Organizational Culture: A Systems Approach

The influence of organizational culture on performance is increasingly being recognized as a major force driving success in the 21st Century. Many models for organizational culture are widely employed by consultants worldwide. A fundamental weakness in most existing culture models is that they view culture as a stand-alone element within the organization. Accordingly, the tools used to provide insight to executives focus on the culture to the exclusion of other dynamic, interrelated, forces within the organization. We believe that this stand-alone view of culture contributes to the high failure rate of efforts to change the culture. This chapter introduces the Performance Triangle Model as a holistic approach to view organizational culture as part of an intricate, dynamic, interrelated triad of culture, leadership, and systems. We will describe the Performance Triangle and many underlying dimensions that comprise the triad and chart the emergence and development of the model. The later parts of the chapter will discuss practical applications that have been proven using a statistically validated diagnostic instrument that enable executives to recognize what is going in in their organizations then take effective, quick, targeted action. The PTM approach helps executive design agile organizations fit for the 21st Century.