The Human Factor to Profitability: Building a People-Centered Culture for Long-Term Success PDF
Preview The Human Factor to Profitability: Building a People-Centered Culture for Long-Term Success
Advance Praise “Decades ago Phillips Plastics Corporation informally defined its culture as the People Process. Simply put ‘. . . all people are important and people working together achieve more . . .’ Some grasp the concept, but Drs. Jeanette Kersten and Kelly La Venture embraced the meaning, finding people in diverse industries and businesses who share the belief that its people are a critical part of an organization’s success.” —Debbie Cervenka, Executive Vice President (former), Phillips Plastics Corporation “The authors of The Human Factor to Profitability have scored a winner with this book that finally brings to the forefront how profitability doesn’t happen through osmosis. Rather, it’s a careful mix of creating a culture where people are the most significant catalysts to profitability. While many organizations give lip service to this mantra, The Human Factor to Profitability provides concrete strategies for creating a people-process culture. Rich with examples, inclusive of top leadership thinkers, and robust with evidence-based practices, this book provides a clear road map to achieving profitability through people-process initiatives. Whether you are a CEO, HR professional, organization development consultant, or business manager, this book is a must read from the first page to the last.” —Dr. Mitchell Kusy, Professor, Antioch University, Corporate Psychologist, Co-author, Toxic Workplace! Managing Toxic 1 Personalities and Their Systems of Power “With the publication of The Human Factor to Profitability: Building a People-Centered Culture for Long-Term Success, Drs. Kersten and La Venture have written the must-read text of the year for all of us—consultants, academicians, business leaders, and students —who work each day to keep the and between people and profits.” —Dr. Diane B. Stoy “This book captures the essence of what it takes to build and sustain a High-Performance Organization. Drs. Kersten and La Venture delved into the history to glean the insight on the impact and effectiveness of corporate cultures. The authors identify several elements needed to create a high-performing, people- centered culture. One of those is trust. This cannot be overstated. Many in authority fail to become leaders mainly, because they lack the trust of the people they are supposed to lead. Implementing the concepts and insights gained from this book will help you transform your organization.” —Dr. Raj Beekie, Adjunct Professor 2 3 This Research has been approved by the UW–Stout IRB as required by the Code of Federal Regulations Title 45 Part 46. Published by River Grove Books Austin, TX www.rivergrovebooks.com Copyright ©2015 University of Wisconsin-Stout All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder. Distributed by River Grove Books Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group Kelly La Venture’s author photo by Bob Gross Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. Print ISBN: 978-1-63299-054-9 eBook ISBN: 978-1-63299-055-6 First Edition 4 Contents FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER 1: People-Process Culture CHAPTER 2: People-First Core Values CHAPTER 3: The People-Process Culture Approach to Organizational Climate CHAPTER 4: High-Performance Organizations CHAPTER 5: High-Performance Organizations Are Great Places to Work CHAPTER 6: Trust Above All Else CHAPTER 7: Communication Is Vital to Success 5 CHAPTER 8: Leadership and Organizational Culture CHAPTER 9: Finding—and Keeping—the Right Employees CHAPTER 10: Lifelong Learning and Professional Development CHAPTER 11: Organizational Resiliency CHAPTER 12: Responsible Global Citizenship CHAPTER 13: Potential Types of People-Focused Organizations CHAPTER 14: The Future of People-Process Cultures REFERENCES INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHORS 6 Foreword In 1964, a small, group of manufacturing pioneers helped a new plastics firm make its first part—a white calendar frame—in an abandoned creamery in rural Wisconsin. Cramped for space, short on cash, but big on dreams, they unknowingly started on a journey that would lead to one of America’s great manufacturing success stories: Phillips Plastics Corporation. Along the way, they discovered that all people have intrinsic worth and value and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. From this core belief, a high-performance organizational culture evolved that focused on people as the key to individual, business, and community success. Called the people process, this underlying value system served as the company’s foundation, supporting business structure, strategies, and tactics. For Bob Cervenka, cofounder of Phillips, making long-term investments in people and communities yielded more than financial dividends. Quite simply, it was the right thing to do. As Debbie Cervenka, vice president of marketing stated, “The impact a people-centered culture has on the workforce—and the workforce means everybody from upper management to the people working on the plant floor—is directly related to a trust factor. If you share information with your people, your people can verify and understand that the information is true and honest, [if] it’s given on a regular basis, openly and willingly. They [the employees] begin to trust in the organization. Trust isn’t something that you can buy.” Organizations today are challenged by a war for talent. An organization’s culture is considered part of its competitive advantage for attracting and retaining that talent. In people- centered cultures, the employees are the primary attribute of the organization, and organizations develop business processes around and in concert with employees as the central concept. As 7 a result, healthy workplaces are formed that focus on employee well-being, information sharing, and communication, which results in improved organizational performance. In describing this type of workplace, Debbie Cervenka said, “What really made a difference was when you share information, you take down walls and barriers in an organization. So you know whether the company is doing well. If it isn’t doing well, why [isn’t it]? So if you communicate that to people and they see that, at the end of the year, they see you’re having a two-percent bonus instead of a six-percent bonus, they know why. They know that it’s an investment in the future. They know that every person is going to benefit. Second, we chose to compensate people for talent in their base salary. But, collectively, when you run your organization, valuing all people [and] respecting all people, you find that those people take ownership and pride, and the end result becomes meaningful. Because we built the best products, . . . our sales grew as a direct result of having people committed to the organization—people who wanted to excel and who didn’t just want a job. They actually wanted a career and to be a part of building something.” The purpose of this book is to provide access to information, knowledge, and learning relative to this concept. It is meant for students, business leaders, human resources (HR) and talent leaders, organizational change facilitators, and anyone with an interest and passion for high-performance organizational cultures. This book provides background related to the concepts of organizational culture, organizational climate, and high- performance organizations (HPOs). Readers will also become familiar with the concepts and impact of the people-focused culture philosophy, not only as it was originally implemented at Phillips Plastics under Bob and Debbie Cervenka, the practical application illustrated by the business leaders featured in this book, and the research presented by the authors. It also presents the emerging research on the organizational structures post economic recession and how organizations are changing to successfully attract and retain employees using a people-centered approach that promotes corporate social responsibility and more sustainable organizations. This book provides tremendous insight about the impact and importance of people-centered 8 organizational cultures in today’s highly competitive global business climate. Kat Lui, PhD, and Debbie Cervenka 9
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