This is a guest post by Craig Brown from Betterprojects.net.
Most of the talk about project performance is focused on systems and structures. The real pathway to improved project performance is through people. I propose that the most important factor affecting people’s ability to work together and solve complex problems is culture. This article investigates Goffee and Jones Sociability-Solidarity culture matrix (1) and how it can be used to map out an improvement plan for your project.
According to Goffee and Jones, organizational culture can be observed along a 2 dimension axis showing sociability and solidarity.
Sociability is whether people like working together – in particular, whether they are communicating and co-operating freely. At one end of the axis people do not co-operate and do not communicate. At the other end of the spectrum people are sharing houses and marrying one another.
Solidarity at its extremes is ONE goal or NO goal. The solidarity axis is the mission focus. An organization that has solidarity is focused on the NEXT BIG THING, while an organization that does not have a solid focus is full of different and potentially conflicting agendas. We often describe these letter types of organizations as political.
The four quadrants are represented in this diagram:
Many (many, many) organizations find themselves in the bottom left quadrant of the model in a ‘fragmented’ state. We don’t think that this state is a good one. We characterize the fragmented organizations as petty, political and difficult places to get things done.
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