Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization.
Organizational culture is composed of several characteristics that range in priority from high to low. Every organization has a distinct value for each of these characteristics, which, when combined, defines the organization’s unique culture. Members of organizations make judgments on the value their organization places on these characteristics and then adjust their behavior to match this perceived set of values.
Common Organizational Cultures
Here are some common descriptions of various kinds of organizational cultures. As you read them, consider what words might be ideal descriptions for your organization given its strategy and mission. Do the outward expressions of culture that you have observed support the described ideal?
Also note that few of these cultures could be directly described as bad or good for an organization. However, some are more appropriate for certain kinds of organizations than others.
- Safety: A safety culture conducts its work with particular attention to the protection of workers, equipment, and the environment.
- Quality: A quality-oriented culture conducts work with attention to the quality of the organization’s products and services and prides itself on being the best in the business. Organizations with a quality culture continuously strive to do better.
- Ethical: An ethical culture stresses ethical behavior. The employees of ethical organizations are expected to follow a code of conduct and deal honestly with other employees, clients, and the public.
- Technology-driven. A technology-driven culture uses state-of-the-art technology to provide products and services to customers. Organizations with this type of culture pride themselves on being up-to-date with the latest in technology.
- Innovation: Innovation cultures are willing to take risks on new ideas, processes, and products to stay on the cutting edge. Organizations that have this kind of culture are willing to be wrong, or experience failures once in a while to be open to the new discoveries that drive their ultimate success.
- Customer service. Organizations that are customer-service oriented focus on customer needs and expectations for their products and services. These organizations focus on keeping customers happy because they want to encourage repeat customers who will make referrals.
- Caring and compassion. Cultures that are characterized by the terms “caring” and “compassion” are particularly attentive to the feelings and needs of the people they serve, especially in vulnerable or high-need situations. The emergency ward example given previously could be described as a caring and compassionate culture.
- Team cultures value the heightened effectiveness of a diverse group of people who pool their individual talents to achieve more and better results than individuals can alone.
- Represented employee In a represented-employee culture, a union speaks with one voice on behalf of its constituent member employees.
- Military culture is characterized by strict chains of command and the following of orders from persons in superior positions.
- In a constructive culture, employees are highly collegial with one another. They are expected to help each other reach high degrees of job satisfaction, personal and group achievement, and social or relationship ties.
- Passive-defensive. In a passive-defensive culture, members feel they must act in a safe way to avoid personal risk. This type of culture is characterized by individuals who seek approval, avoid risk, and acknowledge their dependence on others.
- Aggressive-defensive-competitive. In this type of culture, members are expected to be engaged in highly energetic execution of their roles and be forceful to protect themselves and achieve individual goals. In this kind of culture, individuals are competitive and perfectionist, and they seek power, position, and personal reward.
Culture Audit Process
The process of a culture audit typically involves examination of the documents of the official culture: corporate histories, findings from internal and external studies, and standard sources of data on financial performance.
The phases of an audit are selecting an audit instrument or tool, collecting data, analyzing data, and preparing recommendations for change. The heart of an audit, however, is to uncover values and beliefs through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and direct observations of people.
The areas most frequently examined in a culture audit include:
- organizational mission, vision, and values
- understanding of and extent of buy-in to mission, vision, and values
- how values are symbolized
- value differences between the organization and its competitors
- identification of key measures of success
- type of leadership required
- the behaviors and attitudes of management and leadership
- background of top managers, including schooling, time with the organization, job experiences, current duties and status, and career path policies, procedures, training requirements, and recognition systems that support or inhibit the ideal culture and behaviors
- incidents and examples that illustrate what is really important to the organization
- shared language or terminology
- other strategic influences in the environment, such as competitive or allied organizations that may influence behavior
- cultural heritage or history since founding
- organization’s structure and its relation to culture and strategy
- behaviors that reinforce core values
- identification of subcultures and their roles.
Using a valid and comprehensive process and appropriate instruments will give a global perspective on the current state of the culture. Alternatively, you can carry out an audit on a smaller scale by selecting only one or two characteristics or only one part of the organization.
Auditing Methods and Techniques for organizational culture
Interviews:
- HR Managers: To understand
- Ability of HR policies to address the cultural goals.
- Presence of articulated culture.
- Attention of top management towards culture building.
- HR strategies and systems encouraging culture building.
- Line Managers/ Functional Head: To know about:
- Nature of culture in the organization.
- Activities of culture building at functional level.
- Efforts taken by HR department to evolve and maintain good culture.
Documents/ Secondary Data
- Any report on study conducted to understand the culture in the organization.
Any other documents or printed material with regards to the same.
Ideally, you want to use multiple methods to collect data about the culture. The most common methods are:
- compiling existing data, such as mission statements, sales and safety records, customer satisfaction reports, productivity measures, and so forth
- facilitating focus groups (see the sidebar Focus Groups on Culture at left for some examples of questions to ask focus groups)
- administering surveys in which organizational members and other stakeholders (such as vendors and customers) rate the degree to which behaviors align with ideals.
Result of a Culture Audit
The end product of the culture audit is the report, which will give direction to making decisions for improvement. To prepare the report, take the following steps:
- Analyze the data and report results statistically using visuals. Develop tables and figures, such as bar graphs, to graphically show strong and weak areas. Remember that it’s important to present data that meets the interests of your audience. What does the senior management team need to know to make a decision? How can you present that information?
- Analyze trends in the responses given in focus groups. What are the most common responses to each of the questions?
- Using the list of shared culture elements (values; mission, goals, and objectives; rewards and punishments; and so forth), answer these questions for each trait:
- What do our metrics for success tell us about how well we are doing in this cultural trait?
- Are we measuring up to the standard in the best way possible?
- Where, specifically, do we excel?
- Where, specifically, do we fail to excel?
- What can we do to improve in this area?
- What do the participants of this audit tell us about the direction we should be taking?
- Keep records of your initial results (establish a benchmark), so that you can track changes over the years.
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