the culture of improvement

THE CULTURE OF

IMPROVEMENT

Peter A. Johnson / Fairday Research Limited

People ≠technology

What Is > What Could Be© Fairday Research Limited

Human and social functioning:

Fuzzy, nebulous and difficult to predict

No single model of human behaviour

Contextual, complex and contingent

No easy answers

Changing behaviour and mindset is not easy

But it is achievable

Using the research evidence helps

IT pros love DIY – don’t!

Joined-Up Thinking

Reputation

Commitment

TrainingLearning Performance

Retention

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Autonomy

Job Design

Culture

Motivation

Goal Setting

SelectionJob satisfaction


What is culture? Some definitions


Shared

Understandings

Meanings

Values

SymbolsObjects

Practices Customs

Traditions

Histories

Myths

Habits

Norms

Rites

Rituals

Beliefs

Identity

Purpose

Direction

MANIFESTATIONS

What is culture? Schein (1985)


VALUES

UNDERLYING

ASSUMPTIONS

What is Culture? Martin (2002)


Three theoretical perspectives of organisational culture

Integration Differentiation Fragmentation

Organisation-wide

consensus

Sub-cultural

consensus

No consensus

The experts themselves don’t agree!

Is culture ‘shared’ across an organisation?

Is it unique to each organisation?

How best to study it?

Culture change?


Some warn of the risks of attempting culture change

Need to understand the culture first

Organisations are complex social systems

Tinkering can be ‘dangerous’

Why not change other aspects

Climates

For Service, For Innovation

Empowerment / Autonomy

Factors that improve staff support for change

CSI ultimately means change

Organisational Climate


Different to culture

Staff perceptions of the manifestations of culture

E.g. Reactions to rewards for good service

Easily measurable

Have defined relationships with valuable outcomes

E.g. Climate for service linked to customer satisfaction

Climate for innovation linked to innovation

Example: Data Dashboard Service


AnyCo PLC supplied a data dashboard service

Manual production + resource intensive

Customers sought enhancements

Example: Why no improvement?


Individual Organisation Solution?

Manager doesn’t

understand the technology

well enough

Too hierarchical: ‘Good ideas can only

come from managers’Empowerment, autonomy

Selection: person-job fit? Selection philosophy

Techies: large effort

required to sell the changes

to management

Change is a top-down process Empowerment, autonomy

Climate for innovation Climate change

Techies: few benefits from

driving change

Climate for innovation Climate change

Too hierarchical – rewards for

improvement go to managers

Empowerment,

responsibility, autonomy

Manager / Techies: Not

focused on customer

Climate: Lack of senior focus on service Climate change

Selection: Lack of customer focused staff Selection philosophy

Successful organisations


Empowerment & autonomy

‘Good ideas come from anywhere’

Those who innovate given responsibility & rewards for their

innovations

Climate for innovation

All staff involved in solving organisational problems

Climate for service

Employees rewarded for giving good service

The Science: Resistance To Change


Traditional research approach

Resistance reduced by

Individual factors:

Organisational commitment

A personality that’s open to change

Organisational factors

Leader – member relations

Climates

Trust in management

Change-specific factors

Staff appraisal of gains & losses from change

Information about change

Participation in change

The Science: Employee Support


More recent approach

Anticipated benefits and commitment to change helped by

Autonomy (empowerment / responsibility)

Personal initiative and proactivity

Confidence in ability to go beyond defined job role

Autonomy

Proactivity

Role Breadth

Confidence

Anticipated

Benefits

Commitment

Hornung & Rousseau 2007

Empowerment / Autonomy


As practiced by Google

20% of staff time is free from management control

Some major innovations born in these periods

Evidence to suggest links between autonomy

Support for change

Innovation

Motivation

Job satisfaction

Itself linked to commitment

Selection influences culture

New staff can bring new influences

Carefully analyse the job and person specification

Not only technical ability - human factors too

Analysis & selection techniques include:

Job analysis

Person analysis

Assessment methods

Counter-productive to select and promote based on

Cliques, or whether the face fits alone

The Science: Selection


Act: Create a climate for service


Services are produced and consumed simultaneously

Can’t be controlled in the same way as physical products

Climate for service excellence produced by:

Staff well-being & sense of community

Organisational focus upon

customer retention

staff quality

resources needed to deliver great service

Act: Create a climate for innovation


Provide emotional & financial support for innovation

E.g. Assign time for employees to develop innovations

Ensure staff are in touch with users of products & understand their needs

Assess demand & support demand

Put procedures in place to allow innovations to be adopted

Step-by-step implementation processes

Allow evaluations and adjustments

Act: Empower the staff


Accept that change can be bottom-up

Give responsibility to staff

Provide only minimal and critical

specification of work

Flatten hierarchies where possible

Accept that everyone in your

organisation can be a source of ideas

and initiatives

Act: Remember, selection is key


Contractors, permies, managers, team members

All contribute to the culture of your organisation

Decide what’s important beyond technical ability

Autonomy has benefits when the right people are in

situ

Work identity / work significance = satisfaction

Use techniques to help specify the right people

Understand where you want to go

And the type of person who will help take you there

The Culture of Improvement


Ideas for improvement not just top down

Foster and reward service innovation

Foster and reward great service

Empower and offer responsibility to staff

Select the right people into roles

Managers: your actions speak louder than talk

Remember there’s science here to help

Q&A

Thanks for listening


Further Reading

Fairtlough, G. (2005) The Three Ways Of Getting Things Done. Dorset: Triarchy Press

Hornung, S., & Rousseau, D. M. (2007). Active on the job – Proactive in change. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 43, 401-426

Jia, R., Reich, B. H., Pearson, M. J. (2008). IT service climate: An extension to IT service quality research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 9, Art. 13

Martin, J. (1995). The style and structure of cultures in organizations: Three Perspectives. Organizational Science, 6, 230-232

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45, 109-119

Schneider, B., Gunnarson, S. K., Niles-Jolly, K. (1994). Creating the climate and culture of success. Organizational Dynamics, 23, 17-29

Schulte, M., Ostroff, C., Schmulyian, S., Kinicki, A. (2009). Organizational climate configurations: Relationships to collective attitudes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 618-634

van Dam, K., Oreg, S., Shyns, B. (2008). Daily work contexts and resistance to organisational change: The role of leader-member exchange, development climate, and change process characteristics. Applied Psychology 57, 313-334


the culture of improvement

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