People & Culture

When all is said and done, it still takes people to get things done. Even with a perfect understanding of the industry and a brilliant competitive strategy for success - people must act. In fact, part of a "brilliant" strategy must take into account the current employees, the current reward system, the current organizational structure, and the current corporate culture.

Whether the full plan requires changing the reward system, changing the organizational structure, changing the culture, and/or changing the employees, the strategic plan needs to include the action steps necessary to make these changes. The consequences of making these changes need to be anticipated and planned for as well.

The overriding goal, according to Michael Tushman*, is to seek congruence between strategy, people, and formal and informal organizational structure.

For example, if a company wants new creative ideas, then people should not be ostracized for less than perfect suggestions. If a company wants to promote teamwork, it should have team awards. If a company wants to differentiate based on superior customer service representatives, then the people in customer service should be better trained than the competition.

• Tushman, Michael L., "A Congruence Model for Diagnosing Organizational Behavior" in David Nadler, Organizational Architecture, Los Angeles: Jossey Bass, 1993.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send e- mail to webmaster@e-competitors.com with comments.     Or use Feedback.  
Legal notice.     Search.          Table of Contents 
Copyright 2008 Alan S. Michaels               Alan S. Michaels    All Rights Reserved.
Last modified:   Tuesday February 19, 2008