Page 156 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 9 Values and Culture • 145

creates undesirable outcomes, as they often do not take cultural dif-
ferences into account. There are some areas of management that are
truly objective and culturally independent, such as “operations research
techniques” for process optimization, but performance management is
not one of these areas. Organizational culture is often based on the val-
ues of a founder who is grounded in a certain national culture. Think
of IKEA, which has a very Swedish culture, or General Electric, which
is a very American company. The success of Toyota through its inte-
grated value chain is also very much related to its Japanese culture.
An interesting study compared the American, French, and Dutch
7
factories of a multinational conglomerate. The three plants produced
the same goods and used the same machines and processes, making
cultural aspects a more easily distinguishing factor. The study described
the American culture as very contract-driven. For every job there was
a clear description of tasks, responsibilities, and review criteria—leav-
ing it open to employees as to how to achieve the goals. It is no won-
der “management by objectives” comes from the United States. The
working relationships are hierarchic (you “work for someone”), based
on a contract between free individuals. As a result, the controls are very
formal. This top-down approach means there will be no problem con-
necting performance indicators to personal reward systems, openly pub-
licizing ranked performance data, or using new objectives and metrics
to drive change.
The French culture is about “honor.” The staff does not focus pri-
marily on who they work for, but rather their professional drive is based
on being part of a social and professional group. This leads to a certain
autonomy of decision making, where authority is based on the group
that the professional belongs to. The French management style is hier-
archic; however, the control systems are less formal. Changes are made
on hints from management, and it is possible to massage and work the
systems based on personal relationships. Openly sharing feedback infor-
mation across the various professional domains in a French company
will likely not work well, as it violates the honor of the groups. Having
each group collect and share feedback among themselves will work
much better.
The study described the Dutch culture as egalitarian. Decisions are
fact-based, like anywhere else, but are not rolled out through the