daisy winkel, independent study

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Professor Salvucci

Independent Study

Daisy Winkel

September, 6 2013

Organizational Health: The Outcome of Healthy Leadership

A business is a collection of individuals that work together for a common purpose. It

is a social network, complete with personalities, diverse perspectives, and conflict. If not

managed effectively, the health of an organization can suffer the natural consequences of

poor working relationships, bad attitudes, and botched attempts at teamwork. Thus,

organizational health can be interpreted as a collective measure of the health of an

organization’s individual employees. This paper attempts to define organizational health

for the reader, explores emerging ideas related to the effects of leadership on

organizational health, and examines modern managerial leadership strategies that

promote organizational health through the development of healthy leaders.

Organizational health was originally defined as having roots in positive

psychology (Nelson, Cooper, 2007). This branch of psychology developed from the

original three missions of psychology originated by the American Psychological

Association in 1999:

1. To repair damage through psychotherapy and other healing techniques.

2. To prevent mental health and behavior problems.

3. To build on strength and competency.

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It is Ryff and Singer (1998), who first began to redefine what constitutes individual

“health” as not only having origins in the traditional medical sense, but also a

psychological component. Cooper (2007) agreed, stating that: “health should overreach

medicine and psychology, breaking down the dualism of the mind–body distinction

which they, and we, consider to be a false dichotomy” (2007). Quick (2002) also believed

that this definition could be expanded even further to include emotional spiritual and

ethical aspects. Most recently in 2007, Shirom suggested that any definition of health

should include a component of psychology by introducing the concept of “vigor,” which

encompasses the physical components of physical strength, emotional energy, and

cognitive aliveness. All of the components of vigor relate to the emotional feelings of the

individual towards different aspects of his or her person.

When considering how defining the health of the individual translates to

organizational health, Cooper (2007) defined a set of attributes that are characteristic of

healthy individuals in accordance with the ideas of the aforementioned research. He also

employed a similar set of attributes to define a healthy organization, stating that

“organization being made up of individuals that must function together through effective

communication to accomplish a shared goal mirrors these same ‘health’ attributes but in a

more macro sense” (Cooper, 2007). Examining these attributes, which fall under the three

categories of “leading a life of purpose,” “quality connections to others,” and “positive

self-regard and mastery,” the research suggests that a “healthy leader is at the heart of

organizational health, is the touchstone for organizational health, and is the seed that

gives rise to individual and organizational health” (Cooper, 2007).

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The leader of an organization serves as the guidepost for organizational health.

There are studies that exam the negative impacts of what might alternatively be defined

as “unhealthy leader behavior,” such as that performed by Wysylshyn (2005). On the

topic of leadership, Cooper (2007) directed readers attention to an article by Little,

Simmons, and Nelson (2007) which sought to more clearly define which direction future

research in this area may proceed and the need to identify both positive and negative

indicators of the cognitive health of organizational leaders:

Leader health is worthy of investigation, and complex to study. We need to

include both positive and negative states, as indicators of eustress and distress, to

construct a more complete picture of a leader’s experience of stress. There is

utility in investigating both states and behaviors as influences on leader health.

(Little et. al 2007).

While research continues to investigate the best routes to establish a healthy leadership

and organizational relationship, there are several models in place that appear to reinforce

the ideologies set forth in the research that has been done in this area thus far. Two

popular models of leadership behavior that promote organizational health under modern

definitions are the Goolsby Leadership Model and Lencioni’s Four Disciplines of

Organizational Health Model. We will begin by looking first at Goolsby’s model and

then Lencioni’s model.

Goolsby’s model defines a healthy leader as one who acts with integrity, acts with

courage and passion, and achieves high impact results (Keller et al., 2005). The first

aspect of Goolsby’s model is integrity, which is defined as the “consistency between

word and deed” (Jarrott and Wilson Evered, 2006) and as good moral character (Gavin,

2002). Integrity can be evaluated using a series of questions that developed from the

work of Herbert Taylor in the 1930s. However, further research by Avolio and Lutahns

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(2006) refined the definition of a healthy leader to include authenticity and emotional

competence (Cooper, 2007). Avolio and Lyahns (2006) described authenticity as being

characterized by the four attributes of self-awareness, transparency, positive

psychological states, and personal integrity:

The authentic leader possesses good self-awareness, is transparent to others while

being consistent, engenders positive psychological states within oneself and

followers, and is widely known for having personal integrity. Essentially,

authentic leaders are who they say they are; that is, there is a consistency between

their values, their intentions, their beliefs, their spoken words, and their actions

and behaviors. The opposite of authenticity would be duplicity, which is a type of

Jekyll and Hyde personality. (2006)

Emotional competence is the second aspect of integrity, and is defined as “one

who is aware of his/her own feelings and emotions as well as being aware of the feelings

and emotions in other people” and “is able to act in ways to appropriately manage their

own emotions while accommodating the emotions of others” (Boyatzis and McKee,

2005). It is subdivided into the components of self-awareness, self-management, other-

awareness, and other-management (Cooper, 2007).

Courage is the second element in the Goolsby Leadership Model. We define

courage as the capacity to act, even in the presence of adversity, fear, and danger.

Courage concerns purpose, energy, and character (Cooper, 2007). When 28 senior

executives were interviewed and asked to define the ideas of purpose and leadership,

their individual definitions of leadership varied greatly while their idea of purpose was

constant (Macik-Frey et al, 2006; Thomas, 2005). Loehr and Schwartz, 2003 investigated

energy as it relates to leadership, and conjectured that energy management is of critical

importance for productivity and organizational goal achievement. They have applied this

idea in their management of the corporate leadership program at PepsiCo, Inc. The

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second dimension of this model is character, which is defined by the actions you take

towards others when no one is assessing your behavior (Murray, 1998). This affects a

leader’s health because as it “leads to consistency in actions and behaviors based upon

core values and principles” (Gavin, 2003; Cooper, 2007).

The effects of healthy leadership are measured by a leader’s impact (Cooper,

2007), and will be manifested as individual and organizational health. Mott defined

effective organizations by the characteristics of vitality, productivity and flexibility

(1972). Cooper summarizes this concept well in his evaluation of the results of research

performed by Edwards and Gill (2006) and Laird (1929): “When individuals and

organization function in a healthy way, they get results and make a positive impact for a

range of organizational stakeholders” (2007).

An alternative theory of organizational health is that of Patrick Lencioni, author

of the two bestselling books The Advantage and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. He

believes that organizational health is the biggest competitive advantage a company can

achieve. Lencioni characterizes a company that possesses organizational health as one

that is “whole, consistent and complete when its management, operations and culture are

unified (Lencioni, 2012).” In The Advantage, Lencioni devised a leadership model called

the Four Disciplines of Organizational Health. This model details steps that should be

taken by a leader to achieve organizational health: build a cohesive leadership team;

create clarity; reinforce clarity; and over communicate clarity.

Lencioni first breaks down what leaders tend to do that have a negative impact on

a company and counteract organizational health. He calls it the three biases: The

Sophistication Bias, which occurs when a leader feels that the models and tactics are just

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too easy to actually work; the Adrenaline Bias, by which a leader is distracted by the

superfluous everyday activities instead of focusing on more important issues; the

Quantification Bias, by which leaders find it difficult to trust how these models are

affecting their company positively because they cannot immediately see tangible results.

Leaders often cannot recognize what a healthy organization is. Most believe that

it has to do with how smart the staff is or the financial reports. These are important, but

they are not how a business achieves organizational health. What tends to happen within

a business is that the communication channels fade and that is when problems start to

occur (Advantage, 2012).

Lencioni tries to teach leaders how to stop this from happening in the first step of

his model: building a cohesive leadership team (Advantage, 2012). A cohesive leadership

team is one in which team members are able to trust each other, embrace constructive

conflict and the sharing of opinions, commit to the direction of the group determined by

group decision, accountability, and the achievement of results (Advantage, 2012).

Lencioni instructs managers that the best thing to start with when building trust is

to become a completely transparent as a leader. Leaders must allow the team to get to

know them by either narratives or examples that explain who they are and even admit to

weaknesses. It is very important that the leader begins first because by having the leader

start first, it not only sets the tone for the rest of the members, but also shows that the

leader is committed to establishing trust within the team. Many CEO’s or managers

working with teams or small departments neglect this step because they think it is

unnecessary, but in fact most who head this step are pleasantly surprised at the positive

effect it has on a beginning team (Lencioni,2012).

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The second step would be encouraging conflict. It is better to encourage conflict

so issues are dealt with immediately and solutions are created rather than avoiding the

problem. The company General Electric is a good example at how a company can be

encouraging organizational health through encouraging conflict. General Electric has

initiated a program where employees are allowed to voice their opinions on how they are

being managed without a negative consequence (General Electric, 2010). The program is

called Work-Out and has become a great success because employees discuss conflict

issues and constructively criticize how upper management operates, creating open

channels of communication between management and staff. This program has been

adopted by businesses like Joy Mining Machinery, Phillips Consumer and Electronics

and Leominster Credit Union (General Electric, 2010). Leominster Credit Union has said

that “this program has been fantastic for our company in getting our employees involved

in the decision-making processes and also breaking down silos within the company and

improving teamwork.” One manager at Phillips Electronics praised the practice, stating

that “I have never seen such a positive change in the team work and relationship building

piece within our company.” Lencioni advocates that if conflict and communication is not

encouraged, commitment from the team will not be attainable. Issues need to be out in

the open so members can voice their opinions on them and when decisions need to be

made, all members can feel comfortable supporting the decision (Advantage, 2012).

The fourth step in building a cohesive team is introducing accountability within a

team. Accountability is the process of acknowledging and assuming responsibility for

ones actions and decisions (Advantage, 2012). Lencioni states that if a team has

successfully accomplished the commitment step then accountability will not be

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something feared by team members. If a team is fully committed to an idea, they will

want it to succeed and when a team member is deviating from the collective plan, another

team member will not be discouraged from telling him or her that she or he is going

astray. Also, if the commitment piece was introduced within the team properly, the

individual who had deviated will be glad that he or she was corrected (Advantage, 2012).

The last piece of developing a cohesive leadership team under Lencioni’s model

is the achievement of results. If a business or team is not gaining positive results, then it

is not an effective team, even if it has accomplished all of the four other steps

(Advantage, 2012).

After developing a cohesive leadership team the next step is creating clarity. What

good leaders must do to achieve clarity among their team is to make sure that the team

agrees to the answers to six key questions: Why do we exist?; How do we behave?; What

do we do?; How will we succeed?; What is most important right now?; Who must do

what? (Advantage, 2012). According to Lencioni, answering these questions is taking a

business one step closer to achieving organizational health. The questions seem

theoretically simply, but the answers are what make the step so important. Each question

is devised to give direction to the team. Once this step has been achieved, the last step is

reinforcement. A good leader will return to these questions and keep reminding the team

of their collective answers to reinforce the direction and purpose of the group.

Lencioni used South West Airlines and the chief executive officer Gary Kelly as

an example company and leader in his book The Advantage, praising the great servant

leadership model Kelly uses to make the company thrive. Kelly is quoted saying that

“good leaders take care of their employees first” (South West, 2002). South West is a

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company that values communication and brings in not only the top people to make

decisions, but involves all employees in order to gain feedback which can foster an

organization that is healthy.

Ben and Jerry’s is another business that has learned how to achieve a healthy

organization. This business is based on a culture of respect and commitment between its

employees, customers and the environment. Owners Ben and Jerry are two leaders who

practice healthy leadership and declared when they first started their business that its

“economic mission promises to operate on a sustainable financial basis of profitable

growth, in such a way that will increase value for their stakeholders, and expand

opportunities for development, and career growth for employees" (Ben and Jerry’s,

2009). Creating opportunities for employees and maintaining a good communication

channel is equally important to the culture of Ben and Jerry’s as meeting the bottom line.

Both Ben and Jerry’s and South West are noted for their leadership and excellent

business models because they respect the concept that every member of the company or

team is an important piece to the success of the organization.

Another healthy organization by the aforementioned standards is Sodexo, Inc., a

European company that has become an international provider in food and housekeeping.

Sodexo’s original chief executive officer and founder Pierre Bellon wanted to create an

environment for his employees where they could be successful and be able to

continuously improve their skills and contribute to the company. Each Sodexo manager

whether they are managing a food service for a college or providing housekeeping for a

prison supports the same principles of servant leadership, a style of leadership in which a

leader helps his employees to maximize their individuals skills and talents to their full

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potential (Sodexo, 2013). What do all of these organizations have in common? Why are

they so successful? They all have the same basic philosophy Lencioni advocates: Build

trust, establish ethical guidelines, and encourage employees to give their opinion in order

to create a healthy organization.

From looking at three successful companies that possess similar leadership

qualities and strategies we can see that Lencioni’s theory put into action can promote an

organization’s health. Through learning good leadership skills, openness and trust, and

following the concepts mentioned, organizational health can be achieved.

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http://www.benjerry.com/

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from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197626

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