Posted on by jtexecutivecoaching&businessadvisoryservices

Building Culturally Aware Organisations

Research on leadership and culture and organisational culture has revealed five broadbased themes to differentiate one culture from another. Although one can expect to find variations within societal cultural groups, there are modal group characteristics that extensive global research has identified.

  • Temporality encapsulates the manner in which time is viewed and used, eg. goal-directed/unfocussed approaches to deadlines, punctuality/tardiness, methodical planning/ skeletal outlining, simultaneous/ linear approaches to task completion, and whether there is a tendency for long-term or short-term orientations
  • The group/ interpersonal/environmental interaction category refers to the extremes of environmental mastery/fatalism beliefs, individualistic/in-group loyalties and direct or indirect communication style preferences
  • Risk seeking/avoidance includes risk appetite in the business environment for newness and uncertainty, and degree of openness to learning how to relate to others cross-culturally and in unfamiliar settings
  • Assertiveness/modesty incorporates the degree to which a society or organisation expects individuals to set the bar high and accomplish stringent goals, promote their own achievements and incentivizes them for individual achievement
  • Performance/people orientation refers to the extent to which employee concerns are subjugated to performance considerations, or the reverse.

Whilst presented as polarities, it is more realistic to interpret these cultural dimensions as varying on a continuum. One may deduce from these five dimensions that culture can influence; time management, how managers organise and delegate work, how company leaders take decisions, how managers communicate with and discipline their reportees, beliefs about role accountability, management of diversity, impressions formed of individuals, and ultimately productivity and performance. Although this list is not exhaustive, it gives an idea of the scope of cultural behavioural programming, which cannot be ignored in the work environment.

Achieving Organisational Cultural Alignment

Organisational leaders need to be sensitive to cultural diversity and how employee behaviour is affected by underlying cultural values, assumptions and beliefs. This is the first step towards integrating different approaches and behaviour into a coherent set of outcomes in support of company values and performance prerequisites. Their reportees would benefit from assistance in stepping outside their own cultural precepts, to reflect on how they impact on their ability to function well in their employing organisations. Successful alignment of their cultural values, beliefs and behaviour with that of the organisation reduces dissonance and contributes positively to business success.

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How to Energise and Mobilise Employees for Top Performance

Both understanding employees and keeping them highly motivated to achieve companies’ business results are easier said than done. Challenges aside, influencing individuals’ commitment to their employers, and to producing the highest level of performance they are capable of, has to be mastered by company leaders for organisational success. Here are three key pointers towards their mastery.

Breaching the Commitment-Performance Gap

There is a link between commitment to organisational purpose and performance, and company leaders play a crucial role in forging that link with employees. To fulfil this expectation, leaders must hold and act from the right perspective of the size and scope of their roles. Other prerequisites are that they must be able to connect with their employees, know what support they need to be effective, and communicate their expectations unambiguously. Leadership that balances and integrates a performance orientation with employee concern is likely to generate greater value for the company, than pursuing either of these approaches in isolation.

Assuming Clear Role Accountability

If company leaders at all levels do not own their roles and function to the expected standard, they will avoid having difficult conversations on issues such as discipline and performance expectations. Such avoidance behaviour will not engender engagement and mobilisation of employees. Another consequence is that first line management will delegate their responsibilities upwards to the next levels of management, and fail to take full accountability for getting the necessary work done in their business units. Their reportees will see this happening. They will conclude that their own managers contribute little added value to their own work. Over time, those managers will experience great difficulty in earning their respect, and the authority that goes with their roles will be eroded. One cannot lead others unless one has earned the right to lead.

Engaging and Mobilising Employees One by One

Various leadership behaviours applied towards energising and mobilising employees, and increasing perceived organisational support, have differential impacts on different employees, at different times. Some employees may have a more intense need for positive feedback and approval than others. Still others may be more driven by future material benefits from the company. It would make the job of managing for performance so much easier, if a singular approach to motivating and enabling employees could be followed. But, experience shows that engaging and mobilising employees one by one produces the best results.