Working within Global Boundaries Part 4

The forces, trends, and pace of the business environment have the single greatest influence on shaping organizational culture. But there are even more global forces affecting the business environment in subtle, yet profound ways. The Breckenridge Institute® has identified Four Global Boundary Conditions that will define the logical geography of the business environment for the next 50 to 100 years. In the September 2008 edition of the Pinnacle, we discussed the first global boundary condition: Advances in Science and Technology. The November 2008 Pinnacle featured the second global boundary condition: The Global Redistribution of Power and Wealth. The third global boundary condition, Competing Political, Cultural, and Religious Ideologies, was discussed in the January 2009 edition of the Pinnacle. This month we feature the final in this series – Sustainability of the Physical Environment.

The combined pressure exerted on our physical environment by the other three Global Boundary Conditions has raised serious questions about the earth’s ability to sustain the lifestyle of billions and billions of people. “While the goal of a sustainable society is a popular notion, “says Mark Bodnarczuk, Executive Director of the Breckenridge Institute, “it has been difficult to implement, especially when it impacts business and economic growth.” Some have tried to weave the theme of corporate responsibility and sustainable development into the fabric of the global business environment in the hopes of reducing the size of our “ecological footprint” on the earth. Others argue that the earth is the best teacher of sustainable practices, insisting that a more complete scientific understanding of nature's organizing principles can be applied to the design of a more sustainable, ecologically balanced society. Still others argue that we must mitigate the daily bombardment from the media to buy and consume products and services, and instead purchase only what we need from environmentally friendly sources. Some futurists argue that more rapid advances in science and technology hold the answer to sustainability. On this view, the modeling of carbon-based (human) intelligence in silicon-based computer systems, and our ability to manipulate biological and genomic processes are early precursors to our ability to break free of the earth as a life support system and develop alternative environments that do not require the earth’s ecological systems as we currently know them. “Regardless of the view adopted,” states Bodnarczuk, “the sustainability of the physical environment will continue to play a powerful role in shaping the business environment in which organizations interact.” Consciously creating a corporate culture that mitigates the negative affects of all four global boundary conditions is the key strategy for giving an organization long-term direction.

HBR Editor’s Blog

Every month, the senior editors of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) invite internationally recognized organizational theorists and practitioners to raise issues and answer questions about leadership and management issues on the HBR Editor’s Blog. This month, we provide Pinnacle readers with links to two important and interesting discussions (see below).

Gary Hamel, The Future of Management
Vineet Nayar, Green Leadership from an Unexpected Place

We encourage you to join the conversation on the HBR Editor’s Blog and voice your opinions, commentary, and insights on these and other important topics.

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Breckenridge Institute^®

If you would like information about the Breckenridge Institute’s research activities, portfolio of assessment tools, or consulting services, visit our website at www.breckenridgeinstitute.com. Also visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/markbodnarczuk.

Copyright © Breckenridge Institute^® 2009. All Rights Reserved
Underwater Photo: © Annie Crawley, 2009, http://www.diveintoyourimagination.com

“Every workplace has a culture of its own, one that may be good, bad, or indifferent. As often as not, its values are unspoken, but they exert a powerful influence on the behaviors of those who choose to be part of that organization.”

Richard Gallagher,
The Soul of an Organization

Majors PT-Elements™

The Breckenridge Institute® is proud to announce the publication of the Majors PT-Elements™ - an online personality assessment tool that is based on the popular Myers and Briggs personality type theory. Developed by Dr. Mark Majors, the Majors PT-Elements™ is a 127-items questionnaire that helps you or your clients learn valuable information about their psychological type (common 16 personality types). The report provides results on the dichotomies of Energy acquisition and distribution, Extraversion (external) and Introversion (internal); Perceiving or attending to information, Sensing and iNtuiting; Deciding or making judgments, Thinking and Feeling; Orientation to living, Judgment and Perception. The reported result for the individual's 16-type indication is given, as well as results on the 32 Elements sub-scales, which illuminate personality differences within the dichotomy or type. In addition, the all new "Elements of Personality Formation™" statements are included in the report which will help you or your clients understand some of the complex ways that they interact with others, and respond to situations. The Majors PT-Elements™ is now available to qualified users 24X7 anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

DOWNLOAD SAMPLE REPORT

Contact Elin Larson at elin@breckenridgeinstitute.com or 970-389-4666 for details about how you can begin using this exciting tool in your organization or with your clients.

Elliott Jaques, Requisite Organization.

Elliott Jaques is like New York City – most people either love him, or hate him, but it’s hard to feel indifferent about this organizational theorist. Following his training as an MD at Johns Hopkins, Jaques was the first person to coin the phrase “corporate culture” in his 1951 PhD dissertation at Harvard. Imagine a world in which the number of managerial layers in a company was determined by the complexity of the organization’s work and the time-span required to achieve its strategic goals. A world in which people are promoted and paid based on their level of experience, expertise, and intellectual horsepower, rather than time and grade, or how well they play company politics. This is the organizational reality that Jaques proposes in his book, Requisite Organization.

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