Healthy Organizational Culture

Here is the text of a paper I wrote for my Management of Information Organizations class. The prompt asked us to discuss what we thought made for a healthy organization. Some of our readings are in the Works Cited section. Also, here is a cool video related to motivation in the workplace.

Three Pillars of Healthy Organizations

I’ve worked in many different kinds of organizations, from a fast food sandwich chain, to a community college library, to a grassroots political canvassing campaign. My experiences as a worker and the readings for this class will serve as the grist for developing an organizational management philosophy. In this essay, I will discuss three central pillars to a healthy organizational culture: honest communication, clear expectations and distributed autonomy. Each of these ideals are imbricated onto one another such that each relies on the others to be fulfilled. In the paragraphs that follow, I will explain what I mean by these terms, situate them within our class readings, and give examples of how an organization should implement these ideals.

Honest Communication

The phrase “honest communication” refers to the need for all parties in a particular organization to be in two-way communication with the all other parts of the organization, and this communication needs to be honest and forthcoming. Secrecy and lack of communication among parts of an organization breed fear, resentment and hostility. Honest communication allows the work of the organization to move forward without political turf wars.

For example, take the case of a branch library of a metropolitan library. From the pages, on up through the library assistants, to the librarians and the library manager, each person should understand how their role fits within the larger structure and have the means to communicate concerns about those roles. This common understanding is only possible with honest communication. If someone is unhappy with their role, they should be able to communicate that. If the managers cannot remedy the unhappiness (say, by paying the library pages more money), then they should be forthcoming about why they can’t and give them the opportunity to decide whether they want to continue to work in the organization.

The “command and control” structure of the industrial hierarchical organization fails in this respect, because those on the lower rungs of the hierarchy are only the receivers of communication by fiat. This form of communication fails to achieve a necessary level of reciprocity. Furthermore, Rutter argues, in Lessons from Slime Mold, that this form of organizational communication results in rigid structures and sluggish change mechanisms within those structures. Organizations simply die off in rapidly evolving markets, she argues, if they retain these rigid, slow-changing structures.

To piggyback on Rutter’s admonitions, I want to go further and emphasize the need for honesty and integrity in order to have ethically sound relationships among parts of the organization. Ghoshal (2005) describes how certain management theories, which have been propagated by business schools over the last thirty years, have produced work environments of distrust in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy:

“Combine agency theory with transaction costs economics, add in standard versions of game theory and negotiation analysis, and the picture of the manager that emerges is one that is now very familiar in practice: the ruthlessly hard-driving, strictly top-down, command-and-control focused, shareholder-value-obsessed, win-at-any-cost business leader…”
In order to avoid this type of managerial style, one needs to trust her workers and achieve a level of communicative reciprocity with them. This reciprocity benefits the individuals, because it produces a healthy work environment, as well as the organization, because the workers are more productive if they feel trusted (Ryan 2010).

Clear Expectations

“Clear expectations” refers to the need for all members or workers in an organization to understand their role within the larger structure. I mention this in the “Honest Communication” section, because the clarity of one’s expectations results from honest communication. As a future manager, it will be my job to clearly define and explain the expectations of workers.

From the perspective of the worker — a perspective I’m most familiar with — having clear expectations allows me to self-regulate my work. If I understand what is expected of me, then I can think about my behavior and determine if it is up to par. (Here again, one of the pillars of healthy organizations is imbricated with another: distributed autonomy. More on that later.) Furthermore, having clear expectations allows me to justify certain behaviors. For example, if my expectations as a library assistant include finding a reference librarian for complex reference questions, then doing that is justifiable. If there was ever a concern about why I did that, I could point to the clear expectations I was given.

From the perspective of the manager, clear expectations also allows you to regulate your workers without micromanaging them. If you clearly explain the expectations of his or her work, then it is easy to determine whether an employee is living up to those expectations. When expectations are unclear, employees are justified in saying, “I didn’t know.” Furthermore, as a manager, I would want to be honest and forthcoming with my workers if they weren’t completing their work as I expected (as described in “Honest Communication”). Clear expectations makes this easy. I could simply say, “I’m sorry, but you aren’t meeting the expectations I set forth. Please change your behavior or there will be consequences.” (I might put it a little more nicely, if no less straightforwardly.) When everyone understands their roles, and the expectations that come with those roles, then a healthy and earnest discussion can take place when some part of the organization isn’t fulfilling its role.

Distributed Autonomy

Finally, the notion of “distributed autonomy” refers to a managerial style that allows relative autonomy among workers. As I mention in the previous section, clear expectations are the prerequisite for distributed autonomy in an organization. Liz Ryan argues for, if not in name, the concept of distributed autonomy throughout her article “Five Ways to Ensure Mediocrity in Your Organization.” According to Ryan, mediocrity among workers results when they feel stifled by distrust, unappreciative and uncommunicative managers, and when managers encourage docility, instead of ingenuity, and quash “individualism.” Distributed autonomy, instead, allows workers to work independently and trusts that they will work when given the time. By trusting that workers will work, given time and space, managers who allow for distributed autonomy also encourage individual achievement and ingenuity.

Distributed autonomy works especially well in organizations with “knowledge workers.” Without going into too much detail, we will define “knowledge workers” as those who need to use creativity in their job tasks and whose work “products” might not always be tangible. In these environments, when workers are given space and time for creativity, they produce much better work (Pink 2010).

In conclusion, I want to emphasize that honest communication, clear expectations and distributed autonomy are three ideals for healthy organizations. To be clear, I don’t think these three ideals are easy to achieve. In the messy reality of a specific organization, there will almost certainly be roadblocks to achieving them. Nevertheless, I think they should serve as guiding principles for any organization.
Works Cited

Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad Management Theories Are Destroying Good Management Practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(1), 75-91. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.

Rutter, K. (January 1, 2009). Lessons from slime mold: How to survive and thrive in ever-changing organizational environments. Bulletin- American Society for Information Science and Technology, 35, 6, 29-37.

Ryan, Liz. (May 7, 2010). Five Ways to Ensure Mediocrity in Your Organization. BusinessWeek. Bloomberg. Articled retrieved from www.businessweek.com on June 28, 2010.

Pink, Dan, RSA. (April 1, 2010). RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. YouTube. Retrieved on June 28, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc.

- Ian, reposted from ianjo.com/blog