‘Authenticity’ is one of the key cultural issues for today’s organisations. Does your organisation feel the same inside as out? Does it enjoy – to quote the report – “a talk-straight, transparent and dialogue-centred culture” with “honesty at the heart of the relationship”?
Or do your employees go home at night, and greet your brand on an advert or its name on the news with a hollow laugh? Does your organisation pass “the wedding test” – are people proud to say they work for you when they’re asked by some stranger they’ve been plonked next to at a wedding?
Both the report’s author, Lee Sears, and attendees at a recent CIPD Leaders’ Network picked one organisation which exemplifies authenticity. “John Lewis is perceived as a brand you can trust,” said one HR director at our event. “They ‘do the right thing’. All employees are partners and everyone gets the same percentage bonus. Executives are clearly seen to be ‘sharing the pain.’”
By coincidence Lee recently met Laura Walker, John Lewis’ new Head of OD, and she commented on her new employer’s “astonishing culture”, where employees are just as passionate about building value for each other as for their customers. Lee describes this as “We are what we do”, and contrasts it with “product-centred businesses who fly a vague banner of pretending to serve customers and valuing their people – but the reality feels very different.”
Lee also draws in Goffee and Jones’ research into authentic leadership – such as Rob Goffee’s comment that employees want to be “led by people they can believe in, and that they feel they can trust, operating in their interest as well as their own.”
Laura Whyte, John Lewis’ HRD, made a similar point in a recent interview, describing partners’ feeling of “It’s my business too,” with open and accountable leaders. But how to get there? Rob Goffee poses a question for leaders: “What have you got you can use that’s authentically yours?”
It’s a question that can be equally posed of both your organisation generally and HR specifically, as the architects of its culture.
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