Page 22 - Performance Leadership

Chapter 1 Setting the Scene • 11

particularly organizational behavior. Organizational behavior is a field
of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and struc-
ture have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of apply-
ing such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness. 5
Organizational behavior discusses topics such as motivation, leader-
ship, communication, and learning, but also structure, control, and
measurement.
I heard one management coach put it very eloquently. He said it is
time we let go of the “soft, intangible side” of performance manage-
ment, with managers typing in numbers in spreadsheets that do not
mean anything. Instead we should focus on the “hard and tangible
side” of performance management: human behaviors. After all, people
either do something or they don’t.

Strategic Alignment

Alignment is crucial. Many organizations today are not sufficiently
aligned. This is the result of many mergers and acquisitions, too much
decentralization, and unbridled growth in the past. So there is some
spring cleanup to do, but that is not enough. There are strong business
pressures to increased alignment. Alignment is important for every sin-
gle organization, in order to run an efficient operation and to make
sure you do the right things. But today, alignment is more crucial than
ever. Political factors, economic influences, social trends, and technol-
6
ogy advancements —the four aspects of what is called PEST analysis—
make an overwhelming business case for increased alignment.
The political climate has changed business profoundly in the last
few years. In the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in
July 2002 to address the business scandals of late 2001 and early 2002.
Among other things, it aims to increase corporate transparency. It also
has the specific goal of raising standards for corporate governance. The
act makes CEOs and CFOs of publicly traded companies personally
responsible and liable for the effectiveness of internal controls and the
quality of external reporting. Furthermore, executive management is
now required to immediately report to their stockholders any issues that
they believe will materially affect the performance of the enterprise.
But Sarbanes-Oxley is not the only set of rules. Many other countries