Creating a living culture: the challenges for business leaders

Corporate Governance (Bingley) - 2003
JanThornbury1
1Jan Thornbury has been a management consultant since 1989. She helps her clients to define and implement their strategies, manage major organizational changes and strengthen their corporate cultures. Before going independent in 2000, Jan worked for 11 years at KPMG, first in Germany, then the UK and finally for KPMG International.

Tóm tắt

One of the leadership responsibilities of the board of directors is to establish a statement of values and to ensure that these guiding principles become a basis for action throughout the organization. Where companies do not have a statement of values, or where the values are not accepted, there is a real danger that company staff will act in their own interests, not in the interests of the stakeholders they are meant to serve. At this point they may put at risk the reputation of the whole organization. But how can the board of a large diversified international company hope to establish a culture with common values which will guide the behavior of employees around the world? In this article Jan Thornbury presents the theory and practice which she helped to develop when a number of professional partnerships came together to form KPMG, and which she now uses in working with other organizations. She explains how values are connected with basic beliefs, how they can affect behavior and how they need to be supported by management systems. Then she outlines a process for changing a company culture by analyzing the present values and behaviors, defining the desired culture, implementing an action plan, and measuring the results. Finally she examines the crucial role of the executive team in leading the change program.

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Tài liệu tham khảo

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Thornbury, J. et al. (2000), Living Culture: A Values‐Driven Approach to Revitalising Your Company Culture, Random House Business Books.

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Corporate Governance (Bingley)

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