Developing A Value-Driven Culture

An organization’s culture is its personality and embodies its beliefs, its values and the way its people perform their jobs and interact with customers, shareholders and each other. This article focuses on cultural strategy and the ways in which organizations ensure that their culture and their business goals optimally support each other. It breaks down cultural strategy into its component elements and deals with each in turn.

The author begins by asking her readers to think about their organizational vision and values, providing examples of the sort of questions that need to be asked and what specific behaviors need to be observed and measured to ensure that these reflect their desired traits and competences. Readers are warned that these values must be reinforced by actions that reflect these values and by systems and processes that are aligned with these values. Actions are to be delineated and measured to ensure accountability so that both long-term strategies and daily decisions mirror and reinforce the organization’s culture.

Source: Nancy Stampahar, Baseline (New York); Mar, 2009