Building Healthy Organizations

Companies like Southwest Airlines, Zappos.com, and Nordstrom have been successful because they rely on sound technology and business strategy. However, “organizational health” often drives employee motivation and customer loyalty. Organizational health is much broader than corporate culture because it establishes the workplace in which other business functions can operate well. In other words, healthy organizations create a positive workplace that keeps employees satisfied and committed. Low political behavior and turnover, high cohesion and morale, and a more unified sense of purpose are often characteristics of this environment.

A firm’s HR department and top managers are key to making companies healthier. HR professionals function as leaders by developing good policies that make the workplace more positive. This often includes management development, performance feedback, and fair rewards. They also act as advisors to top leaders and provide a sounding board for the CEO. The CEO often pushes the idea that organizational health is an important issue. The following approaches should help managers lead efforts to create healthy cultures:

• Developing a positive leadership unit: Put together a group of leaders who trust each other and who can develop a positive way of interacting.

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• Creating alignment around a common purpose: The leadership team should identify and agree on the company’s mission, vision, and goals for success.

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• Communicating the company’s approach: Once a purpose is established, it needs to be discussed frequently with employees to unify them and build a common understanding of the workplace.

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• Using HR practices to support the workplace: All of the traditional HR functions should be utilized to create alignment around the purpose.

The ability to develop healthy organizations and business cultures is a key leadership competency within the HR profession. If you were given the responsibility of improving your firm’s health:

How would you encourage the CEO and other top leaders to focus their efforts on creating a healthy organization culture? What issues do you think deserve the most attention?