What is a High Performace Organization

What are the differences between a traditional organization and a High Performance organization.

(PRWEB) June 5, 2004 -- High Performance is a frequently used buzzword in business today.

What constitutes a High Performance Organization?

The differences between High Performance and more traditional organizations can be summed up as follows:

- High Performance organizations are customer focused. Traditional organizations are internally focused.

- High Performance organizations have a decentralized structure with autonomous self-regulating work units. Traditional organizations have a centralized and bureaucratic structure.

- High Performance organizations have their planning and coordinating done by work teams who are closest to the work being done. Traditional organizations plan and coordinate by management.

- High Performance organizations use broadly defined jobs with employees possessing multiple skills. Traditional organizations demand specialization and narrowly defined jobs.

- High Performance orgainzations have boundaries which are defined by task inter-relationships. Traditional organizations create boundaries which are determined by similarity of function.

- High Performance organizations focus on training the total employee. Traditional organizations base their training on technical skills alone.

- High Performance organizations view their employees as partners in the business. Traditional organizations view employees as tools of management.

- High Performance organizations usually outperform traditional organizations in every formal criteria developed by business scholars.

John Maceda is the president of Applied Knowledge Systems Inc. a High Performance consulting and training firm located in the Washington metro region he can be reached at www.appliedknowledgesystems.com or at (703) 368-1779.