Truth 9. Hire People Who Fit Your Culture: My “Good Employee” Is Your Stinker!

Many a manager has hired a new employee based largely on his or her skills and then lived to regret it. While skill competence is certainly an important ingredient in the making of a “good employee,” never underestimate the role that an organization’s culture plays in an employee’s success or failure.

Employee performance typically has a large subjective component. Bosses and colleagues have to make interpretations: Is Dave a team player? Is Tina taking unnecessary risks? Is Laura too competitive? And whether those interpretations are positive or negative depend to a great extent on how well an employee is perceived to fit into the organization. A good person-organization ...

Get 5 Business Skills Every IT Pro Must Master (Collection) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.