Discussion: Shared Practice: Creating a Sustainable Organization

In his research to identify what can make a company truly great for the long term, Jim Collins (2005) found an essential personal quality of senior executives that took his research team by surprise: humility combined with intense professional will. All the companies his research identified that made the leap to being truly great companies over a long period of time had a senior executive that exhibited these qualities. These executives were not particularly charismatic, stayed out of the public eye, and rarely boasted about their own professional accomplishments. Each guided his or her company through tough times, helped foster a sustainable organizational culture, and left his or her company with effective managers capable of sustaining success.

For this final Discussion, review the Learning Resources and think about your own professional experiences to identify the management practices that contribute to sustainable organizational culture. Also, reflect on the management practices you have observed or employed that create and sustain a positive and profitable work environment as you prepare for the discussion post below.

Post an explanation of the direct and indirect contributions managers make to create a sustainable organizational culture. In your explanation, select and describe three management practices-from the resources or your professional experience-that you consider to be essential for contributing to a sustainable organizational culture.

(Hint: Your answer needs to take into account that creating a sustainable organization culture is not an easy task-the direct and indirect contributions may require the managers make difficult choices that impact employees in different ways.)

Read a selection of your colleagues' posts.

Respond to at least two colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Expand on a colleague's post by discussing the roles that " learning" and "change" play in sustainable organization.

• Share an insight you gained about a management practice described in a colleague's post. Share how this insight expanded your perspective of contributing to a sustainable organizational culture.

• Suggest ways a management practice selected by your colleague might have to be adjusted or altered when working in different contexts. For example, suggest ways the practice would need to adapt to a small versus a large company; or ways it would need to adapt in different cultures or industries. Support your perspective with your experiences, observations, and/or resources from the course.