Corporate Culture in Business Management |
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The culture of an organization is often expressed as "the way we do things around here" and consists of largely unspoken values, norms, and behaviors that become the natural way of doing things. An organization's culture may be more apparent to an external observer than an internal practitioner. The corporate culture energy field determines a company's dress code, work environment,
work hours, rules for getting ahead and getting promoted, how the business world is viewed, what is valued, who is valued, and much more. Every company or organisation has numerous corporate cultures. For example, the marketing
department and the engineering department may have very different corporate cultures which are both influenced by the overall organizational corporate culture. Many times these two sub-cultures clash. Culture shows up in both
visible and invisible ways. Some expressions of corporate culture are easy to observe. You can see the dress code, work environment, perks, and titles in a company. This is the surface layer of culture. These are only some of the
visible manifestations of a culture. Business leaders often assume that their company's vision, values, and strategic priorities are synonymous with their company's culture. Unfortunately, too often, the vision, values, and
strategic priorities may only be words hanging on a plaque on the wall. Corporate culture is actually the container for the vision, mission and values. It is not synonymous with them. In a thriving profitable company, employees
will embody the values, vision, and strategic priorities of their company. What creates this embodiment (or lack of embodiment) is the corporate culture energy field that permeates the employees' psyches, bodies,
conversations, and actions. Companies need a good definition of corporate culture before they can begin to understand how to change the corporate culture. Definition Many books have been written in
recent years about culture in organizations, usually referred to as "Corporate Culture." The dictionary defines culture as "the act of developing intellectual and moral faculties, especially through
education." This writing will use a slightly different definition of culture: "the moral, social, and behavioral norms of an organization based on the beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members
"A common perception held by the organaisation's members, a system of shared meaning" Corporate culture is not something that can be defined. It's intangible: a state of mind, a feeling, a collective consciousness that is infused in a business and its employees. Ask 20 business owners to define their corporate culture, and you will get 20 different responses. Nevertheless, defining a company's corporate culture is not as important as the way a company works to establish it. Many businesses lose sight of the importance of a coherent and positive corporate culture, or they have limited knowledge about how to develop it. Many of these companies will concentrate on business disciplines that are directly connected to their profit margins and neglect the emotional health of their employees when, in fact, the two are closely related. Every organization has its own unique culture or value set. Most organizations don't consciously try to create a certain culture. The
culture of the organization is typically created unconsciously, based on the values of the top management or the founders of an organization. "Another important thing is to spend a lot of time with your people and
to communicate with them in a variety of ways. And a large part of it is demeanor. Sometimes we tend to lose sight of the fact that demeanor - the way you appear and the way you act - is a form of communication. We want our people
to feel fulfilled and to be happy, and we want our management to radiate the demeanor that we are proud of our people, we are interested in them as individuals and we are interested in them outside the work force, including the
good and bad things that happen to them as individuals." There's some debate over whether companies should design their personnel policies and reward systems around cultural values. Currently companies tend not
to, because of the concern about stereotyping certain cultures. A popular trend is for companies to "reengineer" themselves, which involves an attempt to change their culture, usually to a team orientation. Following
are necessary for a company to change to a "team culture:"
Managing a Multi-cultural Team "Culture is central to what we see, how we make sense of what we see, and how we express ourselves." And when you are managing a multicultural team, you are working with people
who are different in what they see, how they make sense of what they see and how they express. This is indeed a challenging situation. But don't take your step backward, because the future is with global business. You
might be working with a team which consists of Americans, Indians, Chinese and Europeans. What diversity! Now let us see what challenges you will have to face and how to handle them efficiently.
1. What are the challenges?
2. How to handle cultural differences? The first and the most important task in your hand is to prepare your team for a culturally different work experience. Prepare their mindset to accept
differences and be open to each other.
3. How to handle communication challenges? Communication is a complicated phenomenon on it own. A North American and a South American speaks different. There are researchers who study
communication differences which arise from one street to another. So a common ground is what we are all looking for. A perfect common ground is impossible but you can train yourself and your team to attain acceptable international
standards of communication. Moreover, country specific communication training will help bridge those gaps. 4. How to co-ordinate time zone differences? Time zone difference is a major factor which
will influence your team. The problem that you will face here is that of proper work co-ordination. But this is to some extent reduced by night time shifts. For example, you can have a team in India which works night shifts while
your team works day shifts. This makes sure that work is carried out simultaneously. Another option is to organize your work in such a manner that work assigned to one team in a zone will be finished by the time other team gets
to work. This can add to your benefit as your work is getting round the clock. 5. What benefits can you leverage from a culturally different team? Once you can reach a common ground of
understanding for each other, what results is a highly potential multi-cultural team which can serve you with:
Creating a Positive Corporate Culture Key Ingredients to Creating a Positive Corporate Culture
Driving Corporate Culture for Business Success A detailed blueprint for transforming corporate culture, this Report reveals the critical success factors in creating a strategically focused corporate culture. You will learn how to:
Some things to consider when defining the type of culture you want to create would include:
Many companies do not give much attention to their corporate culture. It just evolves through the people they hire. It is usually driven by the attitude and behaviors or the company president and is passed along
unconsciously. When you take the time to define and create your corporate culture you are telling others what kinds of people will flourish in your company; it tells tell the market the companies you want to business with, it
defines the behaviors that will be accepted in your organization. Creating a specific company culture is just as important to the success of an organization as a sound business plan. In fact, the definition of how you want your
corporate culture to perform should be a part of your business plan. Of all the companies I studied, the most successful in the long term, were very clear in what their corporate culture would look like and they took action to
see that is was implemented. Conclusion If your company's culture is not
quite what you'd dreamed it would be, you have the ability to change it. Companies should make developing a positive corporate culture one of the top five goals for the business. Building the culture on clear vision, attainable
goals, a genuine concern for the employees' professional growth, and an appreciation of their contributions to the success of the business will create a positive atmosphere and working environment. A corporate culture often happens
by default instead of design. But companies that purposefully set up their culture are far more successful than companies that have a culture that exists by default. Refrences: 1. 2. http://ezinearticles.com/?Definition-of-Corporate-Culture&id=99997 3. http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/corporate+culture.html 4. http://wpw.dohertyemployment.com/aug2006/nl.cfm 5. Organisational behaviour, stephen p. Robbins,9th
edition,Prentice hall of India, New delhi 6. Organisational culture,Nasreen Taher,2005 edition ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad. |
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Source: E-mail October 12, 2007 |
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