High Performance Organizations Research

The following is an overview of some of the various large-scale research studies that have been conducted by researchers at various business schools and other institutions regarding high-performance organizations.

University of Chicago Business School – Over a period of many years the University of Chicago was conducting research attempting to find what workers needed to be successful at work. They gathered information from over 17 million people at all levels in the organization. These people lived in 40 countries on 6 different continents. They also represented a vast amount of different industries.

While the original researchers had some specific questions that they wished answered, they also allowed for the respondents to also offer comments. When analyzing the questions, the University of Chicago failed to find any conclusions. Later on, however, the Lebow Research Group, with the approval of the UC, conducted an analysis of the comments of the workers. There were significant findings in these comments --- The 8 Shared Values below.

Treat others with uncompromising Truth
Lavish Trust on your associates
Mentor unselfishly
Be receptive to new ideas, regardless of their origin
Take personal risks for the organization’s sake
Give credit where credit is due
Be honest in all things; don’t touch dishonest money
Put the interest of others before your own

The 8 Shared Values are the property of Lebow Company

Harvard Business School – a series of studies on leadership and organizational culture, including one that looked at organizational performance over an eleven year time frame. They found that strong cultures were not the defining edge for performance, but rather the most successful cultures were those that were “adaptive.” Culture change must start at the top, and that any efforts to drive the change from the bottom always failed. “Adaptive” cultures were characterized by leadership that focused on a core set of values that included a focus on all three key constituents: shareholders, customers, and employees. Long-term strategic planning was not something that these organizations engaged in, as they tended to focus more on their core purpose and values. “Adaptive” Organizations clearly outperformed non-adaptable organizations, and experienced exceptional profits.

Stanford Business School –a series of case studies that reviewed why some “promising” organizations begun in the last half of the 20^th century succeeded tremendously while other “promising” organizations seemed to not perform so well. The analysis found that all of the successful organizations had a focus of achieving great things through their people. These organizations took very good care of their employees and had a strong sense of values. They made decisions about issues involving customers and employees based upon these values. As a result, the successful organizations did not need to engage in typical long-term strategic planning. Risk was encouraged, and no one was penalized for failure because they took a risk. Customer service was a constant concern, and service levels were maintained at very high levels. As a result, customers were highly dedicated and loyal to them.

Cornell Business School – a series of studies looking at the importance of trust and its impact on organizational success. The studies found that those organizations that had higher trust levels had a higher return on profits. In one study concerning full-service hotels, just by raising the trust level by 1/8^th of a point on a scale of 1 to 5 increased profits by a quarter of a million dollars.

Fortune 100 Best – an annual ranking of the best organizations to work for in the USA . One of the criteria for inclusion in the 100 best is achieving certain scores on a survey that measures trust levels in the organization on three levels: credibility, fairness, and respect). In 2001, Fortune reviewed long-term performance for their “100 Best” and found that they outperformed the S&P 500 by a margin of 2 to 1 over the past 10 years. In addition, these organizations experienced the following:

Receive more qualified job applications for open positions.
Experience a lower level of turnover.
Experience reductions in health care costs.
Enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Foster greater innovation, creativity and risk taking.
Benefit from higher productivity and profitability.

To learn more about high performance organizations you may wish to read about our Seven Elements of High Performance™ research. You may also wish to read our whitepaper, The Dynamics of High Performing Organizations, or our book, Leadership Lessons From the Medicine Wheel: The Seven Elements of High Performance.

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