Culture Tensions

Management Guide

CEB Corporate Leadership Council™

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At most organizations,
living the culture requires EMPLOYEES FACE COMPETING CULTURAL MANDATES
employees to navigate
competing expectations. Tension Prevalence and Origins
These competing
expectations can arise ?!
due to conflicting values, “To compete we have to
stakeholders, or objectives. 77% of employees encounter culture innovate, but I’m not sure
They can also emerge as tensions in their work that they don’t how much room I have for
organizations grow, enter know how to address. failure when we also pride
new markets, or otherwise ourselves on rigor…”
shift priorities.

These factors create

n = 7,502 employees.
tensions in an organization’s
Source: CEB 2017 Culture Workforce Survey.
culture that make it difficult
for employees to prioritize
the right culturally aligned
behaviors.

Sample Tension Origins

Different markets Rapidly growing Business units have

and/or industries Stakeholders need organizations different priorities
require different different outcomes. cause priorities to than the rest of the
norms. constantly shift. organization.

Implication
Organizations must help employees manage culture tensions.

Source: CEB analysis.

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Most organizations help
employees prioritize EFFORTS TO PRIORITIZE HINDER APPLICATION
one side of a tension,
encouraging them to Sample Prioritization Methods
choose whichever attribute
is most urgent at the time,
most important to a key Most Urgent Most Important Most Momentum
stakeholder, or most likely Prioritize a culture attribute Prioritize a culture Prioritize a culture attribute
to keep operations running based on what’s most attribute based on who we based on what is going to
smoothly. urgent. need to satisfy the most. keep operations running
smoothly.
However, this prioritization Source: CEB analysis.
can have unintended
consequences: employees
may only live one part of
the culture, assume parts of Unintended Consequences of Efforts to Prioritize Attributes
the culture are negotiable,
or become frustrated.
Consequences What Employees Do

1. Signals that some elements are 1. Employees only live part of the culture
“negotiable,” when they aren’t or assume everything is negotiable.

2. Creates dissonance between stated 2. Culturally aligned employees

culture and actual norms become frustrated and consider other
opportunities.

Misaligned employees may use prioritization as an excuse to

promote a subculture that conflicts with the organization’s culture.

Source: CEB analysis.

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Rather than focusing on
prioritization, organizations HELP EMPLOYEES MANAGE CULTURE TENSIONS
must help employees
navigate and live all sides Three Challenges Hinder Management of Culture Tensions
of culture tensions.

To do so, organizations Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3

should: Tensions are not centrally Tensions are not clearly Employees aren’t able to
1. Identify and validate understood and acknowledged. articulated to employees. navigate tensions in their
strategically necessary day-to-day work.
tensions,
2. Build a framework
that articulates trade-
off expectations for
employees, and
3. Help teams
operationalize tensions
in their work.
Solution 1: Solution 2: Solution 3:
Identify and Validate Tensions Build a Framework Operationalize
Determine tensions at for Tensions Tensions
play across the organization’s Explicitly articulate tensions Bring together teams to
culture, and confirm and associated trade-off interpret tensions and embed
whether they are expectations to employees. trade-offs in project plans.
strategically necessary.

Source: CEB analysis.

© 2017 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CLC174447 5

To ensure tensions are
centrally understood IDENTIFY TENSIONS IN THE CULTURE
and acknowledged,
organizations should
1. U
 ncover Tensions and Locate Where They Exist: Use employees to identify the culture tensions they
consult employees to
experience in their work.
identify the culture
tensions they experience
Information You Need Two Methods for Collecting Information
in their work.
■■ Situations in which employees try to live the Listen to Employees:a
HR leaders can use that culture, but can’t ■ Do: Have peers collect data and/or observe

employee input to build a ■■ Who experiences the tensions (any patterns) one another.
business case for a tension and how often ■ Don’t: Micromanage the process.

management strategy to ■■ How tensions impact employees’ work

gain support and buy-in Ask Employees:a
and decisions ■ Do: Make surveys open-ended.
from senior leaders. ■■ Reasons why employees feel tensions ■ Don’t: Ask about specific tensions

(this could scope out potential input).

2. C
 reate a Business Case for Managing Tensions: Build a business case for a tension management strategy
to gain support from seniors leaders.

Culture Sample Scenario Location and Frequency Business Impact

Tension of Tension of Tension of Tension

1. Insert a Use employee voice to Specify which employees tend Explain potential business
tension that communicate the challenges to be affected by the tension impact of ignoring or
employees employees face (e.g., video (e.g., certain business unit, level, mismanaging tensions.
experience. recordings, employee function) and how frequently they
presentations). experience tension.

Source: CEB analysis.

a
See our teaching and examples in the Understand the Culture section of the study for more details and advice.

IDENTIFY AND VALIDATE BUILD A FRAMEWORK OPERATIONALIZE

© 2017 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CLC174447 6

Before creating a tension
management framework, VALIDATE TENSIONS IN THE CULTURE
organizations should
validate whether the Validate Tensions
tensions employees have Work with the leadership team to determine which perceived tensions are aligned to the organization’s culture
expressed are necessary to and require further support.
achieve business outcomes.

To validate, work through Tension Validation Decision Tree

the decision tree to
determine whether all sides Eliminate False Tension
of a perceived tension are: Employees are experiencing a
No
tension unrelated to the culture the
■■ Associated with the
organization needs to drive business
organization’s identity Are all sides of the perceived outcomes.
and not misaligned with Tension
tension associated with our identity?
the core of who the Action: Determine why employees
organization is and what No perceive the tension, and identify a
it believes; corrective action to eliminate it (e.g.
Yes
communications, trainings, or personnel
■■ Important to the
Are all sides of the perceived tensions changes). Depending on why a tension
organization’s current No
important to current strategy? is false, organizations should clarify
strategy and not related
either which side(s) of the tension are
to outdated goals; and
Yes never required or the specific scenarios
■■ Needed simultaneously in which to choose each side.
and do not have clear
boundaries for when Do employees need to live all sides of
certain sides should be the perceived tension simultaneously? Help Employees Navigate Tension
prioritized. Employees correctly perceive a tension
Yes in what the organization expects.
A tension is only valid if all
three of these parameters Action: Proceed to step 2 and step 3
are true. In this case, of this guide to equip employees to
organizations should provide navigate and live all sides of the tension.
employees guidance on how Source: CEB analysis.
to navigate the tension. If all
three of these parameters What is a tension?
are not true, the perceived Competing expectations due to conflicting values (e.g., customer focused and sales driven), stakeholder
tension is unnecessary and priorities (e.g., employees, customers, and shareholders), or objectives (e.g., cost-cutting department in a high-
corrective action should be growth organization) that make it difficult for employees to prioritize the right culturally aligned behaviors.
taken to eliminate it.

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Once organizations have
identified and validated the BUILD A FRAMEWORK TO NAVIGATE TENSIONS
tensions, they should build
a framework that explicitly Four Hallmarks of a Tension Case in Point: Johnson & Johnson’s Credo
articulates what the culture Management Framework
tensions are, why they exist,
and how employees should
1 Explicitly Defines Tensions
work to live all sides of the Johnson & Johnson’s credoa is its framework that
Establishes that tensions exist
tension in their day-to-day empowers employees to navigate tensions that
and that all sides must be considered
work. arise from competing stakeholder priorities.

2 Acknowledges Necessity of Tensions

Acknowledges that living all sides of tensions
doesn’t mean maximizing all sides all the time,
but never neglecting one

3 Makes Tension Principles Nonnegotiable

Ensures commitment to all sides
of tensions is a requirement

“How do you make sure every day—when decisions

4 Provides Realistic Vision of Success are made in many different areas around the world
Ties commitments to aspirational and in different business organizations—that the
but realistic organizational goals credo remains our moral compass, the glue that
Source: CEB analysis. holds us together?”

Alex Gorsky
CEO
Johnson & Johnson

Source: Johnson & Johnson; CEB analysis.

a
See the appendix for full credo.

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Organizations have
two key opportunities EQUIP EMPLOYEES TO NAVIGATE TENSIONS
to help employees
navigate tensions.

First, organizations should 1. Build Employee Judgment in Navigating Tensions

go beyond “explaining” self- Help employees reflect on current prioritization tendencies and necessary behavior changes.
evaluation to facilitating it
by helping employees reflect ■■ Help employees interpret and normalize the
on their personal tension tensions framework in their context. Sample Self-Evaluation Questions
prioritization tendencies ■■ Foster self-evaluation using questions to create
■■ Across our organization’s espoused values,
and what behavior changes “ah-ha” moments around how employees where do I tend to default when under
might be necessary. typically prioritize behaviors. pressure?
■■ Thinking about a recent project, what
pain points caused me to make behavioral
trade-offs? Which stakeholders, values, or
objectives did I deprioritize to achieve this?
“In times of stress, I put ■■ Are there areas where I could increase my
my head down and
prioritize efficiency over
performance by paying more attention to
collaboration every time.” neglected culture objectives?

Source: CEB analysis.

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Second, organizations can
help teams proactively EQUIP EMPLOYEES TO NAVIGATE TENSIONS (CONT.)
identify where tensions will
arise in their work and plan
how they will address them.
2. Help Teams Plan Ahead for Trade-Offs
Proactively identify where tensions will arise, and build desired trade-offs into project plans.

■■ Bring together teams of employees across levels

who work together and experience tensions in a Sample Team Tension Management Planning
similar way. Questions
■■ Examine upcoming projects to consider where
■■ As we execute on this project, where will we
tensions will arise, and plan ahead to support all be inclined to prioritize certain values?
cultural and strategic objectives. ■■ Which stakeholders are we serving and how
might their expectations conflict?
■■ What are our objectives and how might they
“As we prepared for the require competing values prioritization?
project’s third checkpoint last year,
everyone was so focused on meeting
budget goals that we lost sight of
the customer’s actual needs. How
can we plan ahead to balance those
drivers this time around?”

Source: CEB analysis.

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