2. Does the organization work in harmony, sharing information and working towards shared goals?

Do the culture, systems, processes, and structure of the organization provide both the will and the capacity to move the organization in the same direction?
- Do the board and executives work as a team or are individual members competing for position and power? This question can be extended into groups and project teams as well.
- Is there sufficient sharing of individual and group objectives so each executive (and manager) can help the other?
- Do the different areas of the business communicate with each other, or are they in isolated offices and virtual silos and keep information to themselves as a source of power?
- Are the executives rewarded for team or individual performance? What will drive actions if there’s a conflict?
- Does the employee performance recognition and appraisal process encourage or discourage teamwork? For example, do employees compete for a top rating, potentially sabotaging each other? (See this article for a commentary on how a “stack ranking” process is judged by some as having been a disaster for Microsoft.)
- Is there a single ‘source of truth’ or do different organizations maintain different numbers (e.g., for revenue pipeline)?
- Is risk information shared, so each area can see how risks inter-relate and how they impact each other?
- When it comes to the allocation of resources (budget, people), is it based on ‘community’ priorities? Are departments willing to share their resources when needed by another?

I welcome your comments and views on this issue.

Norman Marks, CPA, is vice president, governance, risk, and compliance for SAP's BusinessObjects division, and has been a chief audit executive of major global corporations for more than 15 years. He is the contributing editor to Internal Auditor’s “Governance Perspectives” column.
normanmarks.wordpress.com/