The high‐performance organization: making good decisions and making them happen

Abstract

Purpose

To demonstrate that high performance in organizations results from their being decision‐driven.

Design/methodology/approach

Executives from 365 companies in seven countries were surveyed. More than 40 high‐performance companies were then interviewed. Industry leaders in the study were compared with trailing competitors, while transformations where organizational change was clearly a leading factor were also examined in depth. More broadly, the article draws on the experience of more than 1,000 organization cases for more than 500.

Findings

The findings were that only 15 percent of companies have an organization that helps them outperform and that these companies are differentiated by the quality of their decision‐making – and their ability to repeatedly implement their decisions successfully. Successful implementation depends on an integrated organizational system that aligns five attributes – leadership, accountability, people, frontline execution and a performance culture.

Practical implications

This research has lead to the development of a scorecard to measure organizational effectiveness. This enables companies to benchmark their performance against the 365 businesses in the survey. The scorecard gauges agreement (on a one‐to‐four scale) among managers and employees with ten key statements that reflect the five attributes of high performance.

Originality/value

The article will help focus company leaders on the organizational issues that drive high performance. In addition to identifying the key attributes of high performance, it presents an organizational effectiveness scorecard to isolate the causes of underperformance and guide change. It should be of value to all management levels from the chief executive to front line staff.

Citation

Rogers, P. and Blenko, M. (2006), "The high‐performance organization: making good decisions and making them happen", Handbook of Business Strategy, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 133-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/10775730610618747