THINKING+++ FORWARD
Ideas for your work from MIT Sloan School of Management | Office of Communications
+ THREE INSIGHTS FOR THE WEEK
1. Far too many organizations are suffering from broken culture syndrome, according to new research from organizational effectiveness expert Douglas Ready and MIT Sloan Management Review.
Culture is the glue and grease of an organization, said Ready, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan. An unhealthy culture can act like glue that keeps firms stuck in the past or grease that causes them to slip and lose their way.
While broken culture syndrome can take hold in a variety of ways, there are three common triggers:
- Culture clash disorder usually occurs after a merger or acquisition, when it becomes evident that the merging organizations operate under different sets of norms and guiding principles.
- Cultural inertia happens when employees feel powerless and irrelevant to the change process. Cynicism often takes hold, with employees banding with others who feel victimized by events unfolding around them.
- Toxic collapse occurs when an organization is experiencing a fundamental and widespread erosion of trust. In this scenario, relationships have deteriorated into intra-company warfare, with entrenched factions digging in for battle.
Read more: 6 ways to fix your broken culture.
2. Nearly two years into the disruption caused by COVID-19, signs are pointing to the growing risk of a global economic recession. High consumer demand, product shortages, and transportation disruptions in the second half of 2021 triggered inflation and changes to manufacturers’ order patterns, setting up the “bullwhip effect” — a supply chain phenomenon that can have far-reaching consequences.
Writing recently in MIT Sloan Management Review, supply chain expert Yossi Sheffi said business leaders should prepare now for the challenges that lie ahead.
Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, suggested leaders take the following actions:
- Identify essential partners, and assess their financial resilience.
- Monitor changing conditions both up and down the supply chain, and seek greater visibility into the health of direct suppliers as well as those deeper in the supply chain.
- Lay the groundwork to be able to offer support to threatened partners. During the 2008 financial crisis, Sheffi noted, stronger companies used their better credit ratings to secure loans for troubled partners, procure key materials on their behalf, or provide commitments for order volume.
3. When Julie Johnson, SM ’90, was first building her career in electronics and engineering, she underestimated how much of her life would be centered around her work. “I didn’t realize how much passion for performing and making my business better would encompass so many evenings, weekends, and even some sleepless nights,” she recalled.
In a recent Q&A, Johnson, now vice president and general manager of the mobile computing business unit at Zebra Technologies, shared thoughts on mentorship and women in high tech.
Who was an ally or mentor for you? I was fortunate to work for a spectacular woman during my time at Motorola who taught me to be intentional, ask questions, keep learning, keep moving, stick up for yourself, be authentic, and make sure you don’t take yourself too seriously.
Where do you see progress in gender diversity, and how can we scale that? Unfortunately, I don’t see much of a difference in the number of women in technology-based roles, but I do see a difference in the boardrooms. Investor interest in environmental, social, and governance is driving more discussion around diversity metrics and even aligning them to performance goals. I truly believe that these changes can eventually change the mix in technology roles.
