When we think of culture, many of us think about it in terms of geography. It’s true that different countries or geographic regions have different traditions, social norms and overall ways of life. Culture is at the core of any group or institution. But what exactly is culture? Schein & Schein define culture as “accumulated learning [that] is a pattern or system of beliefs, values and behavioral norms that come to be taken for granted as basic assumptions and eventually drop out of awareness.” (2016). As you can see, culture is a very complex and very dynamic concept.
Organizations have unique cultures as well. Organizational culture is “a product of factors including history, product, market, technology and strategy, type of employees, management style, as well as national culture. (Needle, 2004 as cited in Nikpour, 2016). My employer, for example, is a global food manufacturer which originated and is still headquartered in Mexico. We have locations in 32 countries around the globe. While each country has their own set of values, beliefs and traditions, that make up the micro-culture of each individual subsidiary, our overarching corporate culture remains strong.
However, it is my belief that, while organizational leaders can manipulate some of the factors that comprise corporate cultures in order to shape or improve the corporate culture, they cannot simply sit down and define it and make it be so out of sheer will alone. “Intentions are important, but… perceptions count.” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). To be successful in creating or improving a company’s culture, leaders across the organization must be committed to uphold the core values and beliefs that they set forth and to promoting this and gaining the buy-in of employees. At my company, the first of our seven corporate beliefs is “we value the person” and the second is “we are one community.” These two statements say a lot about the culture of the company. And, they are not just words. These are values that are woven into the fabric of who we are as an organization. I have never before been a part of an organization with such a robust, cohesive and vibrant culture and, although I’ve only been with the company for a short time, I am all-in.
All organizations have cultures, whether they can define them or not. Culture is an important part of a company’s success or failure. It is the driving force of human behavior, morale and productivity. (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). In order to make a positive impact on these things, a company’s leadership team should uniformly exemplify and promote a set of values, beliefs and norms that can be unanimously celebrated and supported at all levels.
Works Cited:
Moran, R., Abramson, N.R. & Moran, S. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9th ed). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Nikpour, A. (2016). The impact of organizational culture on organizational performance: The mediating role of employee’s organizational commitment. International Journal of Organizational Leadership. 6(2017) 65-72. Retrieved from https://ijol.cikd.ca/article_60432_9a9a6611a397719a068702bb17be5460.pdf
Schein, E.H. & Schein, P. (2016). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mary,
You identified an important concept that businesses must understand in order to be successful. With so many companies jumping on the diversity bandwagon, the often forget to include organization culture as part of the workforce. Your company’s vision statements of valuing a person and then valuing the community speak volumes. It is also for companies’ employees to understand what their vision statement is and how each person can independently impact it.
One area that is important for leaders to remember is the impact that human resources (HR) can have on the organizational culture. The HR department is a key player in bringing in people into the organization, so if they are unclear of what culture the company has, they could be hiring people that are not a good fit. For example, most companies culture have a predefined method of valuing people or tasks. Some companies are driven to be task-oriented by the nature of their business, while others can choose the workforce over tasks (SHRM, 2019). A task-oriented company puts concentration on tasks and processes first when making a decision and is driven by efficiency, performance, and production, whereas a people-oriented company puts employees first and that those employee drive production and performance (SHRM, 2019). If the HR person doing the hiring does not understand the culture of the business, they could easily hire for a people-oriented cultured company someone that is task-oriented. That mismatch could contribute to an unnecessary struggle for both the employer and the employee.
In addition to hiring the right people, the HR department can impact organization culture by paying attention. If the HR department is paying attention and being attentive to the culture, they can then establish policies, strategies that grow the culture, programs that contribute and strengthen the culture of the company (SHRM, 2019). As leaders learn over time, culture is developed and cultivated. It is not something that is immediately presented with no growth or change. An organizations leadership, actions, ethics, values, etc. all contribute to the growth of the company’s organizational culture (SHRM, 2019).
References:
SHRM. (2019, January 27). Understanding and developing organizational culture. Retrieved September 24, 2019, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/understandinganddevelopingorganizationalculture.aspx