Discussion 2: Shared Practice 2: Creating a Sustainable Organization

Discussion 2: Shared Practice 2: Creating a Sustainable Organization

 

In his research to identify what can make a company truly great for the long term, Jim Collins (2005) found an essential personal quality of senior executives that took his research team by surprise: humility combined with intense professional will. All the companies his research identified that made the leap to being truly great companies over a long period of time had a senior executive that exhibited these qualities. These executives were not particularly charismatic, stayed out of the public eye, and rarely boasted about their own professional accomplishments. Each guided his or her company through tough times, helped foster a sustainable organizational culture, and left his or her company with effective managers capable of sustaining success.

For this final Discussion, review the Learning Resources and think about your own professional experiences to identify the management practices that contribute to sustainable organizational culture. Also, reflect on the management practices you have observed or employed that create and sustain a positive and profitable work environment as you prepare for the discussion post below.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 5

Post an explanation of the direct and indirect contributions managers make to create a sustainable organizational culture. In your explanation, select and describe three management practices—from the resources or your professional experience—that you consider to be essential for contributing to a sustainable organizational culture.

Hint: Your answer needs to take into account that creating a sustainable organization culture is not an easy task—the direct and indirect contributions may require the managers make difficult choices that impact employees in different ways.

 

Required Readings

Document: Week 7 Weekly Briefing (PDF)

 

The Weekly Briefing provides an essential introduction to the content and concepts that you will be studying during the week. After viewing the weekly Introduction, the Weekly Briefing should be your initial reading each week.

Bagley, C. E. (2008). Winning legally: The value of legal astuteness. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 378–390.

In this article, Bagley argues that legal astuteness is a valuable managerial capability in several ways. She also contends that managers who are legally astute provide their organizations with competitive advantages.

Banaji, M. R., Bazerman, M. H., & Chugh, D. (2003). How (un)ethical are you? Harvard Business Review, 81(12), 56–64.  Banaji, Bazerman, and Chugh argue that a person’s unconscious biases can favor courses of action that are ethically problematic. Such biases can interfere with hiring decisions, dampen team performance, and prevent effective collaboration. The authors argue for more stringent ethics training for managers and examine four situations where managers may unintentionally make unethical decisions.

Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (2011). Ethical breakdowns. Harvard Business Review, 89(4), 58–65.  In this article, Bazerman and Tenbrunsel illustrate how ethical breakdowns can occur in any organization. They also discuss what individuals, managers, and organizations can do to recognize and prevent situations where ethical breakdowns can occur.

Duska, R. F. (2004). Six cures for current ethical breakdowns. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 58(3), 23–26.

Duska argues that companies in the financial service sector, such as accounting and investment firms, need to safeguard integrity. Instead, many important firms have been guilty of unethical, or ethically questionable, behavior. Duska lists six solutions to turn this situation around.

Posner, B. B. (2010). Values and the American manager: A three-decade perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 91(4), 457–465.

In this article, Posner reviews survey data to examine how values of American managers have changed. He also explores the implications of these changes for organizations.

Collins, J. (2005). Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review, 83(7/8), 136–146.  What kind of a manager can make a company truly great? This article discusses how humility and professional will are essential characteristics for great managers.

Epstein, M. J., Buhovac, A. R., & Yuthas, K. (2010). Implementing sustainability: The role of leadership and organizational culture. Strategic Finance, 91(10), 41–47.

In this article, the authors examine the difficulties of integrating corporate sustainability into organizational culture. The authors profile the efforts of four companies: Nike Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., Home Depot Inc., and Nissan North America Inc.

Leveraging HR and knowledge management in a challenging economy. (2009, June). HR Magazine, 54(6), 1–9.

This article examines the role of the Human Resources department in developing a workplace culture, improving organizational learning, and enhancing competitive advantage.

Pannoni, R., & Ricketts, G. (2010). A new taxonomy for learning. Chief Learning Officer, 9(8), 32–35.

In this article, Pannoni and Ricketts argue that organizations need to blend informal and formal teaching techniques to improve employee performance.

Yates, K., & Vallas, S. (2012). The character of communication. Communication World, 29(3), 23–26.

In this article, Yates and Vallas discuss how senior managers employ communication strategies to manage change and build sustainable performance.

 

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