The values your organisation strive for, must be clear and well articulated. The organisational values must be brought into focus regularly through various programmes and activities. Values must come alive! One way to engage with new staff is through an intentionally designed induction programme. Older staff must be good role models, otherwise they influence new staff to practice poor habits. This will not sustain your good intentions of the induction programme. Sooner, than later you will find young staff acquiring poor values. This is a challenge for many leaders, teaching old dogs new tricks My experience leads me to explore the area of staff personalities and how to manage them. I have to concede that theory and practice do not always mirror each other. Anil Singh 3 Cultural Problems That Cause Good Employees to Go Bad Even the best employee will be pushed toward the dark side if the culture at your company has one of these fatal flaws. BY JESSICA STILLMAN. We like to think of character as stable. Id never do x bad thing! we tell ourselves, but a parade of findings in psychology and behavioral economics shows that our choices are often a lot more malleable than wed like to admit. Change the surroundings in which you make a decision and you can usually nudge people toward changing their behavior--for good or ill. Thats useful to know if youre trying to improve enrollment in your companys 401k or to get more people to become organ donors, but its also an important reality for business leaders to keep in mind as they build their company culture, asserts marketer and psychology buff Gregory Ciotti in a recent Medium post. In his book Behavioral Ethics in Organizations, Dr. Muel Kaptein gives an astute summation of the scientific literature that evaluates how different surroundings can affect decision making, Ciotti reports. His findings show that the leadership of the company, the values employees share, and the interaction among teams, if handled poorly, can all cause otherwise good people to make bad decisions. So what sorts of barrels spoil even the best apples inside? Here are a few of the dangerous cultural issues that Ciotti flags. 1. Everyone is crazy busy Of course you dont want your team members sitting around idle, but if you want them to be scrupulous about their work and thoughtful about their decisions, neither do you want them to be always working at a frantic pace. Obviously, rushed or exhausted employees can make dangerous mistakes, but perceived lack of time also contributes to the sort of selfish behavior that probably wont benefit your team over the long haul. Kaptein cites a study that first had theology students preach the story of the Good Samaritan, then walk from one building to another. Along the way, they would encounter a man in distress (in actuality, this person was planted by the researchers). The researchers found that when the students were given ample time, nearly all of them chose to help the man, but when they were told to move as fast as possible, 90 percent of participants ignored the man entirely, Ciotti explains. Put enough pressure on your team members and they may become similarly blind to helping out colleagues or keeping in mind the larger aims for which theyre working. There is a sincere need for leadership to recognize that more hours at your desk doesnt necessarily increase the output of your work, Ciotti recommends. Let employees know that its OK to say no. Fires burn only when they have room to breathe, after all. 2. Youre not the best role model Perhaps it should be obvious, but for Ciotti it bears repeating: If leadership doesnt set a good example--when it comes to the little things or your businesss core values--that disregard for the right way to do things will trickle down. Theres no escaping this leadership law of gravity. The behavior of leaders cascades down to the rest of the group. A psychological phenomenon known as negative social proof would argue that the right thing to do becomes questionable when people see the right people doing the wrong things, Ciotti writes. Sometimes this happens when the boss plays fast and loose with the rules, but sometimes its simply a matter of sloppy or poorly thought-out word choice. Statements like We do things by the book around here have been shown to actively discourage creative thinking. Be careful about what sort of behavior that leadership, unwritten rules, and key team members project; people are very sharp in picking up on these subtleties, he urges bosses. 3. Your culture is unclear Maybe you think your companys cultural values are self-evident. Are you really sure about that? Because unclear values can lead to drift and eventually to counterproductive behavior. Its easy for its-not-my-job syndrome to rear its ugly head when nobody in the culture knows what the company values, Ciotti warns. Leaving values to develop as they may creates a culture clouded by the haze of uncertainty, he continues. Do you value finished work or great work? Do you value and reward candor in the workplace? Do you default to transparency and cultivate honest communication? Dont be above creating an internal company culture manifesto, because if you dont know what your company values, the members of your team certainly wont. If youre sure your company isnt suffering from any of these cultural problems, dont rest entirely easy. Ciotti cites several more issues that are worth checking out in the complete post. inc/jessica-stillman/3-cultural-problems-that-cause-good-employees-to-go-bad.html?cid=sf01002
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:44:58 +0000
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