How to create the high-performance, high-commitment organization Integrating knowledge from strategic management, performance management, and organization design, strategic human resource expert and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer outlines what the high-commitment, high-performance organization looks like and provides practitioners with the transformation process to help them get there. Starting with leaders who have the right values, Beer shows how to weave together a complete system that includes top-to-bottom communication, organization design, HR policies, and leadership transformation process, and outlines what practitioners must do in HR, structure, systems, goals, culture, and strategy to create high-performance organizations.

MICHAEL BEER is Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at Harvard Business School and chairman of TruePoint, a research-based consultancy. Beer is the author or coauthor of nine books including Managing Human Assets and the award-winning The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal.

How to create the high-performance, high-commitment organization

Integrating knowledge from strategic management, performance management, and organization design, strategic human resource expert and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer outlines what the high-commitment, high-performance organization looks like and provides practitioners with the transformation process to help them get there. Starting with leaders who have the right values, Beer shows how to weave together a complete system that includes top-to-bottom communication, organization design, HR policies, and leadership transformation process, and outlines what practitioners must do in HR, structure, systems, goals, culture, and strategy to create high-performance organizations.

Preface xi

1 Introduction 1

Part One: The High Commitment, High Performance Organization 17

2 Pillars of High Commitment, High Performance Organizations 19

3 Principled Choice and Discipline are Essential 51

4 Building the High Commitment, High Performance System 79

Part Two: What Stands in the Way 91

5 Hidden Barriers to Sustained High Commitment and High Performance 93

Part Three: Leadership and Learning Change Levers 119

6 Lead a Collective Learning Process 121

7 Enable Truth to Speak to Power 157

Part Four: Organization Design Change Levers 187

8 Manage Organizational Performance Strategically 189

9 Organize for Performance and Commitment 223

10 Develop Human and Social Capital 255

Part Five: Transforming the Organization 293

11 Embrace E and O Change Strategies 295

12 Epilogue 327

End Notes 333

Acknowledgments 369

Index 373

The Author 391