Breakthroughs

Health Plus, a health maintenance organization in Michigan, has emerged as a leader in the delivery of improved health care and service to patients. As a result, Health Plus has been very successful, unlike many in its industry. In six years, Health Plus has nearly doubled patient enrollments and improved its financial results. Based upon superior scores in effectiveness of care and customer service, Health Plus ranks as one of the best-managed care organization in Michigan, with some of its scores deserving of national merit.

Health Plus believes its success is due in large part to its commitment to strengthening organizational culture. After working with Jack Martin, a consultant based in Michigan, Health Plus administered the DOCS to all employees in 1997 and again in 1999.

The results of the first survey illuminated core strengths and relative weaknesses. Health Plus shared the results with all employees and made plans for performance improvement by strengthening its organizational culture. Two years later, the survey was given again to all employees. The hard work and commitment paid off. Health Plus moved from an average percentage score on all indexes of 29% to an average score of 59% in 1999.

Health Plus cites the following initiatives as instrumental in strengthening its culture and commitments to its people and its customers. Specifically, Health Plus:

• Made the optimization of organizational culture a strategic priority; everyone in the company understands its importance and their role in achieving it.

• Prioritized communications at every level; managers are responsible for communicating DOCS results to each of their employees. 

• Developed interventions to correct relative weaknesses, particularly in the areas of core values and customer service; the company now has a company-wide recognition program as well as a renewed commitment to customer service.

Health Plus serves as an outstanding example of how culture can be used as a strategic initiative to improve the bottom line.

@ Speed

Online Surveys

Most individuals and organizations have moved towards taking the Denison Surveys online over the Internet. Not only is online automation more cost-effective, it is much faster, efficient, and in sync with trends in e-business.  On-line surveys are also available in a variety of languages.  Contact us for more details.

Co-ool Projects

Moving the needle with MVP 

MVP Communications, a full service communications company based in Detroit and Chicago, believes that improving organizational culture and leadership depth can be a strategic advantage. Using the Denison Organizational Culture Survey and the Denison Leadership Development Survey has helped MVP achieve a 49% revenue growth and triple net income over the past 3 years. According to Roger Gullickson, president of MVP, the company has been able to create an environment that fosters creativity, speed, and entrepreneurism as well as an intense focus on the customer.

 The executive team cites the following key drivers that helped MVP move its "culture and leadership needle": 

• An open-book approach to the company's financial results. 

• Incentive-based compensation system where people feel their "skin is in the game." 

• Built in accountability - each employee knows how they are contributing. 

• Leadership integrity - what is said is matched by what is done. 

• Obsession on knowing the marketplace and the customer. 

• Genuine and strong leadership at the top.

Strategic Insights 

Many organizations are finding the DOCS an invaluable tool for strategic planning. Plant Operations of the University of Michigan recently surveyed more than 900 employees as part of its Strategic Planning process. All levels of the organization were surveyed including hourly, supervisory and leadership personnel. Rich Robben, director of Plant Operations, shared the results of the survey with his management team during a three-day offsite planning session. The DOCS, says Robben, provided the team with a "big picture" view of their operations. As a result, managers were able to develop goals and objectives that were realistic as well as challenging. Robben later shared the results with the remainder of the 1300-person department as a means of bringing the entire Plant Operations team into closer alignment with the strategic plan.

Footnotes¹

Denison: A textbook case

In Chapter 5 of Practical Coach, Management Skills for Everyday Life, Paula Caproni devotes an entire section to the DOCS model describing the four quadrants and their attributes in some detail. Practical Coach presents the survey as an authoritative standard for gaining greater insight into organizational effectiveness.  For more on Practical Coach, see Making Waves.

What Makes Leaders Effective? 

Along with IMD colleagues Robert Hooijberg and Hee Jae Cho, Dan Denison is completing a paper on leadership which summarizes the results from over 1200 leaders. The paper answers the question, "What makes leaders effective?" by presenting results showing that it depends on who you ask, and what you ask.

Bosses give their highest ratings to leaders who have skills at defining strategy & mission.  Subordinates, on the other hand, give their highest ratings to leaders who are effective at empowerment.  Peers, however, value coordination and customer focus and seem to place greatest emphasis on managing lateral processes in organizations.  When the measure of effectiveness is customer satisfaction, managing lateral processes are even more important.

When this research paper is completed, we will notify you and make it available through our website.

Diagnosing Organizational Cultures: Validating a Model and Method

Daniel Denison, Hee-Jae Cho, Joana Young

We completed a new comprehensive validity study of the organizational culture model. Our study tested the model and measures using data from 36,542 individuals in 94 different organizations and found strong support for the relationship of the model to a variety of organizational performance measures.

You may find this paper to be a great reference piece for researchers and decision-makers who want to make certain they are choosing a valid instrument.  This paper is now under review for journal publication, but you can access the full text by clicking below.

The Validity and Reliability of the Organizational Culture Questionnaire

Organizational Culture:
Can it be a Key Lever for Driving Organizational Change?

This new book chapter, authored by Dan Denison, focuses on using culture to drive the change process. Contained in the chapter are three case studies featuring American and European financial service and manufacturing companies.  The chapter also includes an overview of the model and measures and is very useful in explaining Denison's approach to diagnosis and change.

To appear in:
S. Cartwright and C. Cooper.  2000.  The Handbook of Organizational Culture.
London: John Wiley & Sons.

Making Waves...

Paula J. Caproni, director of the Executive Skills program at the University of Michigan Business School, has just published Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life. “My goal,” writes Paula in the preface to her remarkable book, “is to provide ideas, tools, and best practices that you can use to increase your effectiveness, enhance your career… and feel more fulfilled in your life.” This book makes the lessons of the new economy manageable. It contains an artful combination of scholarly insights along with the latest from Dilbert. Publisher is Prentice-Hall and it is available through major e-tail book chains, as well as bookstores. 

Christopher Musselwhite will be addressing the General Session of the 2001 International Management Conference sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Management. His topic is “Developing Leadership for the Digital Economy.” Chris, who is president of Discovery Learning, a distributor of Denison survey products, will focus on the interaction between developing managers and organizational culture for successful business performance in the digital economy. Chris will augment his presentation with personality and culture data that differentiates effective from ineffective organizations. The culture data is based on the Denison Model and research. The conference will be held March 18-21 in Las Vegas.  Discovery Learning Inc.

John Baldoni, has published “Personal Leadership, Taking Control of Your Work Life”, his second book about leadership. Featuring profiles of leaders in business, sports, and non-profits, Personal Leadership includes essays on leadership along with self-assessments and action planners. Personal Leadership is available on amazon.com as well as through John’s website, www.LC21.com.

Thank you for your interest in Denison Consulting. To learn more about the Denison Organizational Culture Survey or The Denison Leadership Development Survey, visit our website at www.denisonculture.com