The Healthy Business Series: Organizational Alignment

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Nearly 20 years ago management expert Thomas Powell wrote a piece for Strategic Management Journal entitled "Organizational Alignment as Competitive Advantage." In this piece, Powell discusses the importance of "integrating" an organization's objectives into its culture for its long-term sustainability. Bottom line, alignment can help boost an organization's ability to thrive.

So, what exactly is the culture of an organization? John Kotter describes this notion of culture as the "norms of behavior and shared values in a group of people." It is exemplified in the way that an organization's individual members act on a day to day basis. Suggests Kotter, "A good test of whether something is embedded in a culture is if our peers, without really thinking, find ways to nudge us back to group norms when we go astray." When an organization's raison d'être is embedded in the very way that its employees act on a day to day basis, i.e. when its mission statement and organizational objectives become a living, breathing reality, then its culture is aligned.

The word culture comes from a Latin stem meaning "to till, cultivate, attend to." MIT's Edgar Schein argues that an organization's culture involves three levels, which include its behavior and artifacts, its values, and (most deeply) its assumptions and beliefs. Those deep down factors that influence actions and often go unnoticed are the very stuff of culture that organizational alignment is most concerned with. As Schein has noted, "Most managers are quite blind to the fact that their strategy and structure are dominated by cultural assumptions and that a history of success and failure hardwires these cultural assumptions into their thinking."

Its easy enough to imagine what might result from a misaligned organizational culture: disengaged employees, weak leadership that is not respected by subordinates, poor quality work product, rapid turnover, the list goes on. But how exactly might an organization go about aligning itself, particularly if it seems to be bleeding at the hip? Schein suggests that cultural change takes time and should not be expected to come quickly. Like the Latin stem for the word culture might suggest, cultural leaders must spend time nurturing, cultivating, attending to, their cultures if they want alignment. Far too often, when leaders realize that their organizations are not aligned, they immediately jump into rebranding or reorganization schemes without first learning from and listening to the existing organization. Instead of leaping blindly into a series of recalibrations, Schein recommends that organizations develop the tools necessary for cultural assessment. Change starts by learning from the existing organization and drilling down to the assumptions that are driving its actions. Then, and only then, can a true plan for change begin.

Works referenced:  Kotter, J. and D. Cohen, The Heart of Change. 2002 Schein, E. "Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture." MIT Sloan Management Review, 1984. Schein, E. "Sense and Nonsense about Culture and Climate." 1999.