Creating a learning organization If companies are to succeed and achieve more during times of volatility, opportunity and change, they need to be learning organizations where everyone and every function are encouraged and supported to continually adapt and improve. Overview Peter Senge proposed that organizations need to become learning organizations, where the full abilities of …
THE EIGHT PRECONDITIONS FOR DIVERSITY Diversity and competitive advantage In a world where standardization and homogeneity dominate, diversity provides a distinctive source of competitive advantage: Eight preconditions are necessary for a business or team to benefit from identity-group differences. Overview Diversity is about understanding and respecting the different perspectives of our employees and customers, and …
Working successfully with people from different cultures The best organizations recognize that, in a world where standardization and processes dominate, it is the combination of different people and the fusion of different ideas that generates progress and promotes success. The best businesses reach out to customers and employees, managing and valuing cross-cultural relationships and ensuring …
Understanding how organizations think, behave and develop An organization’s culture can be defined as: the patterns of behavior that are encouraged or discouraged by people and systems over time Understanding the components of culture is essential for them to be managed effectively. Overview An organization’s culture is largely shaped by four factors: its systems, symbols, …
ECOSYSTEMS, PARADIGMS AND THE CULTURE WEB Understanding and managing the culture of your team or organization Organizations can be viewed as a system of mutually reinforcing resources – an ecosystem. Closely related to the ecosystem is another factor affecting a firm’s success: its cultural paradigm. When people join an organization they are taught that ‘this …
Connecting HR with business strategy The Human Resources Management (HRM) model integrates human resource plans directly into business strategy. While assuming some aspects of corporate life as given, such as employee buy-in and effective team work, the HRM model serves to encourage you to gather the facts, focus your thinking, illuminate insightful information, examine the …
Benefiting from cultural diversity Globalization has brought many benefits and opportunities, as well as risks. One of the greatest advantages is the ability to work with new people, cultures and perspectives. Management writer Fons Trompenaars highlights several principles to ensure success. Managing cross-cultural relationships involves three stages: 1. Being aware of the origins, nature and …
Developing organizational learning Double-loop learning is a way to break people out of a cycle that just perpetuates the way things are done. Double-loop learning encourages critical reflection of an issue, enabling people to question what under-pins accepted methods, thinking and processes. Quite simply, it encourages people to ask why something is the way it …
It’s not what we know that matters, but how we react to what we don’t know The way people think, as individuals and collectively, affects the decisions they make in ways that are far from obvious and rarely understood. John Hammond, Ralph Keeney and Howard Raiffa provide intriguing insights in this area. Thinking flaws cause …
Learning to build your skills and effectiveness The self-development cycle is a method of planning development activities in a rigorous, thorough and practical way. The success of the self-development cycle depends on repeating the planning process regularly (at least every year, preferably every six months or when circumstances change, such as taking on a new …
