Strategic Management Reality Check
Cascade of Change
Talk is cheap. That’s apparent from the results of a survey of more than 500 small and midsize companies conducted by the Oechsli Institute. Many of their employees say management’s actions don’t support the mission statement and that their company’s workers don’t understand what’s expected of them. Worse, 8 out of 10 managers, salespeople, and operations employees say they are not held accountable for their own daily performance.
| Percentage that answered yes among. . . |
Management
|
Sales/frontline employees
|
| Does your company have a clear written mission statement? |
97%
|
77%
|
|
↓
|
||
| Is that statement supported by management’s actions? |
54%
|
55%
|
|
↓
|
||
| Do all departments, branches, and divisions have specific and measurable goals? |
54%
|
57%
|
|
↓
|
||
| Does every employee understand what is expected in terms of performance? |
46%
|
38%
|
|
↓
|
||
| Are all employees held accountable for daily performance? |
21%
|
22%
|
Source: Performance Survey, the Oechsli Institute, Greensboro, NC; Reprinted in INC./March 1993. Research repeated by DDI, Training Magazine, June 2003 (with substantially the same results).