What is the authentic organisation?

I attended a recent CIPD Event hosted by Clayton Glen of HDA, when he spoke about authentic organisations and the growth in employee brands looking to obtain all of these positive associations. 

Google and the Innocent smoothie company were given as leading examples of the practice in its more positive aspects whereas BP - struggling with the fallout from the oil spill in North America and the attention the spill has brought to their business practices - was sighted as perhaps having problems grappling with the issue of authenticity.


When trying to research this post I kept coming up with information on authentic leadership as opposed to information on organisations - until I stumbled across this post from the Authenticity Book and the 3 rules on the area (apologies in advance if this is something I have been living totally obliviously to but the rest of the world is aware of - thanks to Jim and Joe either way!).


Applying these rules works for me for most organisations -  though it can lead to an ugly truth, is there no alternative for businesses now to be anything but 'authentic'?


Perhaps a reflection of a shift in the balance of the corporate conscience/CSR agenda in someways? With the explosion of the internet, demands from Gen Y of work life balance and business which will support this, being authentic requires more than just lip service it seems.


The alternative? Well maybe you can instill an image of success and endless profits...

... but in this instance access/information age we have the means to look a little closer.

For those above who did you will have guessed already that this photo was not taken when Lehman's still existed (if not my trick worked!) - rather it is taken in the windows of Christies Auction House in South Kensington, London. For those of you who dont know what they do here is another photo to explain...

I know - £2000-£3000 for the sign alone!


But would Lehman not have once been considered, in some quarters, an authentic organisation? This is in the sense that they were authentically driven towards profit and had a very clear agenda in that regard, i.e. work hard , play hard, then work harder, play harder etc.

You might not agree with the agenda of chasing more and more dollars but at least you knew where you stood? And are they arguably more authentic than ever in their current state?

Problems of the finance worlds culture club (or lack thereof)

Reading Andrew Ross Sorkin's 'Too Big to Fail' recently, it reminded me how close the global economy seemingly came to spinning of its axis.

Yet despite his worrying (and entertaining) account of what happened Sorkin was recently suggesting that there might be a danger of too much regulation being placed on those in the financial sector.

Aside from market constraints, the issues of regulation in reward is one of interest to HR practitioners - specifically, what was its roles in trying to fight/inadvertedly supporting the circumstances in which individuals and organisations were encouraged to take on such risk? As well as this, what should be the lessons that are applied in the future to avoid such a culture being fostered?

It should be mentioned that I have no experiece of working in a HR function in the financial services and from the outside looking in, it seems a catch 22 - fight the culture and you are in danger of falling behind more willing comepetitors and disenfranchise shareholders; allow the status quo to continue and there is the danger you allow circumstances to return back to the financial tsunami which we are still clawing our way back from.

Arguably it all comes down to values - what is the purpose of your role in an organisation and what are the principles which you need to apply day to day to what you do. Easier said than done no doubt and it might be argued that to think suich a mindset is possible in the sector and it is naive to think so.

However, there were some that managed to keep their head above water during the crisis. Referring to Sorkin's book again, my favourite segment was reading how staff at Lehman Brothers applauded members of senior management at one point when they were able to sell of elements of the business to Barclays, saving thousands of jobs in the process.

Sounds like it could have been the TUPE from hell! What would have been interesing to hear is whether there was some form of induction for those staff taken under the Barclays wing to perhaps address any differences in corporate culture, approaches to risk and deals, etc.

The issue of culture - so hard to pind down how it is specically created -  is something that was suggested as being more of a problem than the actual remuneration issues, as suggested by People Management in 2009.

But how do you battle organisational culture which requires some risk, when its comeptitors have no problem with doing so? Answers on a postcard to messrs Obama, Cameron, et al.

In the meantime here is what the Telegraph's guide to how the EU is responding.

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• Paulson Likes What He Sees in Overhaul (dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Sorkin: Preparing for Next Big One (dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com)
• What does the new EU regulation mean for bankers' pay: a Q&A (telegraph.co.uk)