Company Culture

Article by Jithni Siyambalapitiya    No Comments

What is “Culture”?

“Culture” is a difficult term to define. Kroeber and Kluckhohn, two American anthropologists have critically reviewed concepts and definitions of culture and compiled a list of 164 different definitions.

“Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially Their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action.” – Kroeber and Kluckhohn, Culture-a critical review of concepts and definitions

Simply, culture is a common way of life shared by a society or group.

Figure 2: Elements of Culture

No two cultures are the same. These elements look different across cultures and many change with time as the society evolves.

Symbols refer to anything to which people attach meaning and which they use to communicate with others. One good example is that a red light at a traffic intersection is used to relate a message that you must stop your vehicle.

Language is a system of verbal and written symbols with rules about how those symbols can be strung together to convey more complex meanings. This includes languages as we usually know such as English, French, Spanish, etc. Also, language includes body language, slang and common phrases that are unique to certain groups of people.

Values are shared ideas of a group or a society as to what is right or wrong, correct or incorrect, desirable or undesirable, acceptable or unacceptable, ethical or unethical, etc. regarding something.

Norms are implicit principles for social life, relationships and interactions. Norms are detailed and specific rules for specific situations.

Company Culture

The term company culture or organization culture is relatively new to our vocabulary; in fact, such a word was not in existence before the 1980’s. As years went by, organizations and its managements identified the concept of culture and the importance of it for the sustainability of an organization.

Organization culture simply means how an organization functions and expresses itself. Culture also creates a sense of order, continuity and commitment that primates every aspect of the organization and how employees interact to customer perception. Further investigation of the impact culture has on key company attributes, it is evident that culture helps to foster key attributes such as management, processes, products, employee attraction and retention, productivity and reputation of the company. A healthy organization culture will foster these key attributes and push the organization to do better while a weak or unhealthy organization culture will hinder these attributes and result in poor performance and integration of these functions.

Composition of Company Culture

It is also important to realize the composition of organization culture. Organization culture is the personality of an organization and encompasses three basic components:

1. Assumptions: the attitudes, often unconscious, formed through company processes and actions that inform what employees think
2. Values: what a company does, its mission, and how it represents itself
3. Artifacts: what a company represents in the form of products, technologies, publications, processes, dress code, location and architecture

Figure 3: Theoretical Framework of Culture by Edger Schein

Diagnosing Company Culture
A company that does not understand its own culture is like a person without an identity.

To encourage change and positive growth, the first step is to analyze the existing culture. Even if an organization is relatively satisfied with its culture, assessment is still important to provide a common language for a conversation about current culture and direction for the future as the culture evolves over time.

The diagnosis will evaluate the existing culture Vs. desired culture

In order to create a profile, It is useful to place the values, assumptions, and artifacts of a company into a framework that reveals its basic principles.

Diagnosing culture establishes a starting point for positive change.

Company Culture Model: The Competing Values Framework

Figure 4: Organizational Culture Model: The Competing Values Framework by Robert Quinn and John Rohrbaugh

The Competing Values Framework, a model developed from the major indicators of effective organizations, provides this structure and has proven to be a valuable tool.

The Competing Values Framework has been applied to a variety of industries, demonstrating that it is a robust tool to describe core approaches to values, assumptions, and artifacts.

Subcultures Function

The subcultures within different departments of an organization sometimes contradict the larger culture, adding to the complexity of diagnosis. For example, the culture of a marketing team can be different from finance or IT.

These differences allow departments to perform efficiently, based on their specific goals and functions and are not necessarily an indication of dysfunction.

Subcultures are a natural result of the evolution of an organization, although they are never truly independent from the main culture.

The advantage of pinpointing overall culture is that it provides a baseline, but it is important to note that culture is not necessarily homogeneous. An organization’s overarching structure does not always match the approach of its internal departments. In fact, pure cultures of Create, Control, Collaborate, or Compete are rare.

Understanding the distinctions of individual workgroups is important because different cultures require different environments. Each subculture reflects a different image and requires different methods to work efficiently and collaborate.

It is essential to understand and respect subcultures.

Culture is a journey not a destination…

References

• How to Create a Successful Organizational Culture: Build It – Literally, Haworth.
• Introduction to Sociology, Zerihun Doda, 2005.
• Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions, Clyde Kluckhohn and  A. L. Kroeber
• The Competing Values Framework by Robert Quinn and John Rohrbaugh
• Organizational Culture Model by Edgar Schein

Authors:

• Jithni Siyambalapitiya
• Chithalka Nilindi