Page 59 - MS Year in Review 2020

 Failure to challenge authority

 Unwillingness to question ideas and proposals
 Conflict avoidance
 A cultural lack of accountability

Taken together this is set of dysfunctional cultural characteristics that can cause,

contribute to or inhibit crisis resolution. We have developed tools to assess the
degree of cultural dysfunctionality of this combined set. These tools are beyond the
scope of this article; but they discussed in detail in The Crisis Leadership

31
Playbook. However, we will examine each of these cultural characteristics below in
order to indicate why they are dysfunctional and the role that they can play in

causing, contributing to or inhibiting a crisis and/or crisis resolution.

Cultural Overconfidence or Arrogance

Successes is a wonderful thing. It can motivate ever higher levels of success.
However, a downside to long-term corporate success is that people in the
organization will expect that this success will continue into the future. Some

companies are so successful for so long that it becomes inconceivable that they
could experience anything but success. When that viewpoint takes hold, it sets an

organization up for difficulties or even failure. This was one of the cultural
characteristics and problems at American Express, Kodak, and Sears. In all three
cases, it caused management to ignore or downplay competition and competitive

threats.

Inflexible Corporate Identity

All companies need a sense of identity. However, corporate identities are based on
a concept (either explicit or implicit) of the firm’s role in relation its market. In that

31 For a detailed discussion, see Eric Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle, with a Foreword by Scott
Minerd, The Crisis Leadership Playbook, Vandeplas Publishing LLC, Lake Mary FL. and the ISBN: 978-
1-60042-513-4, Chapter 10.

58
© Management Systems Consulting Corporation, 2020. All rights reserved