Land Ho!? A Question of Corporate Culture

One of the definitions of the word “culture” in the Random House College Dictionary states: Culture: “the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.”

Every country has a culture, every family has a culture and every work environment invariably has a culture. A workplace culture is based on the way values are perceived and lived out by individuals within the company and the resulting human relationships that, in turn, allow for or hinder growth. The company rules and conventions are in fact passed to the “next generation” by means of conveying the culture to employees joining the company.

When you consider your workplace, what themes come to mind in this regard? Do you belong to a catch-up culture, where the disorganization is such that employees never really feel on top of things? Is it a culture of secrecy, in which managers do not share pertinent information with employees and employees do not share their work experiences with management? Is it a culture of success, where individuals’ achievements are constantly celebrated or a caution culture, where constant fear that the company might lose something pervades?

Workplace culture can take many forms. Despite what the theme of your particular workplace is, cultures that are based on closed systems and fear are known to be counterproductive. While cultures of this kind might provide certain individuals with a feeling of safety and control in the short term, a fear mentality inevitably leads to organizational ineffectiveness and a loss of profits.

The “Culture in the Workplace Questionnaire™” conducted by ITAP and based on the work of Dutch social scientist, Dr. Geert Hofstede and developed by Professor André Laurent, looks at workplace culture within the global sphere, allowing for individual corporate cultures to be compared between countries. The fundamental factors upon which the questionnaire is based include the following:

1. “Individualism: The degree to which action is taken for the benefit of the individual or the group.
2. Power Distance: The degree to which inequality or distance between those in charge and the less powerful (subordinates) is accepted.
3. Certainty: The extent to which people prefer rules, regulations and controls or are more comfortable with unstructured, ambiguous or unpredictable situations.
4. Achievement : The degree to which we focus on task and work or relationship building and quality of life. This dimension also tracks the relative masculine and feminine influences in the workplace.
5. Time Orientation: The degree to which we embrace values oriented toward the future, such as perseverance and thrift, or values oriented toward the past and present, such as respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations.” (ITAP International Inc.)

These are the factors that the experts assert are vital to understanding your company. If you are a manager and you suspect that your workplace culture could be improved, it is important to consider these five aspects at all times.

It’s also worth asking yourself honestly questions like: How much revenue do I see being lost because of employee stress and where does this stress show up? (Systemic stress is an excellent indicator of whether your culture needs an overhaul); How certain am I that I know what my team and my employees are really thinking about how I manage and how the company operates?; and how could changing our corporate culture affect revenue?

And if you were to shift your workplace culture, what new culture would you choose? A “coaching culture” is changing things for many companies. Coaching culture involves managers becoming trained in coaching skills and opening up new avenues for communication and investment in the human aspect of the company. It also means understanding what coaching is and what it is not. For example, many leaders believe coaching to be a “soft” methodology, perhaps something like “therapy,” when in actual fact it’s not therapy at all and its results are highly stable and quantifiable.

In order to make a coaching culture succeed, A. Drayton Boylston of The Boylston Group writes, “Corporate Leaders that can make the transition to Coach are those that truly believe in investing in the individual – in time and money. It takes a sincere desire and belief that investments made in people pay off for the company.” (Coaching Culture White Paper: www.TheBoylstonGroup.com )

Boylston also states that a coaching culture is characterized by “stability and progress – these cultures display more stability and retain their best people better than others. That leads to greater personal and business success.” (Ibid.) But it means that leadership has to become radically honest about what’s not working, identify whether their managers would make good coaches and commit to understanding and valuing the worth of employees in new ways.

Whether it is a coaching culture that is in your company’s future, or another way of being that opens systems and increases employee loyalty and company growth, asking key questions about your company’s cultural environment and customs is the essential place to start. So, imagine you’ve landed on another continent - you’re putting your map away and putting your feet down on new land - and, as you go through your day today, witnessing the activities and interactions in your workplace, carry the question: “What’s the culture here?”