Page 157 - Performance Leadership

146 • Part III Principles from the Values and Social Dimensions

hierarchy. Instead, the decision-making process consists of extensive dis-
cussions on all levels of the organization, where employees feel free to
disagree with their managers or top management. Decisions then are
made based on a consensus, which is the objective of all participants in
the discussion. When new data become available, anyone is free to
reopen the discussion. This style is anything but hierarchic, and also not
very formal. The controls, however, are formal; people do not appreci-
ate shortcuts and cheating the system. Performance management is not
a control instrument, but a platform for all employees to discuss.
There are several frameworks by which to describe and categorize
8
cultures. Often these frameworks use dimensions between two
extremes to classify a culture on that specific characteristic. Most of the
frameworks focus on describing national cultures, and deal with many
social issues. However, some of the dimensions used also apply to cor-
porate cultures, and they affect the way performance management
should be implemented. These dimensions are:

• Group versus individual focus
• Meritocracy versus aristocracy
• Rules versus relational orientation
• Long-term versus short-term orientation
• Theory X versus theory Y
• Internal versus external orientation

For each of these dimensions I will describe the typical management
processes, performance indicators, as well as feedback and reward mech-
anisms. And although the list of dysfunctional behaviors could be end-
less, I will provide some examples of what happens if you implement
performance management in the wrong cultural way. The examples
vary per dimension, but frustration, dissonance, lack of commitment,
and underperformance can be expected in every single case.

Group versus Individual Focus
In individualistic cultures, managers seek information from various par-
ties, take everything into consideration, and then make “the right” deci-
sion that is communicated to the rest of the group. People are held
personally accountable for their results. Performance indicators are