 As organisations are becoming increasingly

complex from a cultural perspective, it is

important to understand how practitioners
manage the differences that arise when
working with peers who engage in different
cultural (national cultural, professional,
functional) spheres.
To be effective, a high-performance culture
must be tailored to the business that the
company is in.
 A company’s culture is essentially the
organization’s soul, shaped through success
and setback.
6 Attributes of High-Performance Culture
1. Setting High Standard and Performance
people in high-performance organizations
know what winning looks like, and
they know how to get there.They won’t accept
doing the same thing this year as they
did last year.They set high standards and the
performance bar keeps going up
 Consider Toyota, known for its principle of
continuous improvement and the quality
of its products.This principle is so deeply
woven into Toyota’s culture that the impetus
for continuous improvement often comes
from workers on the assembly lines. The
company sets high goals: 15% global market
shaer, 30% cost reduction and shortening the
new product development cycle from 20 month
12.
2. Full Attention To Customer’s Need Companies
with high-performance cultures don’t get overly
distracted by looking inward. The y focus instead
on what’s outside the company: customers,
competitors, and communities.

Enter prise Rent-A-Car, for example, has grown to

be one of the largest car-rental agencies in the
United States in large part by instilling the
conviction among employees that attention to
customers’ needs leads to success.
3. Employees Take Personal Responsibility
A hallmark of a High-performance culture is that
employees take personal responsibility for business
performance. often, they are owners.

Like many othger high performers,for instance,U.K.

retailer ASDA has an extensive employee share-
ownership plan, the largest of its
kind in Britain. Roughly 92,000 “associates,” as the
company calls its employees, own options in parent
Wal-Mart
4. Commit to individuals.
 They make a point of investing in individuals at all levels
of the organization and helping them develop their full
potential. Performance cultures reinforce their investments
in individuals by providing training programs for all
employees, not simply managers.
They create a corporate where Feedback is open and honest
about what people do well and where they can improve.

Example: ASDA offers its associates a variety of “best in

class” training programs through the ASDA Academy and has
introduced a range of innovative work-place practices, such
as child care leave, flextime, job sharing, and even
grandparents’ leave for the birth of a grandchild .
5. Spread courage to change.
Successful companies must be able to change and adapt to
new environments quickly and continuously. But how many
company leaders can truthfully say that their employees (or
themselves) comfortably take risks, experiment,
and challenge the status quo?

Taking risks is not a goal in itself, of course. But companies

with high-performance cultures find ways to make risk
acceptable, within clearly defined boundaries and with the
right controls in place.

General Electric has managed to instill in its employees a

recognition that taking measured risks is necessary in order
to achieve its clearly defined business goals.
6. Commit To A decision
Cohesive teams trust one another. They aren’t
afraid to engage in conflict around ideas, but
once they commit to a decision, they walk out
of a meeting with a common plan of action.

This principle gets tested thoroughly when two

cultures merge following an acquisition
Changing a culture is often difficult because it
entails influencing people’s deepest beliefs
and most habitual behaviors. Leading by
example is the only way to change an
organization’s culture.
At some companies, the culture may be so
thorough in its focus on cost efficiency, for
instance,or on a narrowly defined “Company
Way,” that the culture itself becomes a
bottleneck to change
New competitors, new technologies, or new
regulations often require organizational change
on a large scale. And that kind of change is
often necessary to get to the next level of
performance
Compelled by such necessities, companies have
found that they can change their cultures,
provided that their leaders are truly committed
to change and that they understand the steps
involved.
1. Cultural change starts at the top, or it
doesn’t start at all. The process begins with
aligning the top team around a common vision
of the future, and then rolling out the vision
and values to the entire organization.
2. The importance of strong leadership was
 underscored by our survey results: leadership
behaviors and decisions were cited as the
single most important influence on their
organization’s culture.
3. Cultural change cannot happen unless
leaders model the behaviors and values that
define the evolving culture, and then spread
them constantly through personal contact and
communication.Our experience, validated by
the
survey results, is clear on this point: leading by
example is the only way to change an
organization’s culture.
Leaders who succeed at cultural change tend
to follow some common principles:
1. Stay close to the front line.
Cultural change is often catalyzed when senior
managers identify linchpin employees, people
who will buy in to the culture and whose word
will carry weight.These employees become
natural mentors, passing along the values and
behaviors that characterize the change in
culture.
2. Use symbols to send and reinforce the
message
Symbolic changes shake people up. Leaders of
cultural change can publicize milestones,
celebrate successes, and reward heroes.Word
will get around.
3. Align the organization with the new culture.
This step may entail revamping corporate structure
and decision roles—removing or adding
managerial layers, for example, or changing the
balance of authority between corporate
headquarters and regional operations.
Metrics and incentives must be aligned as well. It
does little good to promote teamwork, for
example, if performance reviews, pay increases,
and promotions are based on individual
performance alone.
4.Leader Act Quickly To Encourage Employee To
Accept The New Culture
In any organization there will be people who
don’t go along with the new culture, including a
few who actively resist it. An important job of
any leader is to act quickly to move out the
naysayers and encourage those on the
fence to join the new culture. The most
effective leaders retain the linchpin employees,
the criticl people for spreading the culture.
5. Track the changes
Leaders need a simple, practical way to measure
their performance on each of the six
dimensions—a scorecard that allows them to
see where they started and what progress they
have made toward their objectives.
END