Corporate Fitness An organizational specialist stresses the importance of effective, healthy company culture
ONTARIO BUSINESS By Michael Rock
A	popular phrase today is "getting into shape." Research and experience show that people who keep in shape live longer, are more productive, and live happier lives. Those who hope to get into shape
must keep in mind the necessity of a worthwhile goal (such as losing 15 pounds); a way to measure present situation and future goal attainment; and the need to work toward attaining the determined goal. This fitness idea can be applied easily to business. At the moment, are you able to state exactly how fit your company is? You might be able to say that you were profitable last year, or that this year looks like a good year. On the other hand, you might say that you are barely meeting your bills. The old, but true, adage in management literature says that "we get things done through people." How many times do we conduct a fitness checkup on how our people are in relation to company success and particularly, in terms of the bottom line? We now know the following from scientific research and practice: A very high relationship exists between corporate culture, or the way you and your company do things in your company, and high/low performance and productivity. The culture of your company accounts for approximately 50 percent of the variation in success between you and your competitors. Your company's culture and the specific decisions and actions taken as a result of this culture can be accurately measured. You can see from the way you conduct everyday business in your company whether that kind of a culture contributes significantly or not to your bottom line. (Remember that your culture accounts for 50 percent of it.) Scientific research shows an extremely high relationship exists between advanced stages of employee burnout and negative company culture. Measuring corporate culture and researching its relevance is the specialty of organizational psychologist Tom Janz, of the Faculty of Management at the University of Calgary. Janz has designed a software package called the Corporate Culture Checkup. In it, he defines organizational culture in terms of "reciprocal expectations", that being the result of how you and I expect to be treated by those whose decisions affect our lives. These reciprocal expectations include: future expectations, since past behavior alone is not a totally valid predictor of future behavior; organizational members only, excluding outside people, such as shareholders; and the interrelationship of expectations for both the worker and the manager since each depends on the other. In other words, how managers expect to be treated is just as important as how workers expect to be treated. According to Janz's research, excellent companies are value-driven as opposed to rules- or power-driven. Moreover, a high values orientation fosters low burnout among employees -- and healthy employees and high productivity are what every organization desires. To go about examining and measuring your company's culture, take the Corporate Culture Checkup to see how fit you are and to clarify your ideal. When you understand the basic concepts, with senior management commitment, then administer the checkup to your department, and eventually to the entire company. After tabulating the results, you'll see the fitness level of the entire company, individual managers, employees, or departments. A series of goal-setting sessions, using Corporate Culture workbooks, are implemented. It is during this phase that you and your employees can actually modify, enhance, or change parts of the culture to reflect more effective ways "to do things around here." The cost and/or savings of how you do things can be measured and six month and annual goals established. When undergoing the Corporate Culture Checkup, it is similar to going to your physician for your own personal physical examination. Too often we don't go for personal checkups until we are sick; sometimes then it is too late. The same principle applies to corporate fitness. A good time to look at the Corporate Culture Fitness Review program is when you're prepared for it, when you see its tremendous value, or when you anticipate a significant change in your company. Change gives us a chance to look at the past and realistically consider new alternatives for the future. We can shape, to a great extent, the destiny of our companies. But we can't do it without an effective, healthy culture -- it can't be done without employees knowing what the company stands for and how things work or don't work. You owe it to yourself to get in shape -- besides, you'll make a lot of money that way!
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