Successful organisations

Dear Sarah,

This is an interesting question and to some extent the answer may depend on how you define success and on the time you take into consideration.  Many management writers and thinkers have tried to identify success factors for organisations. One of the best known attempts to identify success factors was the work done by Peter and Waterman in the 1970s. Their research is described in their work:

In search of excellence: lessons from Americas best run companies, Peters, Thomas J and Waterman, Robert H
Harper and Row, 1982
A 1970s study which sought to identify any common denominators of several successful American companies. Concludes that the companies had several common characteristics: a bias for action; closeness to the customer; autonomy and entrepreneurship; productivity through people; a hands-on, value-driven approach; 'sticking to the knitting'; a simple form and lean staff; and simultaneous loose-tight properties.

Since then their work has been critiqued and some consider it to be discredited
A later example is Jim Collins’ popular book ‘Good to great’.

Good to great: why some companies make the leap and others don’t, Collins, Jim
Random House, 2001
From the publisher: based on analysis of over 1400 Fortune 500 companies, the drivers of their good to great companies are identified and illustrated, with lessons for all managers.

This too has been criticised for its research approach.

Your enquiry focused on ‘behaviours’ and I have interpreted this fairly generally in the searches I have done for you. However, there are some frameworks which do focus quite strongly on behaviour. For example you may be interested in the Best Companies methodology which  is based on eight key factors (again these are cross-sectoral). For details see: http://www.bestcompanies.co.uk/Methodology.aspx

The Gallup Organisation identified 12 behaviours for successful managers and these are covered in the following books:

First break all the rules: what the world’s greatest managers do differently, Buckingham Marcus and Coffman, Curt
Simon and Schuster, 1999
The conclusions drawn from a study of successful managers conducted by the Gallup Organization are presented. The authors argue that great managers have one characteristic in common: they do not hesitate to go against conventional wisdom. The key to their success is identified as selecting talented employees, focusing on their innate abilities and building on their strengths rather than attempting to fit them into a fixed career path.

The 12 elements of great managing, Wagner, Rodd and Harter, James K
Gallup Press,
This text is the sequel to the 1999 bestseller 'First break all the rules,' based on interviews held by The Gallup Organisation. It combines the results of interviews with employees and managers from around the world with recent discoveries in the fields of neuroscience, game theory, psychology, sociology, and economics. 12 elements of work life emerged from the research as the core of the unwritten contract between employee and employer. Each chapter describes one of the 12 Elements of Great Managing in detail, along with the story of a manager who epitomises that aspect. This edition follows great managers as they harness employee engagement.

However, all these authors have tried to identify common factors rather than compare success factors in different sectors and I haven’t seen any research suggesting that success factors vary from sector to sector. Jim Collins did a supplementary books which considered the application of his ideas to the social sector and the differences between them:

Good to great and the social sectors: why business thinking is not the answer, Collins, Jim
Random House, 2006
The author explains that 30 to 50 percent of those reading his business book "Good to Great" come from non-business contexts. It is suggested that while it is a mistake for social sector organisations to seek greatness by becoming more like business, there are timeless principles of greatness which do apply to the social sector. Based on feedback from readers and structured interviews with social sector leaders, five issues relating to the application of the author's ideas to the social sector are identified and addressed. A summary table of differences between the business and the social sector is included. This monograph was originally intended as an additional chapter for the original book and is designed to accompany it.

All the books I have mentioned are available to borrow from our library by ringing 01536 207315 with your membership number and the address to which you would like them sending, bearing in mind that a signature is required on delivery.

I have done some searches of our database and have sent you a listing of a few additional books. I have also selected a few journal articles which I think are relevant to this issue and have sent them to you.