Human resource question

Q: Based on these definitions, answer this question:

What google company do increase commitment to increase psychological alignment? ( What does Google company do to achieve the Psychological Alignment of its organization, which can be analyzed from the perspective of people and culture)

Psychological alignment is the emotional attachment of people at all levers, particularly key unit leaders, to the purpose, mission, and values of the company.

The psychological contract is the set of high mutual expectations and obligations that create high value for both parties.

(An article on the concept of HCHP)

High Commitment, High Performance Management

by Martha Lagace

High commitment, high performance organizations such as Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, McKinsey, and Toyota effectively manage three paradoxical goals, says HBS professor Michael Beer. His new book explains what all companies can learn. Q&A Key concepts include:

• High commitment, high performance (HCHP) firms carry out performance alignment, psychological alignment, and the capacity for learning and change.
• HCHP transformations are a unit-by-unit process.
• HCHP firms allow employees to speak to power in honest, collective, and public conversations.
• Leaders must make conscious, principled choices. Leaders develop an institution that cares about people while understanding the importance of profits.

With many companies battered by the economy, commitment from leaders and employees might seem like increasingly precious resources. Yet commitment and performance are essential elements of any successful firm no matter the health of the economy, according to HBS professor Michael Beer. His book High Commitment High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage explains why and how to align the two.

"High commitment, high performance (HCHP) companies are firms designed and led by their founders or by transformational CEOsthose who take charge of a company in a crisisto achieve sustained high commitment from all stakeholders: employees, customers, investors, and community," says Beer. "These firms stand out by having achieved long periods of excellence."

HCHP stalwarts include Southwest, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard for six decades, Nucor Steel, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs and Toyota, says Beer. Yet any company can change for the better, no matter the industry. GE, Becton Dickinson, Campbell Soup, IBM, and ASDA, a U.K. grocery chain, are examples of companies that were transformed by new CEOs taking charge, usually in times of crisis. These CEOs employed change strategies that focused on both commitment and performance. As ASDA's CEO, Archie Norman, tells it, the new leader has to set a general direction, but must listen and engage people to identify and solve problems. Top-down leadership, he argues, will not work.

"This list is illustrative and by no means inclusive. The majority of companies do not, however, fall into the HCHP camp. Despite many differences in industry, products, and strategy, the companies and their leaders employ common principles and values," says Beer.

For our email Q&A he discusses what it takes to build a high commitment, high performance company.

Martha Lagace: What differentiates HCHP firms and their leaders?

Michael Beer: The leaders manage with a multiple stakeholder perspective. Contrary to many CEOs, HCHP leaderswith support from their boardsdefine firm purpose as much more than shareholder value, though they all understand profit as an essential outcome.

HCHP firms are able to show sustained performance because they achieve the following three paradoxical goals:

1. Performance alignment: Managing with their head, leaders develop an organizational design, business processes, goals, and measures, and capabilities that are aligned with a focused, winning strategy.
2. Psychological alignment: Managing with their heart, leaders create a firm that provides employees at all levels with a sense of higher purpose, meaning, challenging work, and the capacity to make a difference, something that people desperately need and want but often do not get in organizational life. To accomplish this, HCHP firms establish and institutionalize human resource management policies and practices that look fairly similar.
3. Capacity for learning and change: By keeping their egos in check, leaders of HCHP firms are able to avoid defensiveness and resulting blindness. HCHP firms institutionalize what I call Learning and Governance Systems, a means for having honest, collective, and public conversations with key people at lower levels about what stands in the way of success.