A consistent strategy, customer-focused approach, strong leadership, processes that reinforce strategy and well-established values are the five characteristics of a high-performance organization. That's according to a new global study commissioned by American Management Association (AMA) and conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity.

Organizations that share these characteristics are not guaranteed to be high performers, but they stand a considerably better chance of performing well than if they fail to adopt these traits. Several external factors were also identified that influence corporate performance, including talents and skills of the workforce, global competition, faster and more disruptive change and technology.

The AMA study, The High-Performance Organization, is based on responses from 1,369 human resource professionals and from managers and executives across a wide range of functional areas. The study was conducted using AMA's global network, including Canadian Management Centre in Toronto, Management Centre Europe in Brussels, AMA Latin America in Mexico City, and AMA Asia in Tokyo.

Respondents were asked to rate a set of organizational characteristics that are associated with high performance. They were also asked about revenue growth, market share, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The results provide a roadmap for building a high-performance organization.

"The study's findings should give executives the start of a to-do list to examine their company's well being and start them on their way to building and sustaining a high-growth company," says Edward T. Reilly, president and CEO of AMA. "Executives need to carefully balance the key performance drivers--strategy, customer focus, leadership, processes and values--while effectively navigating through the external challenges posed by a competitive, global business environment."

According to the AMA report, high-performance organizations are generally superior to their low-performance counterparts in the following areas:

• Their strategies are more consistent, are clearer, and are well thought out.
• They are more likely to go above and beyond for their customers.
• They are more likely to adhere to high ethical standards throughout the organization.
• Their leaders are relatively clear, fair and talent-oriented.
• They are superior in terms of clarifying performance measures, training people to do their jobs, and enabling employees to work well together.
• Their employees are more likely to think the organization is a good place to work.
• Their employees use their skills, knowledge, and experience to create unique solutions for customers.

Being seen as a "good place to work" is another solid indicator that an organization is a high performer. Not only is the characteristic most widely cited by high-performance organizations, it is also one of the areas in which those organizations outstrip low performers the furthest.

The AMA study also shows that there is a positive relationship between performance and ethics. In fact, the research team found that 69% of responding organizations said their organizations adhered to the highest ethical standards. The percentage was even higher for top performers.

Looking ahead, the report suggests that the characteristics of high-performance organizations are likely to remain stable over the next 10 years, but the ways in which companies demonstrate those characteristics will evolve. To remain high-performers, companies will need to adapt to a changing marketplace and shifting social attitudes.

The complete study of The High-Performance Organization is available at www.amajapan.co.jp/e/survey.html