Client Brief

The CEO of a life assurance business retained us to assess the norms and expectations for behaviour that influenced the way employees interacted and conducted their work.

 

Method

After interviewing board members, we administered an assessment instrument to all five thousand employees to assess ‘organisational culture’ and its likely business impact.

We analysed the data and prepared a series of detailed management reports that addressed each business segment.

We debriefed the report at an annual meeting of the company’s top one hundred executives.

We worked with the board to design a programme of interventions that would address the issues.

 

Outcomes

Our analysis demonstrated that the organisation operated in ‘silos’.

This resulted in lack of cooperation and coordination between division and departments causing friction among staff members.

The competitive climate was caused by the approach of the leadership team. Although executives espoused the need for cooperation between staff, their own behaviour, and the policies, practices and procedures under their control, created norms for competitive behaviour.

The intervention resulted in a change programme to align leadership behaviours with the desired norms.