THE BEST CHARACTERISTICS OF A MODERN ORGANIZATION

The characteristics of a modern organization are multi-faceted and multi-tasked. Having strong and clearly expressed values for any organization opens a path for magnetism and excellence. It is the duty of every leader to respect individual values, partake job satisfaction, and ensure collective involvement. Having challenging selection, training, and rewards for employees ushers in and helps shape team players. Turning individuals into team players so that everyone plays a unique role keeps momentum in every aspect for every agenda and finally bears fruits meant to accomplish desired goals. Making sure all individuals efforts are identified so that no one becomes a victim of social loafing, having a common purpose, setting specific goals, and having team efficacy breaks the ground for a successful and innovative undertaking that will be the envy of many organizations in competition.

However, it is of paramount importance to have adequate resources for everyone engaged in the collective endeavors meant to assuage any conceivable ambiguities. Having rigid leadership structure, climate of trust, and performance evaluation and reward systems in place opens a line of competition for employees struggling to achieve highlights and struggling to break the log jam. Team members must be able to demonstrate tremendous energy and drive with extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and emotional stability becoming the median. Quality assurance, innovation, commitment, goal achievement, clarity of measurement, being results oriented, problem solving, displaying influence, nurturing assured security, and tenacity are some of the required tools needed to advance an organization that is in the forefront for merit and reputation. “Team members must agree on who is to do what and ensure that all members contribute equally in sharing the work load. In addition, the team needs to determine how schedules will be set, what skills need to be developed, how the group will resolve conflicts, and how the group will make and modify decisions. Agreeing on the specifics of work and how they fit together to integrate individual skills requires team leadership and structure.” [i ]

On the other hand, team work should be for the greater good. Creating positive environment for everyone, having collective performance, and creating problem-solving teams enhances an atmosphere of understanding and timely information. The management style of a modern organization must be compatible with contemporary norms and ethics and the overall strategy should highlight and be in comparable temperament with modern technological innovations acceptable in modern settings. Espousing a clear environment, having sophisticated cultural dimensions, laying down rigid structural foundations that will not collapse easily, setting up a systematic mission, having intense customer focus, and above all celebrating accomplishments should be the common binding thread for any modern organization.

The best practice for a culture of integrity according to the governance system is to discuss difficult ethical questions and also have compliance that will audit and enforce discipline in any organization yearning for righteousness, achievement, and customer satisfaction. Clarifying values, modeling values, communicating values, creating systems to embody values, continuous monitoring of behaviors, and renewing values regularly help elevate governance. There’re eleven factors if effectively applied will ensure the smooth running of any given organization without the least stumbling blocks. These eleven factors include: [ii]
1. Statement of values
2. Code of conduct
3. Example of senior executives
4. Training and repeated communication of values and standards
5. Systems which embody the values
6. Continuous evaluation of behaviors
7. Effective hotline system
8. Mechanism for resolving toughest cases
9. Compliance enforcement system
10. Periodic renewal process for values and standards
11. Governance system for ethics and values

One inspiring author on the area under discussion regarding the best characteristics of an organization is Mohamed Zairi whose writings furnish some insights on the best practices to apply to create an atmosphere of success and customer satisfaction as can be noted in the following quotation from one of his books available online. “For a market to be market oriented, every individual in the organization-manager or employee-must participate in satisfying customers. Also, there must be an environment where everybody is working closely with each other with a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities. Top management can develop this kind of participation, provide proper environment and excite all members of the organization with the corporate vision and the objectives that need to be achieved. Market orientation is facilitated by the amount of emphasis placed by the top management on market orientation. Top management can dedicate a vast amount of its time to creating and then sustaining a customer focus throughout all layers and functions of an organization.” [iii]
In conclusion, a modern organization is one embodying human respect, customer satisfaction, reaping together the fruits of success, respecting the territories of others, making decisions for the benefit of all, striving day and night without distortions, and mapping out new strategies not only for the present but for posterity.

Robins P. Stevens, Timothy A. Judge. Organizational Behavior: Upper Saddle River, 07458.
www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/ethical_culture.ppt
http://books.google.com/books?id=wHdIifrbQ18C&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq