Unternehmenskultur

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• Publisher: Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9783867935739
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Unternehmenskultur

Eine werteorientierte Unternehmensführung gilt als Erfolgsfaktor für die Zukunft. Doch wodurch zeichnet sich eine solche Führung aus? Wie können Unternehmen dadurch ihre Wettbewerbsfähigkeit fördern? Und wie bringen Firmen ihre Innovationskultur voran und generieren neuartige Ideen?Der vorliegende E-Book-Reader ergänzt die Schwerpunktausgabe "Unternehmenskultur" unseres Magazins change im März 2014. Die Beiträge zeigen, wie Unternehmenserfolg und Unternehmenskultur zusammenhängen. Beispiele aus großen internationalen Firmen geben konkrete Anhaltspunkte, wie ein Innovations- und Wertemanagement angestoßen und umgesetzt werden kann. Bei den Texten handelt es sich um Auszüge aus Büchern des Verlags Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Success Factor: Corporate Culture (Leseprobe)

Auszug aus:

Sonja A. Sackmann, Bertelsmann Stiftung

Success Factor: Corporate Culture

Developing a Corporate Culture for High Performance and Long-term Competitiveness

Six Best Practices

Gütersloh 2006

ISBN 978-3-89204-878-7 (Print)

ISBN 978-3-86793-367-4 (PDF)

ISBN 978-3-86793-368-1 (EPUB)

© Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh

Preface

The inexorable march of globalization and digitalization in business and society has placed new demands on the competence, flexibility and mobility of managers and employees in every company. In particular, the internationalization of markets and the resulting challenges to a company’s continuity have fundamentally altered both the responsibilities of leadership and its complexity. Companies that cling to rigid hierarchies, centralized management structures and traditional practices may succeed in the short term, but they face dwindling growth and lost jobs down the road.

At the same time, the way people think about themselves—and about their jobs—has changed fundamentally. Wherever managers rely on fixed rules and authoritarian structures, employees will respond with resentment and resistance, and eventually they will refuse to cooperate. In corporate and government offices alike, today’s leaders must recognize that people want a part in actively developing their workplace. They want to be involved in the decision-making process, and they want work that engages their skills and creativity. Only a corporate culture of partnership and dialogue-oriented management can establish the conditions in which motivation flourishes, creativity thrives and employees identify with their company’s mission and goals. Only when a company and its leaders embrace their social responsibility does its performance contribute to the sustainable development of society.

Like many other business leaders in the period after World War II, I experienced firsthand what a company can achieve when its people have that “we” feeling of working together for a common goal. Granted, times have changed. World politics and the global economy have changed—but the fundamental principles of leadership remain as relevant as ever. They rest squarely on decentralized organizations and maximum delegation of responsibility. Thus, no matter how large the company, effective leaders offer talented entrepreneurs scope for creativity. They engage their employees by inviting them to question how the work is done and to share in the company’s success. They respect the diverse cultures and religions represented in their workforce, their communities and their markets.

The key to a company’s success still lies in people working together for a goal they understand and share. Underpinning this are its corporate governance models and its constitution, which set forth the rights and responsibilities of employees and managers alike. Its leaders set the tone. Inevitably, the people in charge bear responsibility for shaping the corporate culture. They must model partnership, dialogue and a strong work ethic. They must live the values they proclaim. Only then can everyone identify with the company and its goals. Many senior managers have yet to recognize the enormous impact of the corporate culture on a company’s continuity, growth and success.

But effective business leaders do not stop at establishing sound governance models and corporate cultures. They also review and adapt them in response to changes in society, the economy and the working world. The case studies presented here offer proof that a partnership-oriented corporate culture and business success are not mutually exclusive—on the contrary, they go hand in hand. Examining each of these exemplary companies and the cornerstones of their corporate cultures should encourage all of us to actively and thoughtfully pursue the same path. To the companies that participated, the researchers at Booz Allen Hamilton and the Bertelsmann Stiftung, and the author of this book, I extend a sincere compliment: I learned a great deal from this study.

Reinhard Mohn

Founder and member of the Board of Trustees,

Bertelsmann Stiftung, Gütersloh

Foreword to the German edition

Business leaders at the start of the 21st century face major challenges on all sides. The markets for jobs, products and capital are increasingly international, even global. New technologies call for new business practices. Demographic change brings both structural and human repercussions. In a setting that is rife with uncertainty and constantly changing, it becomes all too easy to lose sight of crucial values. Therefore, we must intensify the search for promising people-oriented approaches to leadership and corporate culture.

There are no easy answers to what makes a successful leader. Furthermore, the range of opinions about corporate culture and the variety of strategies put forth for corporate leaders make it difficult to get to the heart of the matter. Identifying the factors that propel corporate success means more than seeking out what Hermann Simon called the “hidden champions.” It means looking beyond successful strategies to the “hidden cultures” that quietly but unerringly advance those strategies. It means exploring how the leaders of thriving companies articulate and renew that corporate culture. “Better to bloom in the shadows than to wither in the sun’s glare,” said Michael Hilti as he accepted the Carl Bertelsmann Prize 2003. His words very accurately described the philosophy of all the companies nominated for that year’s prize.

What lies at the core of these successful companies? What factors have made them competitive in the first place and keep them so despite external forces? How do they motivate managers and employees to identify with the company’s goals? What organizational and management structures do they establish to unleash creativity and spur dynamic growth? Is there, in fact, a straightforward model for thriving in a globalized world?

When a company fails, explanations come readily to mind. The reasons range from misjudged markets or products, unfavorable cost structures and site aspects and poor planning for succession to lack of leadership and mistakes by employees and managers.

On the other hand, such supposedly soft parameters as a positive corporate culture and effective leadership do not yet spring to mind when people think about the factors that underpin a company’s success. To heighten public awareness of their significance, the Bertelsmann Stiftung investigated leadership and corporate culture in a project for the Carl Bertelsmann Prize 2003. Its researchers studied companies all across Europe that for decades had modeled a consensus-oriented, people-focused culture of leadership and dialogue and achieved success while doing so. The case studies confirmed that this model of success necessarily went hand in hand with a keen awareness of social responsibility. The evaluation of the research and case studies supports the conclusion that corporate culture and leadership are indeed success factors.

Despite the diversity of their approaches to establishing a corporate culture, the best companies all drew their entrepreneurial vigor from a positive attitude, a concentration on success and a focus on their own strengths. Their leaders viewed the competence, motivation, commitment and creativity of the company’s managers and employees as crucial assets. They recognized the firm’s philosophy, leadership values and core competencies as its most important capital. Their leadership depended on self-discipline and trust.

The following structures and practices ran through the case studies like a seam of gold:

1.The commitment to setting transparent and coherent guidelines and following them consistently

2.The internalization and conscious modeling of the corporate culture and management principles

3.Continual attention to the corporate culture at all levels, with purposeful training to maintain it

4.The exercise of social responsibility by enhancing employees’ quality of life and supporting projects that benefit society

5.Participative management and the promotion of communication between employees and their supervisors

6.Emphasis on a culture of innovation and learning, with a willingness to learn from mistakes

7.Insistence on performance-oriented organizational structures that rely on partnership, cooperation and respect

8.Measures to ensure continuity of leadership by planning ahead for succession to top positions as well as selecting senior managers from within the company

9.Training and continuing education within a framework of systematic employee development, taking into account the corporate culture and management practices

10. The rigorous formulation of the rights and responsibilities of managers and employees within the corporate culture

With this book, Success Factor: Corporate Culture, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Booz Allen Hamilton offer business managers, employees, and economic and social leaders a practical guide to developing the leadership practices and organizational cultures so needed in today’s complex world. We are particularly grateful to the author, Sonja A. Sackmann, an active member of the commission for the Carl Bertelsmann Prize 2003, who systematically evaluated its findings. We also owe special thanks to the companies who participated so constructively in the study.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult.

Gütersloh/Munich, August 2004

Author’s preface to the English edition

Success Factor Corporate Culture appeared first in German (Erfolgsfaktor Unternehmenskultur) in late 2004. That book grew out of discussions and research conducted to determine criteria and identify candidates for the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titel
• Impressum
• Inhalt
• Vorwort
• Unternehmenskultur als Bedingung für unternehmerischen Erfolg
• Werte. Was die Gesellschaft zusammenhält. (Leseprobe)
• Wertemanagement und Wertschöpfung in Unternehmen (Leseprobe)
• Innovationen im Unternehmen kultivieren (Leseprobe)
• Success Factor: Corporate Culture (Leseprobe)
• Assessment, Evaluation, Improvement: Success through Corporate Culture (Leseprobe)