Organizational Values and Culture of Service

The terms “organizational values” and “culture of service” are deeply entwined concepts.

The development of a strong culture of service is founded upon the well-defined and understood organizational values of your club.? Values are defined in support of clear and concise mission and vision statements.? Well-documented values are the foundation of the service provided to your members, to other employees, and ultimately to the owners or board of directors.

Here are two key definitions:

·??Values – “beliefs that motivate people to act in a certain way, serving as a guide for human behavior.”

·??Culture – the total ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.?

With a slight modification of this definition, we come up with the following blended definition of an organizational culture. The sum ways of working and interacting built up by a group of people within an organization and transmitted from one generation of employees to another.

The major benefit of establishing organizational values and a culture of service is that once adopted by most people in an organization, the culture takes on a life of its own and permeates the workplace.?As normal turnover takes place, new hires quickly learn that to be accepted in their new surroundings, they must embrace the culture and make it their own.

In the absence of a culture developed and disseminated by the organization’s leadership, a culture will arise on its own, usually fostered by a vocal few and often cynical and at odds with the purpose of the club.

Organizational values must be continually reinforced for every employee in the club, from senior managers to line employees.? Unless leaders at every level practice the values that underlie the club’s culture, they are merely paying lip service to the culture.? It is up to managers and supervisors to demonstrate values through their consistent example and to preach the message at every opportunity.? The purpose of this ongoing reinforcement, like the practice necessary to develop any complex skill, is to make organizational values second nature to all.

As an example, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, renowned for its “legendary service,” reinforces its organizational values and culture of service every day during every shift in every one of their properties world-wide.? All employees, from senior executives to the most recently hired worker, attend a Daily Line Up where values are discussed in the context of their jobs and departments.? To further reinforce the culture of service every employee carries a pocket card summarizing core values.

So, how do you create a culture in your organization??First, you must define clearly and succinctly the aims of your club and what it aspires to be.?These are most often found in Mission and Vision Statements.?Beyond these basic statements of intent, one must clearly spell out standards of behavior and performance.?These can be in the form of Guiding Principles, Operating Standards, Leadership Principles, Service Ethic, Principles of Employee Relations, Organizational Values, Service Pocket Cards, a Code of Professional Ethics, or any other formal statements describing the “What, How’s, and Why’s” of how club business should be conducted.

?Yet publishing such principles and statements, no matter how inspirational and well-written, will only foster employee cynicism if the values are not enthusiastically embraced by the club’s leadership.?On the other hand, when leadership demonstrates their commitment to the organization’s values by their daily example, employees will do likewise.

With well-defined values and the enthusiastic example of leaders, the ground has been prepared for the fruits of organizational culture, but just as in growing a garden, preparing the soil is only the first step.?The real work for a successful harvest is the daily tending – watering, fertilizing, pruning, weeding, and pest control.

In the case of an organizational culture, it is daily reinforcement at every opportunity with all employees that continues to focus individual attention on the values that underlie everyone’s efforts.?In some cases, it’s publicly recognizing an employee for embracing and utilizing the values in their work relationships or service rendered to members and guests.?In other cases, it’s privately correcting an employee who has ignored or transgressed the culture.?In extreme cases, it’s discharging the employee who refuses to accept the group norm.?The key is to continually remind employees of the organization’s values and elevate them from words on a page to an animating spirit that permeates every aspect of the club and its work.

From the process of continually accentuating and reminding one achieves a breakthrough like that described in Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great.

“Sustainable transformations follow a predictable pattern of buildup and breakthrough.?Like pushing on a giant, heavy flywheel, it takes a lot of effort to get the thing moving at all, but with persistent pushing in a consistent direction over a long period of time, the flywheel builds momentum, eventually hitting a point of breakthrough.”

This breakthrough is reached when the club achieves a critical mass of employee buy-in.?Though the process of establishing an organizational culture requires patience and persistence as well as leadership and example, when breakthrough is achieved, the culture takes over and is self-sustaining – with the employees holding the bar high and policing their own ranks.

In such a club, employees understand what must be done and how.?Motivation and morale are sky-high as employees are empowered by their participation and contribution.?The leader, relieved of the burden of constantly following behind employees to ensure they are doing the right things, can focus on strategic issues, personalized member service, and compelling programming.

The importance of a well-defined and promoted organizational culture cannot be overemphasized or underestimated in its impact on quality, performance, and member service.?The only thing that can screw it up is for the organization’s leaders to fail to show an ongoing interest or set an uncompromising example of the organizational culture and its values.

Private Club Performance Management offers a comprehensive description of private club organizational values which can be customized for individual operations.

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