Understanding organisational culture

three commuter omnibuses just to get to work.
Now some years down the line, as I look back, I see nothing that has changed in this respect.
Organisational culture makes a big difference. It affects employee morale, retention, commitment and productivity. Basically, organisational culture is the personality of the organisation.
Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs of organisation members and their behaviours.
When one joins an organisation they have to adapt to the particular culture of that organisation.
Culture is one of those terms that is difficult to express distinctly, but everyone recognises it instantly when they come across it.
For example, the culture of a human rights pressure group or organisation is quite different from that of a hospital.
You can tell the culture of an organisation by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what members wear and their attitude.
This is virtually similar to the characteristics that one uses to determine someone’s personality.
Some types of culture
There are different types of culture just like there are different types of personality. Researcher Jeffrey Sonnenfeld identified the following four types of cultures:
Academy culture
Employees are highly skilled and tend to stay in the organisation, while working their way up the ranks.
The organisation provides a stable environment in which employees can develop and exercise their skills. Examples are universities, hospitals and large corporations.
Baseball team culture
Employees are “free agents” who have highly prized skills. They are in high demand and can rather easily get jobs elsewhere.
This type of culture exists in fast-paced, high-risk organisations, such as investment banking, advertising.
Club culture
The most important requirement for employees in this culture is to fit into the group.
Usually employees start at the bottom and stay with the organisation. The organisation promotes from within and highly values seniority.
Fortress culture
Employees do not know if they will be laid off or not. These organisations often undergo massive re-organisation. There are many opportunities for those with timely, specialised skills.
Understanding the culture of your organisation
Quite often, a leader has a very good sense of the culture in his or her organisation.
They just have not made that sense conscious to the extent that they can effectively learn from and lead within the culture.
Different people in the same organisation can have different perceptions of the culture of the organisation.
This is especially true regarding the different perceptions between the top and bottom levels of the organisation.
For example, the chief executive may view the organisation as being highly focused, well organised and even rather formal.
On the other hand, the receptionist might view the organisation as being confused, disorganised and sometimes even rude.
Here are some basic guidelines to help a leader assess the culture of their organisation:
l Understand some of the major types of cultures: There are a number of research efforts that have produced lists of different types of culture
l Describe the culture of your organisation: Consider what you see and hear, not what you feel and think. Answer the following questions.
l Who seems to be accepted and who does not? What is it about those who are accepted as compared to those who are not?
lWhat kinds of behaviours get rewarded? For example, getting along? Getting things done? Other behaviours?
l What does management pay the most attention to — problems, successes, crises or other behaviours?
l How are decisions made — by one person, discussion and consensus? Are decisions made at all?
Note that there may not be close alignment between what the organisation says it values as compared to what you are actually seeing, for example, conformity or individualism.
This disparity is rather common in organisations. You might explain this disparity to other leaders in the organisation.
An ideal time to address this disparity is when developing a values statement during the strategic planning process.
Influencing culture of your organisation
There are four primary ways to influence the culture of your organisation:
l Emphasise what is important: This includes widely communicating goals of the organisation, posting the mission statement on the wall, talking about accomplishments and repeating what you want to see in the workplace.
l Reward employees whose behaviours reflect what’s important. Discourage behaviours that do not reflect what’s important.
There is no need to punish or cause prolonged discomfort.
Rather, you want to dissuade the employee from continuing unwanted behaviours by giving them constructive feedback, verbal warnings, written warnings.
Model the behaviour that you want to see in the workplace. This is perhaps the most powerful way to influence behaviour in the workplace.
For example, if you want to see more teamwork among your employees, then involve yourself in teams more often.
So, what are you doing to influence the culture of your organisation.