Corporate Culture – A way of life

'If you get the culture right, most of the other things will take care of itself ’

     

A culture is the values and practices shared by the members of the group. Company Culture, therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company's employees.

Company culture is important because it can make or break your company. Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors. Some studies report the difference at 200% or more. To achieve results like this for your organization, you have to figure out what your culture is, decide what it should be, and move everyone toward the desired culture.

Company cultures evolve and they change over time. As employee leave the company and replacements are hired the company culture will change. If it is a strong culture, it may not change much. However, since each new employee brings their own values and practices to the group the culture will change, at least a little. As the company matures from a start up to a more established company, the company culture will change. As the environment in which the company operates (the laws, regulations, business climate, etc.) changes, the company culture will also change.

These changes may be positive, or they may not. The changes in company culture may be intended, but often they are unintended. They may be major changes or minor ones. The company culture will change and it is important to be aware of the changes.

Assess the Company Culture

There are many ways to assess your company culture. There are consultants who will do it for you, for a fee. The easiest way to assess your company's culture is to look around. How do the employees act; what do they do? Look for common behaviors and visible symbols.

Listen. Listen to your employees, your suppliers, and your customers. Pay attention to what is written about your company, in print and online. These will also give you clues as to what your company's culture really is.

The Four Components of Every Organization

Organizations are comprised of four major components: physical (the visible aspects of the organization), infrastructure (the systems and processes for directing and managing work), behavioral (the daily actions and reactions of employees), and cultural (the underlying assumptions, values, beliefs and norms that shape daily behavior). While implementing change at the "higher" levels is possible, as the following graphic suggests, the durability of the change is short-lived without change at the underlying cultural level.

Determine the Desired Company Culture

‘People will typically be more enthusiastic where they feel a sense of belonging and see themselves as part of a community than they will in a workplace in which each person is left to his own devices’

                                                                                                                                                                                     ~ Alfie Kohn

Before you can change the company culture, you have to decide what you want the company culture to look like in the future. Different companies in different industries will have different cultures. Look at what kind of a culture will work best for your organization in its desired future state. Review your mission, vision and values and make sure the company culture you are designing supports them.

Here are some characteristics of company cultures that others have used successfully. Decide which work for your company and implement them.

·     Mission clarity

·     Employee commitment

·     Fully empowered employees

·     High integrity workplace

·     Strong trust relationships

·     Highly effective leadership

·     Effective systems and processes

·     Performance-based compensation and reward programs

·     Customer-focused

·     Effective 360-degree communications

·     Commitment to learning and skill development

·     Emphasis on recruiting and retaining outstanding employees

·     High degree of adaptability

·     High accountability standards

·     Demonstrated support for innovation

Align the Company Culture

   You need to align your company culture with your strategic goals
if it isn't already.

• Develop a specific action plan that can leverage the good things in your current culture and correct the unaligned areas.        Brainstorm improvements in your formal policies and daily practices.
• Develop models of the desired actions and behaviors.
• Communicate the new culture to all employees and then
• Implement actions that new culture is adopted by everyone.

Only a company culture that is aligned with your goals, one that helps you anticipate and adapt to change, will help you achieve superior performance over the long run. 

As it is rightly said by a business guru –

‘Profitability, growth, quality and exceeding customer expectations, these are not examples of values. These are examples of corporate strategies being sold to you as values.’

Strategies for Changing an Organization's Culture

In the article "Connecting Culture to Organizational Change" (Human Resources Magazine, March 1996, pp. 84-90), T. Galpin suggests that because changing the basic assumptions and beliefs of the underlying cultural is very difficult, the best approach for influencing specific aspects of a culture that you want to change involves targeting only those components that are most critical for implementing and sustaining the changes that concern you.

Galpin suggests targeting one or more of the following cultural components that will help bring about the change that you seek:

• Rules and policies
• Goals and measurements
• Customs and norms
• Training
• Ceremonies and events
• Management behaviors
• Rewards and recognition
• Communications
• Physical environment
• Organizational structure

In the end as future managers we should be the change we want to see in our company’s culture. 

To all the future managers I would like to say ‘True leaders live their values everywhere, not just in the workplace.’