I t is well known that it is culture of an organisation which binds the team and motivates them to perform. Culture is a terrific enabler and motivator; it can make an average team achieve the impossible, especially since at times even the best of teams don’t deliver.
With changing patterns in society, increased education, penetration of internet, globalisation and inclusiveness, the culture is set to change and get more uniform globally. Although Human resources is the unofficial guardian of culture, but it is mostly defined by leadership and key leaders in the team apart from some of the factors discussed below.
Leadership. A leader drives the culture. It’s the way he deals with people socially (in meetings) and one on one which tends to become the norm and accepted behaviour. So, if you have a lot of raised voices in the board rooms then it can become a norm and socially accepted behaviour in the organisation. Alternatively, if you have a leader who is calm, firm, encouragingly critiques and is precise in their feedback to the team, the teams adapt and respond to that cause. With the average life of a CEO being below 2 years – would it be possible for him to adapt to the organisations existing culture or would it be easier for him to mould it basis his short stint and short-term objective.
Vision, mission and values. Let’s take these in their right spirit. Mostly what’s written on this document is seldom understood by all. Also more organisations are small and medium enterprises run by promoters these co.’s hardly have a clearly written document. But even if it exists and is well defined, how often are the values discussed and practiced? It is for the leader to establish the values and set an example for others. If we look at a government organisation some of these norms may not even apply. They are supposed to work as per systems and SOPs but the same is manipulated at times by the people who govern or lead.
Having closely watched companies who have made innovation their culture, the CEOs here foster ideas and allow people to make mistakes and take that as part of a learning investment. Albeit you have companies with low tolerance to mistakes and are prone to reprimand employees publicly.
The work you do: Let’s take an example of a news channel, if the top 3 news channels follow a certain pattern of reporting or rely on certain type of polarised opinions it will influence the industry and will force a newcomer to adopt similar practices leading to an industry culture. Contrary, a tier 1 auto component manufacturer supplying to an OEM will be on their toes and ensure the highest quality else their consignment will be rejected. Quality becomes a culture here and all activities which support quality percolate down to every employee. Eventually such an organisation will continuously be in improvement mode.
The people who are hired. Often a background check on the individual is made or a psychographic profiling done by few companies to understand their cultural fitment but this is not possible at all levels and neither do small companies do this. It’s the people who make or break a culture specially when the organisation gets larger, and the number of offices increase. Each office starts have a mini culture of its own driven by local leadership. Today’s employees are tomorrow’s leaders.
Influenced by client, customer and suppliers. If clients are organised and professional, they will demand the same from their suppliers. The suppliers will be asked to adhere to some of the values and quality or commitment benchmarks of the client. A classic example would be a supplier to any global automobile manufacturer, especially the Japanese auto giants. Similarly, if a service provider works with MSME segment they would conform to the requirement of those organisations. If the requirements are lax then its possible that the service provider will conform to those and may not raise their own standards. The culture is decided by the company one keeps.
Influence by local culture. Some countries have different rules for women or for people from different faiths, this affects inclusiveness. Gone are the days when the repressive culture will be acceptable in other geographies. The same companies when they operate globally, will have to be tolerant and aligned with the global work order. The normal accepted norms of human interaction and behaviour and decency will prevail.
Women in workforce will be a game changer for culture. As today globally the number of women (in the workspace) is still very low. With increased education, affluency and financial needs of smaller families more and more women will be entering the workspace and eventually the leadership positions. This is expected to make organisations more humane and compassionate and would hopefully bring in more order and compliance to laws too.
Human approach. With globalisation and inclusiveness on the rise the traditional behaviours towards any of the diversities is being challenged. The world is one and possibilities to connect with each other are limitless – whether for work or socially. This is giving rise to a globally accepted behaviour: Politeness, fairness and truthfulness which would prevail. There is a commonly accepted behaviour which transcends culture which is humanity.
Lifecycle stage. The cultural needs of a start up organisation are different from a mature organisation. The culture is just beginning to be formed in a start-up. Also, with fewer people, it is easier to change the culture. With the investor community having a great influence on promoters, the culture cycle moves quicker as the business models also change. Culture becomes more relevant when the team size goes up.
Generation youth have different needs and are more aware. They are not scared to question and to learn. They are non-conformist and thus seem to want things done differently. There is cultural change when we mix the youth with older employees. The youth prevail as they would define future culture being the leaders of tomorrow.
Greater social interaction and inclusiveness will result into a globally common culture which organisations have to adopt to remain relevant as employers.
