Generating competitive value for defined customers, stakeholders and the organisation itself is the purpose of any organisation. Understanding the dynamics of value generation is therefore a precondition for effective management. The purpose of the paper is to discuss such dynamics and highlight the fundamental role of the organisation's culture, shared values in particular, in making them effective. Technology, techniques, methods and individual skills are all necessary factors for good performance, but not sufficient to achieve excellence. The concept of the value generation cluster, as the basic value generation cell for a new view of organisations is discussed. Given the importance of the organisation's socio-cultural environment as the place where value is generated, its interactions with the external environment are analysed. Understanding the external environment, the socio-cultural systems that compose it and how they are interconnected and interact with each other is important when creating or managing an organisation. To analyse the dynamics of values between individuals and organisations and between hierarchies of organisations, a value pyramid is introduced. The issue of excellence is discussed, with the preliminary remark that excellence is a hard peak to reach and a very unstable state. With that warning, the approach to sustainable development is discussed, with a particular focus on two cultural attitudes: conservatism and innovation. Finally a brief hint is given on how excellence models can take into account - and possibly invest in - favourable characteristics of local cultures

Volume 21

Number 9-10