Creating Culture

 

How structure and communication influence company culture.

Successful company cultures

Developing excellent culture takes time. It takes a set of values and leadership team to implement them. Zappos is a prime example. They live by their 10 commandments and have the leadership that supports it. As a summarized list, excellent culture is derived from: 

                -Focusing on customer service

                -Letting the employees be heard (from ideas to questions to comments)

                -Empowering employee communication (upward, downward, and laterally)

                -Adding a little fun

                -Empower growth and learning 

                    (form language lessons, in-building libraries, to training seminars)

                -Creating a “family and friends” environment

                -Fostering a positive environment

                -Embracing change 

                     (accepting and promoting change, while still reflective of the pace of its industry)

                -Bringing passions to work (passions for athletics, animals, running, and more)

                -Staying Humble 

“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” *Sourced  from brainyquote.com*

Necessities of Culture

The above are dervied components of sucessful cultures, but there it takes more than just values to make a culture. 

1. Live by your company values

“practice what you preach”

2. Have the leadership

It starts at the top. The rest play the game Follow-the-leader. (This will be touched on 

more a little later) 

                

                3. Support with structure and communication

*sourced from http://dilbert.com/

Leadership and company's values provide the base of company culture, but the company structure and communication methods have a strong influence on create and uphold company values, but the company structure and communication methods have a strong influence on the maintenance of company culture.         

Structure and the Environment

Organizational communication speaks of businesses as a “system”. Various theories relate this system to biology (general systems theory), an interaction it’s components and it’s environment (open system), goal process (cybernetic systems theory) or organizational chaos (new science system theory).

Looking at a business as an open system, we can analyze a business structure and its relations to the business culture. First, let’s look at an open system.  An Open system looks at the systems components (hierarchical ordering, interdependence, permeability), system processes (inputs and outputs, feedback), system properties (holism, equifinality, negative entropy, requisite variety), as well as the environment.

Now think about how the components of an organizational structure can impact corporate culture. Centralized vs. decentralized (hierarchical ordering). Silos vs. cross-functionalism (interdependence). Security, office technology, and flow of information (permeability). Just-in-time vs.  six sigma quality vs. EDLP (every day low price) (process inputs/outputs). Key performance indicators (KPIs) vs 360-degree evaluations (feedback). Cubicles vs. open spaces (internal environment). Reaction to industry influences, competition, and PR (external environment). These are just a few.

Some cultavate creativity, information sharing, socialness, empowerment. Other promote stress, individualism, superiority, and lack of collaboration. 

They all have an effect on how employees interact, what they perceive is important, how they are motivated, and how they value themselves and their peers. It’s this perception and behavior that affects culture.  

Reading between the lines

Along with structure, communication cultivates the culture of an organization. How individuals within the organization communicate to each other and how upper management communicates to all, has a strong influence. Let’s look at two examples.  

1.               From: Communication Department

To: All employees

“Message from the CEO:  Thursday at noon, all employees are mandated to be present for an All Hands Meeting.” 

(Formal, authoritative, neutral/negative tone)

2.               From: Communication Department

To: All Employees

“To All Employees: Thursday at noon will be our quarterly All Hands Meeting. Come with your questions, accomplishments, and comments. The CEO will be speaking and is looking forward to your presence.”  

(Less formal, informative, positive, ritualistic, collaborative)

The style of the message will result in a similar type of culture. The first will foster rigid, authoritative, formal, negatively motivating culture. The second, a less formal, positive, and collaborative culture. This is true of corporate messages, as well as supervisor-to-employee messages.

1.               Supervisor: “Robert, Get me that report by Friday. Don’t waste time.”

2.               Supervisor: “Robert, Send me the report by Friday. Time is of the essences as we push to get this project out by the end of the quarter.”

Both convey a sense of urgency, but things like tone and formality have an impact on the employees, which in-turn will affect their interactions within the corporation, and in-turn the culture.

Communication via actions

Some things don’t need to be said. A simple act can have as strong of an impact as a written or verbal massage. Take for instance the Google Founders, who have been known to hop around Google’s campus on pogo sticks. It sends the message that having a little fun is OK.  In contrast, look at HP’s former CEO who resigned from his position after sexual harassment controversy. This sends mixed signals. Actions like these make employees question the trust in their leadership, the company, and their future. The culture begins to reflect this distrust and uncertainty.

In a nutshell

If the values are in-place, leadership has something to follow. If the leadership team follows and supports the values, the employees understand their expected behavior. If the corporate structure and communication supports the desired behaviors, then the desired culture will foster. They are all interdependent. If they don’t work together, something fails, and a company’s culture becomes more like the Dilbert comic below. Have the values, have the leadership, have the structure, and have the communication methods to uphold the culture you desire. Don't be a Dilbert comic. 

*sourced from http://dilbert.com/