Booz Allen Hamilton's annual rating of the value of its newly developed intellectual capital, which this year included the judgments of individuals visiting their website, listed organizational DNA number one. Booz Allen seems to be a leader in the exploration of organizational DNA and its impact on businesses large and small. In the past year they have:
- Published an article on The Four Bases of Organizational DNA
- Published an article on The Seven Types of Organizational DNA
- Developed an online five-question survey that lets you profile your organization's DNA
DNA is used as a metaphor for the intrinsic attributes of an organization. An organization's DNA is made up of its criteria for:
- Examining opportunity and risk
- Selecting and retaining people
- Processing information
- Distributing resources
An organization's DNA governs its existence in the same way biological DNA governs an organism's life.
The concept of organizational DNA is particularly interesting because it is one of the few metaphors applied to businesses and other organizations that has been organic. Most of the widely accepted metaphors have been along the lines of the reengineering craze of recent years. While these approaches have resulted in valuable examination of how organizations do things, they are not as good at illuminating the why. Why is a motivational question. People, not machines, have motivations. Organizations are made up of people with their emotions and thought processes. Organizations are collective organisms. As such it's time to view them through an organic rather than a mechanistic lens.
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