Why Organization Culture is Important?

What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture is defined as the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.

“Culture is who you are and what you stand for, Culture is a product of the collective attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors of the people who work within an organization” – Michael Bergdahi

Formal Definition:

1.???Pattern of shared basic assumptions,

2.???Invented, Discovered, or Developed by a given group,

3.???As it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration,

4.???That has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore,

5.???It is to be taught to the new members of the group as the,

6.???Correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.

Why Care About Your Company Culture?

Your company culture defines for you and for all others, how your organization does business, how your organization interacts with one another, and how the team interacts with the outside world, specifically your customers, employees, partners, suppliers, media, and all other stakeholders.

?Your culture is the formula, the DNA that provides guidelines, boundaries, and expectations for your team and your customers, is the primary platform for inspiring and motivating your people and is the most powerful resource you have to attract, recruit, hire, and retain the highest level of talent to your business. The best people, always want to work with the best companies, and the best people are the catalyst for creating ongoing business success.

Talented humans want to do business with the best organizations because it aligns with their values and expectations. These talented people, partners, and clients see your culture as a strong differentiator, of how you do business, rather than solely on your products or services alone.

Why Culture is important for the Organization?

• Source of Competitive Advantage
• The obstacle to organizational agility
• Control system to prevent unethical behavior

How do people understand culture?

People tend to relate through example typically they use the D I E Model internally to understand the culture.

For me, culture is as follows:

1.???Values X Behavior = Culture

2.???Company culture is the personality of the company

3.???It defines the environment in which the employees work and their behavior

4.???All the employees want to come to an organization today not to work but to contribute

5. Cultural strength is the degree of agreement among members of an organization about specific values.

6.???Culture is nothing but the way we do things around here.

We need to find out what is the existing culture in the organization.

The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn at the University of Michigan, is a validated research method to assess organizational culture

Collaborate Culture (Clan Culture)

This working environment is friendly. People have a lot in common, and it feels like a large family. The leaders are seen as mentors or maybe even father figures. The organization is held together by loyalty and tradition. There is great involvement. They emphasize long-term Human Resource Development. Success is defined within the framework of addressing the needs of the clients and caring for the people. The organization promotes teamwork, participation, and consensus.

• Do things together: build teams, people matter
• Long-term Change
• Commitment, empowerment, cohesion, engagement
• Human development
• Collective wisdom, long-lasting partnerships, and relationships
• Roles like a mentor and a coach
• Wary of conflict

Typical in sectors like health care, education, some government agencies, and not-for-profits.

Create Culture (Adhocracy Culture)

This is a dynamic and creative working environment. Employees take risks. Leaders are seen as innovators and risk-takers. Experiments and innovation are a way of bonding. Prominence is emphasized. The long-term goal is to grow and create new resources. The availability of new products or services is seen as a success. The organization promotes individual initiative and freedom.

• Do new things: create, innovate, envision the future
• Transformational Change
• Handle discontinuity, change, and risk
• Freedom of thought and action, rule-breaking
• Thoughtful experimentation, learning from mistakes, failing fast
• Roles like entrepreneurs and visionaries
• Visionaries inclined toward risk, not afraid of uncertainty

Typical in sectors like technical start-ups, and technology-driven industries (communications, sustainability), but also disruptive services like Airbnb, and Uber.

Control Culture (Hierarchy Culture)

This is a formalized and structured workplace. Procedures direct what people do. Leaders are proud of efficiency-based coordination and organization. Keeping the organization functioning smoothly is crucial. Formal rules and policies keep the organization together. The long-term goals are stability and results, paired with an efficient and smooth execution of tasks. Reliable delivery, continuous planning, and low cost define success. The personnel management has to guarantee work and predictability.

• Do things right: eliminate errors
• Incremental Change
• Attention to detail, careful decisions, precise analysis
• Increase consistency and reliability, well-informed experts
• Better processes and efficiency, routines
• Roles like organizers and administrators
• Conservative, cautious, logical problem solvers

Typical in sectors like medicine, nuclear power, military, government, banking and insurance, and transportation.

Compete Culture (Market Culture)

This is a results-based workplace that emphasizes targets, deadlines, and getting things done. People are competitive and focused on goals. Leaders are hard drivers, producers, and rivals. They can be tough with high expectations. The emphasis on winning keeps the organization together. Reputation and success are the most important. The long-term focus is on rival activities and reaching goals. Market dominance, achieving your goals, and great metrics are the definitions of success. Competitive prices and market leadership are important. The organizational style is based on competition.

• Do things fast: compete, move fast, play to win
• Fast Change
• Customer satisfaction, attack competitors, shareholder value
• Speed: results-right-now, getting things done, achieving goals
• Acquire other firms, outsource selected processes,
• Deliver results, make fast decisions, solve problems
• Leaders are hard-driving, directive, commanding, demanding

Typical of sectors like consultancy, accountancy, sales and marketing, services, and manufacturing.

How do you implement the “culture” aspect in People and Culture???

Culture is the unseen way that things work in an organization, so you must be incredibly intentional about creating the culture you want. It’s critical to have support and buy-in from everyone, especially senior leadership.?

Understanding Culture through the ICEBERG Model

In 1976, Hall developed the iceberg analogy of culture. If the culture of society was the iceberg, Hall reasoned, then there are some aspects visible, above the water, but there is a larger portion hidden beneath the surface.

What does that mean? The external, or conscious, part of the culture is what we can see and is the tip of the iceberg and includes behaviors and some beliefs. The internal, or subconscious, part of the culture is below the surface of a society and includes some beliefs and the values and thought patterns that underlie behavior. There are major differences between conscious and unconscious cultures.

Internal?????????Vs???????External

Implicitly Learned?????????????????Explicitly Learned

Unconscious????????????????????????Conscious

Difficult to Change???????????????Easily Changed

Subjective Knowledge??????????Objective Knowledge

What can we do?

Hall suggests that the only way to learn the internal culture of others is to actively participate in their culture. When one first enters a new culture, only the most overt behaviors are apparent. As one spends more time in that new culture, the underlying beliefs, values, and thought patterns that dictate that behavior will be uncovered.

What this model teaches us is that we cannot judge a new culture based only on what we see when we first enter it. We must take the time to get to know individuals from that culture and interact with them. Only by doing so can we uncover the values and beliefs that underlie the behavior of that society

Companies with strong cultures tend to be higher performers.

Typically, companies with a strong culture tend to produce superior results as compared to those with weaker cultures.?When a culture is strong, it leads to motivated employees and high-performing managers. Over the past few decades, both academics and practitioners have spent time focusing on the issue of corporate culture and whether a company’s culture impacts its overall performance and effectiveness.

?A strong culture leads to ongoing involvement and participation by a company’s employees and can predict current and future financial performance. A recent study shows that culture can be an integral part of the ongoing change process (all companies are in a constant state of change due to competitive market and other pressures), and that certain cultural traits may be utilized as predictors of an organization’s performance and effectiveness (Toward a Theory of Organizational Culture and Effectiveness By Daniel R. Denison and Aneil K. Mishra - Organization Science, Vol. 6, No. 2, March-April 1995).

Benefits of a strong culture.

In addition to financial advantage, there are many benefits to having a positive culture within your company. These include:

• Good (transparent) open communication helps departments and employees work and collaborate better together toward the achievement of company goals.
• A shared vision and clear mission across the entire organization, lead to employees working towards common goals.
• A strong corporate culture of respect among employees, creating enhanced mutual trust and cooperation across the business.
• Less internal politics, flatter, and more efficient decision-making processes, and fewer disagreements as a common vision is aligned across leaders.
• Less complexity leads to faster execution within an informal control mechanism, leading to the easier achievement of business goals.
• A strong sense of identification across the organization with shared understanding.
• The clarity in assisting employees to make sense of their behaviors by justifying behaviors.
• A reduced employee turnover rate with resultant definitive financial and operational advantages

The final word.

Working within an organization of values, character, and a strong culture will help you be more successful. If you are not there now, you should go find it.

1. What do you like most about your company’s culture?

2. How does culture drive performance in your organization?

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