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[Date Added :
02/02/2010
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After conducting thousands of studies that cover hundreds of issues related to productivity and the workforce, one thing is clear - there is no single organizational element that is correlated with high performance. Rather, there are five.
During the past 40 years, the research teams at the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) have studied what separates high-performing organizations from their lower-performing counterparts. The results of that research have consistently shown that companies that excel in the following five domains are typically high performers:
1. Strategy
2. Leadership
3. Talent
4. Culture
5. Market
In December 2009, i4cp studied the differences between high-performing and low-performing organizations across these domains, in order to determine whether certain issues or traits have increased in importance in the current economic climate.
According to The High-Performance Organization Survey, the gap between higher-performing and lower-performing organizations has widened considerably from previous studies. Based on a scale from 1 to 7, high-performance organizations scored an average of 6.03 across these domains, compared with 2.88 for low performers.
Specifically the new study found the following in each domain:
1. Strategy
High-performance organizations outscored low performers by 6.14 compared with 2.58 in the critical area of Strategy. In looking at specific areas of strength vs. weakness, it's clear that an organization's strategic approach is vitally important to high performance. The study shows that the single most widely cited strategic practice among high-performance organizations was, "My organization's philosophy statement is consistent with its strategy."
2. Leadership
In Leadership, the gap between high-performance and low-performance organizations was 5.96 compared with 2.47. Leaders can't do their jobs alone. They must be able to convince others of just how important their own behaviors are to the success of the whole organization.
3. Talent
With high-performance organizations scoring 5.82 in Talent, compared with 2.73 for low performers, the gap between the two is certainly wide. High-performance organizations know that effective Talent Management moves beyond a focus on HR practices, processes and systems, to a strategic approach that is linked to business outcomes.
4. Culture
The difference between high and low performers in the all-important Culture category is 5.99 compared with 2.94. Being seen as a "good place to work" is a solid indicator that an organization is a high performer in this domain. Not only is this characteristic the most widely cited by high-performance organizations, it's also the biggest differentiator from low performers.
5. Market
High-performance organizations scored very high in market or customer focus (6.23) vs. lower performers (3.69). The research shows that high performance is associated with a strong emphasis on customer service, including vigorous efforts to serve customers better than anyone else in the industry. |
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