Upgrade Stakeholder Service by Changing Your Agency's Organizational Culture

INTRODUCTION

This feature introduces a basic and important concept in the leadership and management of public agencies-understanding and changing organizational culture. The feature does not contain enough detail to convert all members of the Institute of Transportation Engineers into super-managers, but it does point the way by illustrating a better way to look at their roles and the functions of their organizations.

The transportation professionals typical education emphasizes problem-solving methods that yield technical solutions. As students, transportation professionals are stretched by their professors to think smarter and work harder, but only for technical issues. Upon graduation, they are some of the most technically skilled professionals in the world and relish the opportunity to apply their state-of-the-art tools.

However, the emphasis on technical skills during their education and initial professional employment tends to make them one-dimensional. They rarely are trained in business skills such as communication, leadership, management, marketing and conflict resolution.

When Technical Skills Are Not Enough

In public agencies, it is not unusual for talented transportation professionals to be reassigned as staff managers. Suddenly their superior technical knowledge is not sufficient to deal with budget shortfalls, hostile stakeholders and inflexible organizations. Their toolbelts do not equip them to evaluate employee attitudes (which drive behaviors) or set a compelling vision and inspire people to move the organization toward that vision.

Transportation professionals do not know how to establish environments and situations that enable people to achieve greater potential, which is really what motivation is all about-explaining to individuals "what's in it for you and for die organization."

Many public transportation organizations are overworked with urgent demands, from approving development review plans, completing projects and responding to citizen requests and the concerns of public officials to answering the phone. The top manager often spends all day "putting out fires."

Good leadership is difficult but becomes almost impossible when managers spend their time on immediate priorities. It is much better when managers spend most of their time improving their agencies and helping employees address their highest priorities.

LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITY

Being in a leadership position is an awesome responsibility. First, employees are entrusted to your care. Your behavior patterns are watched closely and are engrained into the lives of your employees and their families. This means that you significantly impact their future careers and have a duty to model good leadership skills.

Second, communities are entrusted to your care. The future successes of cities are tied to your having the skill and the will to influence employees to work enthusiastically toward the highest goals of your communities.

Even Hardworking Managers Need Help

The top position is a hard job with few friends. Some people who are appointed to management are overwhelmed and feel hopelessly responsible for everything that goes on around them. They may isolate themselves to project a stern, strong, manager image or may assume a self-perceived personality and professional behavior they associate with being "the boss." These artificial fronts are inappropriate management strategies for today's public agencies.

Interacting with managers and employees, visioning the future, setting goals and motivating the workforce are much more appropriate for managing public agencies that interface with the public. The best managers know that they need to frequently evaluate their agencies and their employees to identify accomplishments and weaknesses and to determine the most appropriate activities in response to the current condition of the organization.

Good Managers Evaluate Themselves

Top leaders in any organization need to gain an understanding of how their employees, peers, citizens and other stakeholders view them and their organizations. They must be willing to look at themselves through the eyes of others.

At the casual level, this can be accomplished by allowing agency employees and outside customers who know the leader to provide feedback. This can be personally painful, and not all transportation professionals are willing to participate in this type of exercise.

The best managers realize that they cannot expect their organizations to project a culture that they do not believe in and personally model. Figure 1 is provided for leaders who are interested in assessing their own performance and want to address their organization's culture.

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?

Organizational culture is a composite of the values, beliefs and norms expressed in an organization's actual practices and behaviors. Employees have a belief in what the organization can and should do to meet its goals and serve its stakeholders, and their actions demonstrate that belief.

The definition is easy to state, but defining the culture of an individual organization is a complex task mat requires defining the organization; identifying its values; defining how it actually operates; and recognizing how it is viewed by outsiders. This feature provides only an overview of the topic. Interested readers can find more complete information in other texts.1,2

An unsatisfactory culture breeds lack of employee motivation and lackluster organizational performance. If employees' needs are not met, they become disillusioned and are likely to move to other opportunities. This type of culture causes the organization to eventually become a dinosaur. Understanding and changing (if needed) your organization's culture can mean the difference between success and failure in today's environment.

A TRUE CASE STUDY

This feature details the life experience of one of the authors as he led the change of culture in a municipal department of transportation over a multi-year period. It is intended to provide guidance to help others lead a culture change process in their own organizations and includes lessons learned from a painful yet extremely rewarding experience.

What motivated the department management team to take a large risk and commit to such a long-planned improvement process? The department was not broken but had gradually come to feel that it was not reaching its potential. This came from an accumulation of facts, frustrations and feedback from others.

It could continue to operate "as is," but the leadership team became convinced that the right answer was to undertake a culture change on behalf or the community, the employees and the team members themselves. It was a personal desire on the part of the department managers to be the best they could be and to do whatever it took to reach that condition.

How They Started

After they were committed, they put together a game plan: brief city leaders on what they were thinking (always a must for city agencies); learn more about organizational culture; gather data about the current condition; define the desired future culture; and put a plan in place to guide the change.

They conducted a department retreat to initiate a dialogue and obtain feedback from other departments and key community stakeholders. One retreat speaker was a consultant who shared information about organizational culture activities in the private sector. This was a major step in the process because it secured support from the leadership team to undertake a planned change process over a number of years. They were ready to start the process but had only a shell of a plan.

Fortunately, they contracted with a knowledgeable consultant to help compose a realistic plan and guide them through the change process. It is a good practice for transportation professionals to seek assistance from their human resources support staffer contract outside professionals who are trained in this area.

In industry, organizational culture is an important concept in growing a customer base and increasing competitiveness. Many excellent professional firms are available to guide agencies through changes of their culture.

Assessment

The individual components of a plan must be customized to fit an organization's existing culture. Assessment is the first step. This can be accomplished with an objective survey that gauges concepts like the organization's practices and behaviors toward customer satisfaction; which behaviors get rewarded (only behaviors can be rewarded or punished because they are the only manifestation of values and attitudes); whether diverse opinions are valued; and the gaps between the real culture and desired culture.

Many other things can be measured and, in addition to the four listed above, the agency assessed the following topics:

* Employee relations;

* Employer relations (policies and procedures);

* Leadership practices and behaviors;

* Communications processes;

* Effectiveness and frequency of meetings;

* Teamwork;

* Strategic thinking and planning;

* Decision-making;

* Innovation;

* Values, rewards and recognition;

* Artifacts; and

* Employee feedback processes.

The consultant was very helpful in providing assessment tools (see Table 1) and modifying them to fit the agency's situation. Care was taken to ensure that the tools were objectively phrased and measured appropriate activities. The consultant was invaluable in evaluating the assessment results, helping identify areas that most needed improvement and helping prioritize the work steps that could move them to a better culture.

The Plan

After the survey results were analyzed, an action plan was developed. It was designed to be a journey of continuous organizational improvement based on objective data and clear descriptions of desired norms. The plan was designed to fit the agency, and it included action steps such as the following:

* Coaching for the chief executive;

* Teamwork training and development;

* Developing new practices and processes;

* Enhancing accountability systems and processes;

* Improving reward systems;

* Placing greater emphasis on empowering employees to make decisions;

* Establishing clear roles and responsibilities for all team members;

* Establishing customer service expectations; and

* Inspecting what was expected.

What Happened During the Process?

The experiences of the author probably are typical of public agencies that attempt to make major changes. In this case, the initial reactions of individual employees were exaggerated and personal, because the changes were not so much in organizational structure as they were to the expectations and attitudes of individuals.

From the beginning, everyone recognized that the change would require hard work (beyond the day-to-day workload). Some could see the advantages of reaching the desired end condition and were excited about the opportunity to make a dramatic change. Probably more people were skeptical that such a change could be made, and a few people resented the extra work or felt personally threatened by the changes. In other words, if this was to be successful, leadership would have to continuously demonstrate commitment and explain why the changes were occurring and what benefits would result.

The department began to move through the "forming, storming, norming and performing" stages of implementation. As the process unfolded, employees became more informed, benefits began to appear and more people got on board. The team began to recognize that even well intentioned prior actions included lots of mistakes in the treatment of department employees and stakeholders.

At this point, the team started telling their employees the truth during their evaluation process. This was a true culture change and it was difficult on both managers and staff members, but it was necessary if they were to understand their roles in the organization and reach their potential. This created some short-term resentment, and some staff members retired or took other positions.

There was a lot of discussion from outsiders, especially other city departments, about what the team was up to. Undercurrents swirled and rumors had to be addressed. There were instances when departmental managers felt lonely and isolated. They had to ask themselves if it was worth it. Each time the overwhelming answer was "yes." They could see the desired changes beginning to take root and grow.

Benefits of the Process

There are many benefits to "upgrading" an organization's culture. Typically, these include the personal and professional growth of employees; improvements in agency performance, customer satisfaction and employee morale; and enjoyment in the workplace. These benefits all occurred in the department described.

Reflecting back on a process that started more than a decade ago and took several years to accomplish, certain team accomplishments stand out as personal evidence that the effort was more than worthwhile:

* The organization became dependent upon a work planning process that focused on the departmental mission.

* A diverse leadership team was established, and it effectively interacted with the diverse community.

* The leadership team developed a sense of accomplishment and pride that they were doing the right things.

* The department was recognized by the city council, city manager and the community as a progressive organization that was responsive to requests.

* Employees were perceived by others (and themselves) as a group of "can do" people.

* Department funding moved to a high level when compared to per capita expenditures for municipal transportation departments in the southeast. This was interpreted as an expression of confidence by the city's leadership and its citizens.

* Within a year of the director's retirement, three members of the leadership team became heads of municipal transportation agencies and a fourth turned down a similar opportunity.

SUMMARY-REAL LEADERS

There is a great difference between being in a position of authority and being a leader. A leader is one who develops a shared vision and convinces others to follow him or her. Real leaders are those who talk about and model values that gain the trust of their employees and inspire them. Leaders are people who truly want to make a difference and are committed to meeting the needs of their employees.

Proven leaders care about meeting the needs of all their constituents or stakeholders (customers, employees, stockholders, vendors, community and others). Shaping organizational culture to reflect a level of constant care is daunting. It requires people of courage, conviction and enthusiasm to reach the highest levels of leadership. Are you up to the task?

© 2006 Institute of Transportation Engineers Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.