Corporate sin

Leadership is in a state of retreat bordering on confusion. Not only is leadership out-of-date, but out-of-touch with the reality of work, workers and the marketplace. Organizational culture is key to enterprise. It follows this precise formula: (1) The structure of work determines the function of work; (2) The function of work creates the workplace culture; (3) The workplace culture dictates the dominant organizational behavior; (4) The dominant organizational behavior determines organizational success or failure. Moreover, there are three possible types of cultures that provide a clue as to the healthiness of the organization: (1) CULTURE OF COMFORT. This culture may be labeled "unconscious incompetence," because it was not aware that something was wrong. It has a paternalistic management style, where managers act as parents to workers. These workers have a "please other" reactive mentality, that is, reacting to demands rather than anticipating work requirments. Workers act as if obedient 12-year-olds in 50-year-old bodies. This management dependence has dominated American enterprise for the past sixty years. (2) CULTURE OF COMPLACENCY. This culture is labeled "consciously incompetence" because interventions have been launched to increase worker loyalty and productivity through entitlement programs, incentives and concessions. These interventions have proven counterproductive leading to a state of permissive paternalism. This has resulted in workers being counterdependent on the company for their total well being. It has also given birth to the worker as spoiled child, suspended in terminal adolescence and arrested development. All attempts to change the culture lie outside the individual worker. This culture has come to dominate late 20th century companies, leading to strained competitive status, notably in the automotive industry. (3) CULTURE OF CONTRIBUTION. This is labed the culture of "conscious competence," as it promotes interdependent management. Workers and managers are partners in enterprise in an open system of exchange of ideas and information. Maturity is the byword. This culture is a self-organizing system of self-management and self-direction workers who make timely decisions at the level of consequences. It is not a climate of harmony but contention where conflict, confrontation and disagreement are common. The difference is that these natural tensions are managed producing the glue that holds the organization together and on task. Most organizations subscribed to the Culture of Contribution but do not practice its dictums. The route to cooperation is a challenging one: (1) POLITENESS STAGE. We are nice to each other because we want others to think well of us. (2) SUSPICIOUS STAGE. To protect ourselves from what we don't know or understand, we pass what is said or demanded of us through the filter of our suspicions. (3) FIGHT, FLIGHT, or ADAPT STAGE. We question what is expected of us, and why, and what our role is going to be in the activity. We fight for our rights, for what is coming to us. Or we take flight, adapt, submit and surrender, and go along to get along. (4) COOPERATION and OPEN COMMUNICATION STAGE. Our concerns have been addressed and met. We have spoken and been heard, and our fears have been allayed. We are ready for trust and collaboration. When stages (2) and (3) are avoided, the result is compliance not cooperation. Compliance is coercive; cooperation is voluntary. With compliance, a worker brings his body to work but not necessarily his mind. With cooperation, a worker brings his total self to the effort because it comes from within; it is not demanded from without.