The 6th Australian Conference on Culture and Leadership

Bosses Recognise the Need for Cultural Change

By Matthew Croxford, Human Synergistics International

Ninety per cent of Australians work in a negative culture of blame, indecision and conformity according to the latest study of more than 900 major Australian organisations conducted by Human Synergistics.

The study, involving more than 130,000 employees, says the management styles and actions of the boss are out of touch with the espoused values, nicely framed and hanging on the wall.

Average organisational culture as described by 132,543 employees across New Zealand and Australia as at January 2004
The dominant red and green areas indicate cultures of aggressive and passive negativity: blame, indecision and conformity

For most organisations, the pressure of creating short term wealth is flowing down the organisation in a self-perpetuating pattern of aggressive and then defensive behaviour.

The good news is a lot of bosses are waking up to the fact that it's their management style that creates the culture and needs to change first.

Detailed research results will be issued at the 6th Australian Conference on Culture and Leadership by Human Synergistics Chairperson Shaun McCarthy.

Themed The Culture-Performance Connection: A Mandate for Change, the conference features two of Australia's cultural reform trail blazers - Grahame Maher of Vodafone and Vaughn Richtor of ING Direct.

Each has a valuable story to tell about the challenge of creating a team environment where the values of the organisation truly set the framework for operations - resulting in great success.

Visiting from the University of Illinois in the US, corporate culture expert Dr Robert A. Cooke will address the need to shift management focus away from short term shareholder wealth to make the workplace less competitive and ultimately more profitable.

The research study, carried out with Human Synergistics' Organisational Culture Inventory diagnostic tool, found "most managers work under the influence of misguided assumptions about human behaviour" according to Quentin Jones, a Director at Human Synergistics.

"Managers who demand perfection will often find such stringent demands result in staff feeling nervous about failure, experiencing stress, making mistakes and hiding them for fear of being singled out."

"Similarly, many organisations talk empowerment but then structure jobs and roles in ways that allow for minimal influence," he said.

The Conference will be held on Thursday, 15th July 2004 in Sydney and on Friday, 16 July 2004 in Melbourne.

To find out more please call Matthew Croxford in Sydney 02 9281 5999 or Sophia Kaless in Melbourne 03 9675 0100.