Importance of knowing the right people for success

Posted on May 29th, 2008 by Terri Kruzan

Here is a story that is representative of findings from our field work. I recently worked with a cross-section of employees within an organization to help them identify their organizational culture. Let’s call them, the Culture Team. We discussed one of the findings – that job security and advancement are more likely to be determined by “knowing the right people” than it is by job performance.

An employee quote that seemed to define this culture characteristic is – … we tend to not be a meritocracy. Capabilities and performance are less important than personal relationships, friendships, history and tenure in being personally successful here.

The longer-tenured members of the culture team looked confused, and noted there was talk about putting in a pay-for-performance process. While an articulate young man could not help himself and burst out with – “this is crazy, I want to be measured by what I do, not by how well I network and make other people look good!”

The room fell silent and finally, an older female Team member said – “yes, our culture does honor the use of relationships to get our work done and it is not all bad. Working together well and having interpersonal skills in how to relate with people is important for our success – we are in the service business.”

The discussion then moved to how quickly the organization is growing and how the work is getting more complex and that there are more younger people here from many different backgrounds. The discussion concluded with the thought that using relationships to get our work done probably worked better when the organization was smaller, more homogeneous and a simpler work place.

The Culture Team agreed upon the need for balance – and that the first step for culture change was for leaders to start talking about the importance of setting clear goals and measuring results while working together. And, the new pay-for-performance system must be clear in its rewards for people who meet performance goals as well as for building relationship skills.