Organizational alignment is an important concept
Organizational alignment is an important concept for leaders to consider. This is especially true in the current fast-paced, complex, and constantly changing environment.
What we say is strategy – What we do is culture
Many organizations are struggling with changes in their external environment as a result of disruptive change. As these external changes are occurring they can lead to non-alignments within the organizations.
Strategy and culture
Corporate culture is particularly enabled as a strategic asset when there is consistency across the organization in values, policies, practices, and strategies. The two prevalent forces shaping corporate activity and results: strategy and culture.
The strategy path defines what needs to be done; the culture path emphasizes how things are normally done. The best companies maintain an alignment between the two paths.
The secret ingredient
Organizational alignment is the secret ingredient that is often missing for many businesses. But a high level of organizational alignment is essential for achieving increasingly better business performance results now and in the future – that’s why organizational alignment is so important.
What does it take to build a strong culture? That’s a tough question. Many leaders and managers doubt whether it is possible to change corporate culture in the first place. But it is!
Short URL & title:
The importance of organizational alignment — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/wja
Share it:
If you enjoyed this article, please take 5 seconds to share it on your social network. Thanks!
Business alignment is a foundational yet NEGLECTED component in the achievement of business results.
Part of the difficulty in creating “everyday business alignment” — connecting daily “desklevel” work to the business strategy/goals — is the cross-functional nature of work.
In every organization work is completed by teams with different priorities working together as a single team toward the same goals – the strategic business goals.
This cross-functional process — and a team’s relationship with their internal customers — is a critical linchpin. It connects the business strategy and goals to everyday work. The process or workflow determines the expectations manager’s set for employees.
These process driven manager expectations and direction guide the everyday activities, practices and behavior in the business.
A well-designed process — that comes from effective working partnerships between teams and their internal customers – is a key ingredient of organizational alignment.
Dear Rick and Timothy,
Criticism is levelled by academics towards this style of alignment since it neglects the possibility that individual employees have values which differ from the values that the organization espouses. I have been trying to criticize this criticism but with very limited results.
Secondly, it seems that organizational alignment (both internal and external) is deemed good, as it increases efficiency and accountability and reduces wastage in terms of resources and time. Is alignment always good, especially if the organization may want to align itself with something that is ethically unsound?