day-to-day workplace now.
Step 1: Defining a Soundest Organization Culture
The following eight elements of team culture are presented on pages 33-40. Each represents actions that demand teamwork and collaboration, and so studying them reveals existing norms and culture in place.
- 1. Decision Making: How effectively people evaluate resources, apply criteria, and consider consequences in reaching decisions.
- 2. Conflict Management: How people explore differences to surface underlying causes and reach solutions that every member can support.
- 3. Goals and Objectives: How people define and implement goals and objectives.
- 4. Authority: How leaders provide direction.
- 5. Advocacy: How people express their personal views and convictions.
- 6. Coordination: How people coordinate efforts within and across teams.
- 7. Critique and Feedback: How people use critique and feedback in day-to-day teamwork.
- 8. Accountability: How people demonstrate personal accountability for individual and team performance.
For each element, seven statements are listed that represent different culture styles. Review the statements and identify strategies that any excellent and fully developed organization might be expected to demonstrate. Place a 7 by the alternative you believe is the soundest way to lead an organization. Place a 6 by that alternative which is the best backup. Use the criteria below to identify your backup alternative. The backup style: provides for the best alternative whenever the soundest approach temporarily does not work or for the time being cannot be achieved; provides for an early return to the soundest way; is in the best interest of all who have a stake in ensuring that operations are secure and ongoing.
Place a 5 by the next best support choice, a 4 by the next, a 3 by the next, a 2 by the next-to least acceptable choice, and a 1 for the least acceptable way to lead an organization. Rank the alternatives as if there were no limitations from organization history, from unions, from present leadership, or from tradition and past practice.
Record your answers in the Soundest (Individual) column on the left. In the space below, “Soundest Culture Impact (Individual) ranking”, describe the impact that achieving the Soundest Culture would have on relationships and performance.
