What do you mean by work culture, Business Organizational Culture or organizational culture ?
Organizational Culture is the identity for any units of organization. It is powerful, because people will adopt the good and bad in a culture, be it our family, non profit organization, companies, and even a country. Culture in all places always needs to be embodied, adjusted, and maintained.
Culture is unbelievably over looked by the leaders in our organizations today, and I feel like it comes down to one of two reasons:
1. The leaders of our organizations are blind to the culture of their employees that are on the front lines. Therefore, they assume there is nothing to work on.
OR
2. When leaders do think about the culture, the idea of actually implementing lasting change is so overwhelming that they choose to simply ignore it.
Culture is a hard thing to change, but it is not impossible. Even though it is hard, if we have the ability to create lasting change to our culture, we will be setting our team up for long term success.
Many people view businesses as machines and forget about the role people play. This metaphor is the basis of Taylorism where people are cogs in the machine and that change is simply the “science” of changing the operating characteristics of the machine.
People are deeply, deeply complicated. The OS example is cute if you take it at as a cute cartoon. But it doesn’t extend past that very well.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. – Peter Drucker
An operating system has strictly well defined and rigid operating parameters. Humans do not. OS have no emotions or emotional responses. They cannot learn new things and so on.
A culture, on the other hand, has to respond to learning, growth, external stimuli, interpersonal relationships, team relationships, stress etc. Most of the time people leave because of the manager.
Types of Organizational Culture?
According to Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, there are four types of organizational culture: Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy.
Clan oriented cultures are family-like, with a focus on mentoring, nurturing, and “doing things together.”
Adhocracy oriented cultures are dynamic and entrepreneurial, with a focus on risk-taking, innovation, and “doing things first.”
Market oriented cultures are goal oriented, with aim pointed on competition, achievement, and “getting the job done.”
Hierarchy oriented cultures are built and powered, with a focus on efficiency, stability and “doing things right.”
All cultures tend to push and accommodate some forms of behavior, and then align a drawback approach on others. Some are well suited to rapid and repeated change, others to slow incremental development of the institution.
Likening Business Organizational Culture to Computer Operating System
The business is the computer and the employees are the CPU. They make things happen when they have to happen. The CEO is the Motherboard, the source for energy and direction in the business.
Employees and CEO are both really important but are nothing without the OS. The market is the keyboard and mouse, controlling the inputs and telling the business what needs to be done.
A solid OS is key but hardware helps your computer realize it’s operating potential. Your CPU is literally hardware. The best culture on planet Earth, like a computer’s OS, can’t compensate for poor strategy, like a bad motherboard. But overzealous hardware crashes your computer apologizing for shoddy OS, or culture. Culture, at best, is parity to strategy.
This comparison is very appealing to engineering-oriented leaders who want to change things by turning the “dials” and avoiding dealing with people. But it is wrong. Business is a social enterprise where people work together and how they relate to each other define the culture. If you want a better culture, start with how you treat people and how they work together.
Why is organizational culture important ? Why a good business organizational culture is so important
Employees are the ones who inspire any form of culture or even pass on an existing one. The bosses are there to ensure the well-being and state and status of each employee just as every app needs a particular framework to function properly.
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Culture is an emergent property. You can’t go and buy 2 bags of culture. It comes from how the company operates, its structure, processes, decision making, thinking. Think of culture more as a health measure. If the culture is toxic, it measures the dysfunction in the organisation.
Too often, people think of culture as an input and using the OS analogy and try to do an upgrade by organizing fun activities. Once these activities are over, we go back to the dysfunctional world we work in.
Business organizational culture can make or break a business. Everyone can remember a company they worked for where they hated the atmosphere. If you have great culture, think and operate your business and the human collateral who support it greatly.
It can make just about any job or task feel easy. Employees usually spend more time at work than they do at home. Therefore, it is important that the culture be right.
A GOOD LEADER lives the core values (Learning Matters, Give Back, Teamwork, & Safety-No shortcuts). He empowers all members of the team – at all levels, promotes a positive work environment with transparency and communication, encourages personal and professional development, and is always willing to lend a hand or an ear, then driving in value as the core business organizational culture for the entire business stream.
It’s scary how we treat the people in the office who have a super positive outlook like they are nuts. Yet when we stand back and analyze the positive effect they have on those around them, we are forced to reconsider our initial views on the business organizational culture.
Sometimes, a business organizational culture isn’t even toxic as much as it is just pointing in the negative direction. You can have a culture that is too friendly sometimes, which sacrifices professionalism and can impact your output.
There should be a balance between too much leniency and professionalism. Some employees will abuse it and that can destroy it. So, it’s not just about recognizing that the right culture is important. It’s about recognizing what has a positive/negative effect on the business culture and understanding how to make a productive impact on the work culture.
Work Culture or Business Organizational Culture Idea For Job Seekers
The next time you are in a job interview and the interviewing business starts to sell the ‘we have a great culture’ pitch – try this.
Ask the interviewing manager at that exact moment whether you could randomly walk through the office and ask 3 different staff members what they enjoy about working for this company. At this point, watch their facial reactions, body language and listen carefully. You will learn a lot. Hoping you receive a confident YES then start the walk.
It does not have to be anything other than simple small talk lasting 1-2 minutes per person letting them know you have applied for a job and wanted to speak to a few staff to get a feel. Ask how long they have been there? What do you enjoy most? Then, let them talk. Thank them for their feedback and thank the interviewing manager for letting this happen. Check out this post on Freedom of speech
You may get honesty. You may get hesitation. You may get a resounding No but whatever the case, you will get a small insight on the ‘culture’ – (definition “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization”
Can management back themselves, will you still want to work there? Test it.
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