What good is that we foster a desired culture within our organization?
The impact of culture in the organization is central. Many PyMes will wonder, what is the culture in my company? Do I?In fact, the culture within the company, or within any organization, is the way that members or employees have to think about it. He defined Geert Hofstede (1997) to culture as "The Software of the Mind", and that's where the center of the subject resides.
When we think about the software, what we do not have into account is that the software will adapt to the user experience. On mobile phones or on the same laptops, the capabilities that the hardware design has are adapted by the software to enhance the processes that are used more, while the less useful are relegated. Thus, a part of the software is inherited, and another one influenced by the user.
Similarly, mind and culture work like this: they reduce the need to think about repetitive things and machines. No one reasones how to tie the cords, or how to type on the computer, we simply do so. It is in this reduction of the need for processing that automates behavior, and where culture shines.
The culture of the company or the organization is not where things are, or in decoration, or in the products sold: it is in people and their behavior. Is it not part of the organizational culture that workers support each other? Is it not part of the organizational culture that there are conflicts between sectors, despite being within the same company, and have the same mission?
Do we need to promote the culture we want?
Suppose we have two companies. A company that promotes fellowship, healthy competition and quality as its culture, and the other that does not promote any culture, has interdepartmental conflicts, management lets employees grow based on personal preferences, and has no clear criteria of expected.It is evident, in this example, that the first company will have better chances of being successful in contrast to the second, which will spend a lot of energy in solving conflicts or generating.
People's time and energy (the second may vary) are limited. We all have 24 hours a day, and we all have one life. This limit demonstrates that the energies that we spend on infruitful conflicts (trading advances, harming people, etc.) is energy and time that we do not have, is lost. As has already been said and it will be said a thousand times more: the impact of culture in the organization is central.
While a company directs energies to one goal, the other wastes them in unnecessary conflicts.
So having a culture that promotes fellowship, healthy competition, help in and out of the team, loyal competition, and the values that, as a company, we want to have is fundamental to a mega competitive world.
The culture in the background is who we are, the values we have, and a reflection of our reality. It's no use that managers are hours and hours thinking about their mission, vision or purpose, or thinking about the values they want to have their organization, if the culture actually expresses values that are opposed to those we want. Beautiful words fill our soul, but the reality of the organization is in people.
What if I already have a culture in my organization, can I change it?
If, but with a big one depends.Leaders have in groups and organizations the ability to take the step. This step is the direction we want you to move on culturally. Moving forward to the desired culture is not easy, people are not usually adhered to change (it is thought that change is the rule of the future).
It should be started by defining where one wants to go: a vision, or a purpose, and be the drop that shuts in the stone: constant, tireless, and always advance in the same direction with coherence. Writes John Kotter “(...) for leadership, achieving a vision requires motivating and inspiring” [1]. Motivate and inspire to be better, motivate and inspire to change, motivate and inspire to achieve goals.
The impact of culture in the organization is central in many aspects: conflict resolution, talent attraction, quality of results, among others we could name. That is why the centrality that is given in many large companies.
Is there any kind of culture that serves more than another?
Again we have to answer that yes, but it depends. It depends on the vision for the team/organization/company. We can confidently affirm the following:In a world connected by international trade, planes, boats, internet, and everything we already know, the possibilities of connecting with different cultures increase exponentially. In this sense, being prepared for this is of great relevance to the employees, and managers who are in the first line of the labor or commercial bond.
Having a sensitivity to differences is a first step. This intercultural sensitivity is a feature in an organizational culture that promotes emotional, binding and mental openness to something new and creative.
Would Milton Bennett “In the case of cross-cultural sensitivity, the concept is different – that cultures differ fundamentally in the way they create and maintain world views. ”[2].
The leaders of the organizations (are already real or in title) are those who must kick the initial for the change they want, find where to point out, and that one wants to achieve is fundamental, and it is in this sensitivity to the different where companies that have conflicts can find a first sign of solution, to focus on productivity and creativity.
[1] Kotter, J. P. (2001, December). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2001/12/what-leaders-really-do.
[2] Bennett, M. (1986). A developmental approach to training for intercultural sensitivity. International journal of intercultural relations, (10(2)), 179-196.
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