CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION / LAURA BELLO

Nowadays you hear companies persistently talking about purpose and so the initial question is: why?

Today, purpose is a "hot topic", so to speak. In the last few years, a series of events have been triggered around purpose that have sparked interest in business and society in this topic. Larry Fink's last 3 letters, the manifesto of the association Business Roundtable in 2018; the latest Davos forums, or the rise of sustainability are examples that indicate the need for new organisational models that go beyond profit maximisation. I believe that the corporate purpose has a lot to say in all this.

Is the fact that it is a "hot topic", as you say, a good thing?

It is positive because there is more interest and organisations want to do things. However, you have to do things right, if you want to deploy and promote purpose you have to get into it. It is not enough to define a purpose and claim to be an organisation with purpose. The big challenge challenge for companies today is to move from declaring to living purpose. The purpose has to get to the day-to-day and impact the way things are done. That is why our research is focused on the implementation of purpose.

The model that you have developed together with your team has the purpose to measure precisely how purpose is experienced, how is this achieved in the organisation?

goal The Purpose Strength Project is a project of research in which researchers from Tecnun, IESE, Chair Management by Missions and purpose Corporate of the UIC work together with professionals from DPMC and Corporate Excellence-Center for Reputation Leadership with the aim of generating knowledge to help companies to effectively implement their purpose. With professors Nuria Chinchilla (IESE) and Carlos Rey (UIC) we developed the Purpose Strength Model, with which we evaluate the implementation of purpose in specific organisations and we are generating an observatory of data on the reality of companies around the corporate purpose . Combining qualitative dynamics with quantitative analysis and with the experience internship of DPMC we aim to analyse and understand how to successfully implement purpose in an organisation, and to see what benefits are triggered as a result of an effective implementation.

From your research what do you understand by implementation of purpose?

When we talk about the implementation of purpose, we are basically assessing the extent to which there is a shared sense of ownership in the organisation. We like to explain it with the triangle knowledge, identification and contribution. A purpose will be more shared to the extent that it is better known and people in the organisation are able to explain it in their own words. Knowing the purpose provides clarity and financial aid to prioritise what is more important from what is less important. Identification refers to the fact that the purpose has to excite and be a motivational source for people. This is to the extent that the corporate purpose connects with people's personal values by proposing a goal that is not only valuable for the company but also for many employees. Finally, the contribution makes reference letter that the purpose has to be noticed on a daily basis, through actions and objectives, seeing how the daily work contributes to the development of the purpose.

Having defined the three dimensions of purpose we propose to evaluate Degree its implementation, to better understand the extent to which there is a shared purpose and to see how it can be further developed.

What differentiates corporate purpose today from traditional corporate purposes (mission statement)?

From my point of view, one of the major differences between approach of mission statement and purpose is the bidirectionality of the latter. Let me try to explain. Both mission statement and purpose try to give meaning to the day to day, to define why we do what we do and what is the contribution that, from the organisation, we intend to make to society. What happens is that the meaning belongs to staff, to each individual, and cannot be "imposed". In any case, we can help to discover it. Everyone finds their own meaning in their own way. The mission statement has worked from a more unidirectional and top-down approach ; defining the "mission statement" and then deploying it throughout the organisation. The purpose has a more bidirectional approach . The core topic of the purpose is to be able to connect the organisational purpose with the purpose staff of the people in order to generate a shared meaning. When this happens both parties are enriched. The business is enriched because it has people who connect and connect strongly with the goal. At the same time, the person finds a place of work with a project that fulfils him/her because it presents a cause with which he/she identifies.

What challenges do human resources areas face in the proper implementation of the corporate purpose ?

The research has made it clear that measurement allows for a better understanding of the organisation and this is core topic in order to improve it. In this sense, in addition to a good conceptualisation, it is necessary to develop tools that make it possible to evaluate intangibles. This is one of the great challenges we face in the world of Personnel Management Service.

Another important challenge in the implementation of purpose is the alignment of management systems with purpose. For example, it is necessary to study and propose solutions to enhance the development of purpose through human resources policies, or to see which work systems facilitate better living purpose. Much remains to be done here.

A third challenge, and this is the last one I will mention so as not to go on too long, is everything that has to do with sustainability. purpose and sustainability are two concepts that are connected. There are companies that are very interested in becoming more sustainable and have reflected on and redefined their purpose , explicitly incorporating the fact that it is a sustainable contribution. In this way, the implementation of purpose will lead to the generation of a shared sense of sustainability. On the other hand, I believe the unity of purpose will facilitate inter-company partnership , core topic for industrial symbiosis for example, and here too there is no small scope for work

What is your opinion on whether corporate purpose is profitable?

It is a complicated topic and I believe that yes or no answers are not enough. On the one hand, there are several programs of study that show that purpose has a positive impact on talent loyalty, increased commitment to the organisation, improved collective unity, productivity and even corporate reputation. Could it be said that these variables lead to improved profitability? On the one hand, it seems reasonable to affirm that the more committed people or the more productive they are, the better the economic results will be. But, at the same time, we must be aware that there are other variables that have an impact, and not a small one, on economic results, for example, the pandemic. We have seen organisations with a high level of employee engagement that have drastically decreased their bottom line simply because people are confined and their sales have decreased drastically.

In terms of the direct relationship between purpose and profitability, the current reference letter study is article , which Claudine Gartemberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim published in Organization Science in 2019. After analysing a sample of 500,000 workers from more than 400 companies, they found that companies whose strategy was aligned with purpose and whose middle management had internalised it did have better economic performance.

Now that you enter the current topic pandemic, it has been seen that the evaluation of companies by employees, in many cases, has been positive. Do you think that in this crisis we are experiencing it is financial aid to better internalise the purpose of the organisation?

I think the pandemic has made us reflect on what is important and readjust our priorities. I don't know how we will end up, but it is clear that the current status requires character, drive and commitment, and this is where the need for meaning intensifies. The purpose brings meaning, and therein lies its potential: it clarifies the direction we are aiming for, it gives reasons why we do things, it keeps us united ..... The purpose makes the difficulty more bearable and at the same time makes us grow in the difficulty because we have an exciting and valuable goal to keep fighting for every day. I believe that the companies that had worked on purpose are noticing its fruits and those that have not are rethinking how to find a sense of meaning that will be the driving force for change.

Now let's talk a bit about the relationship between purpose and corporate culture, how can purpose be deployed to guide corporate culture?

It all depends on how you define corporate culture. For me, purpose and culture are two closely related terms. Traditionally, organisational culture has been defined as the set of shared values that exist in the organisation. For example, at the University of Navarra, we have a culture where we share values such as service and generosity, joy and magnanimity... However, values run the risk of remaining on the web page or being something that is referred to at official events but lose prominence in day-to-day life. This is where the need to move on from declarations to living them once again comes to the fore. Values have to be felt in everyday life and this is where I see that purpose and culture connect. The values manifest the identity of the organisation and the purpose defines the contribution that the organisation intends to make to society (logically, the contribution is made from the identity). From my point of view, the purpose has to be more operational than identity-based. Therefore, for the purpose to be operationalised, it must be connected with the business model , it must be transmitted through communication, it must be distributed through leadership and it must be promoted through the systems of management. This is how we promote the creation of a culture of purpose