Why Aren't More Companies Proactively Diagnosing and Changing Their Culture?

Hi people!

It is a well-known fact that in today's competitive world, it is very important to have the right mix of culture. With globalization, it is essential for any company to know its existing culture and take appropriate steps to correct it.

Then my question is, why are there so few companies trying to diagnose their own culture and take proactive steps to change it?

Got any answers?

Hi,

The organizational culture plays a significant role in helping organizations bring out their best. Even if the climate does not show any direct linkages at a given point in time, it logically makes sense to have a good HR climate for the benefit of the organizations. The culture provides the energy needed to function well by ensuring, as it were, a proper circulation of blood through all the organs. The HR culture results from the beliefs of top management initially and subsequently from HR systems and practices.

Now, coming to the question of why it is not changed, I personally feel that since top management influences the climate, they may not want to change it, or there might be resistance to change.

The next question is, change from corporate culture to what? The answer is to a better corporate culture; from better to best; and from best to improvement on the best culture. But practically, there is no best culture.

What you can do is study the climate and understand what the employees have to say regarding the change. Prepare a questionnaire that would bring out their opinions.

Then benchmark the best practices, and these new practices would slowly bring a change in the climate.

I hope I have addressed your query.

Regards,

Soumya Shankar

Hello Soumya:

>The organisational culture plays a significant role in making organisations get the best out of themselves.<

Does organisational culture make anyone do anything? Organisational culture is the result of who is hired and promoted and what behaviors are rewarded and punished. We cannot change the organisational culture if we don't change who is hired, who is promoted and what behaviors are rewarded and punished.

>The culture provides the energy needed to function well by ensuring as it were a proper circulation of the blood through all the organs.<

Using that analogy I suspect most organizations have one or more cancers that need to be cut out, e.g., supervisors, managers and executives who need to be fired.

>The HR culture is one that results from the beliefs of the top mgt initially and subsequently from the HR systems and practices.<

Are beliefs or behaviors the driving force? I cannot see people's beliefs but I can certainly see their behaviors.

>I personally feel that since the top mgt influence the climate they would not want to change it or there might be resistance to change.<

I agree that they are comfortable and the culture is what they have created or inherited from others.

>…but practically there is no best culture.<

I think you have it.

>What you can do is study the climate and know what the employees have to tell regarding the change? Prepare a questionaire that would bring out the opinion. <

Never ask employees what they think without a clear plan of action to make changes that are identified. Most executives will not commit to making changes unless they know what changes are to be made.

>Then benchmark the best practises and these new practises would slowly bring a change in the climate.<

If we don't change the behaviors of current employees, can change occur?

Bob

There are surprising questions.

We have seen corporations collapse due to their interactions with internal and external processes. It's the right practice that should improve the culture and be learned by an organization as a whole.

Being on a learning curve, today big corporations make small cosmopolitan civilizations subject to not trying to attack and demolish each other.

As people form the organization, and as size increases, it becomes more and more difficult to manage the organization built on the initial business model.

There are continuously changing corporate environmental factors that need to be incorporated into the organization's business model to make it survive and sharpen the saw to carry on the upward spiral.

They need to be identified by good analysts, find good solutions for them, and seamlessly included as part of the culture. However, business competitions have increased pressure, making it difficult. As leadership changes, we are likely to lose direction, but managing is the key to an ever-growing organization.

Regards

I agree with Anuj that as the organization grows, the values that the pioneers had would be diluted, and unknowingly there would be a thin line of people who would start influencing the culture.

Some time back, there was a story on this site about 8 monkeys being locked in a room with a bunch of bananas hanging in the middle of the room. My apologies to the author of that article as I don't remember his name. But that is a very practical scenario that happens in all organizations.

It is not impossible for the culture to be changed; it is just a matter of who is going to bell the cat. In my opinion, it should be the HR department. Who else can think for the betterment of the employees if we don't take care of them?

Let me know if you agree with me.

Regards,
Soumya Shankar

“OC” is interchangeably used between org climate and culture. Climate is the perception and culture is the resultant seen through behaviour – according to me

Climate is the influenced behaviour and values of leaders resulting into visible behavior expected and exhibited by the members in the organization which becomes the culture in the long run. The management model resorted by the leaders will become an unwritten rule and norms will be followed by members and transferring the same to new comers as well…………………..and the cycle goes on

As BOB pointed out very precisely, the behaviour is the only factor that can be changed which will entail in change in climate and culture. The leadership behaviour should be brought into assessment for building a culture the management believes.

For instance to nurture the entrepreneurial culture in an organization, when the organization consider that to be one the core values, the management development programs should be based on assessing and developing managers to identify these competencies and qualities amongst the members and properly reward and recognise them.

The individual behaviours exhibited by each will not be the aggregate organization climate as the individual behaviour changes with varying environment. Foe eg: a person was assessed introvert in a telecom company recently – but in the real life he is one of the good sociable character since I know him personally. The assessment was made on his behaviour during the assessment centre and in his organization he was never allowed to carry out his judgement or decisions – this has resulted in the assessment of him being introvert

Hence, the Organization changes we are talking about is nothing but the changes we meant to bring in the behaviour aspects of people

And of Our role is extremely important is bringing in competecnies to identify and analyse the climate and culture and suggest changing measures

This is my view

Regards

Rajesh B

This seems to be a Dilution decade or century, but what factors to dilute are important to see. I hope learning organizations are making incremental changes and keeping a log of progress to reach milestones and gear up again. I appreciate the questions asked by the members in a 'bebaak' manner.

Corporate culture is real, and people work under the influence of culture. The culture in an organization means a combination of norms, procedures, practices, policies, logos, methods, etc., which are unique to the organization. This is normally initiated by the top leadership&mdash;may be one CEO and/or a small group. This individual or the small group tends to maintain the culture due to:

- Source of comfort
- Source of pride/satisfaction
- Cost of change [risk]
- Defensive attitude to change
- Own security under the current culture
- Fear of losing authority
- Status conscious
- Sees no need/benefits in change, etc.

This attitude can be changed only if the management feels the heat of globalization, if the management feels they are losing out, if the management sees the enormous benefits they could gain, etc.

Regards,
LEO LINGHAM

Here, I was referring to a cross-section of organizations:

- organizations that have made changes
- organizations that are standing still
- organizations that are waiting for things to happen

Regards,
LEO LINGHAM

Hello Soumya,

Now it's heard that span of control is being replaced by span of communication due to a change in organizational structure. Do you agree with this statement?

Looking forward to your reply.

Cheers,
Amrita

We need to specify attributes to which this statement applies; then it will be true in that sense.

Dear friends,

Namaskar.

I have read your posts. Perhaps you are pondering about what organizational attributes should be, rather than what organizational attributes are. A culture is sui generis and evolves over time, so no one can claim that he or she has designed a culture. Broadly, you can differentiate between the following two models in organizational ethos:

A. Traits in Harmony Model
1. Maturity
2. Wit
3. Humor
4. Creative intelligence
5. Diffusability (ability to diffuse tension within and without)

B. Traits of Justice Model
1. Provocativeness
2. Distortiveness
3. Misinterpretativeness
4. Fabricativeness
5. Rationalizability

Consider which model predominantly prevails in your organization and which one is more productive.

Regards,
Jogeshwar

Of course, these are all sophisticated ones. Can you relate what basic attributes are needed or practices to build on and achieve this behavior level? I am talking about respect, hierarchy, candidate background, honesty, personal and professional integrity, attitude towards mutual learning, individuality, etc.

To summarize, for an optimum behavior of a degree of ownership in good as well as managing risk time when an employee financial needs are taken care of.

Regards,
Anuj

Thank you, friends, for your valuable inputs!

Organization culture is defined as: "a system of shared values and beliefs that produces norms of behavior and establishes an organizational way of life" (Koberg & Chusmir, 1987, p.397).

Culture includes:

- Values and beliefs - value integration
- Leadership - management modeling, empowerment, developmental coaching, building effective teams
- Human resource systems - employee orientation, continuous learning, performance management, reward systems
- Organizational character - informal communication, organizational feedback, adaptability to change

An important factor in analyzing organizational culture is to look for details. Details provide evidence of the organizational culture almost like a guide on a hunting trip. It is of no avail only to know what a lion looks like; it is imperative to know the footprint of the lion, to look for the broken twig, to look for evidence of the resting place, whether the lion is alone or with cubs in a pack. "Analyze the details." Analysis is important because culture influences every aspect of the organization and has an impact on the performance of organizations.

Now going back to my original question: Why companies are NOT diagnosing their culture if HR persons, like you all, know the importance and the effect of a proper or conducive culture on the bottom line...

I tried to find out different frameworks and models to diagnose the Organizational culture but I found that there is hardly any company in India who has done such kind of exercise. However, whoever did it has gained a lot from making a conducive culture.

As a matter of fact, I was working on it in Pune. Yes, I do have a research paper on the same. It is quite old though. Are you also planning to do something in this direction?

Dear Godbole,

Namaskar.

Here are some questions for you:

1. What are the mental sets, according to you, that retard output?
2. What are the mental sets, according to you, that enhance output?
3. Structural changes are easy to effect, but how do you bring changes in mental set?
4. Which organizations benefit from the type of changes you mention?
5. Is it true that Indian HR experts are not in a position to impress corporate people?

Regards,
Jogeshwar.

This is part of ongoing research, work, experience, and data analysis conducted by various organizations. It involves summarizing human skills as an entrepreneur develops their short-term career plans by establishing clear defined goals. These goals evolve over time to achieve a meta-realistic objective in an international, heterogeneous environment.

I am a member of a team that identifies key focal points for these activities on behalf of the overall research team.

Please share your thoughts on this.

Thank you.

Hi Buddy,

You are very correct. Nowadays, organizations are not as focused on aligning with the new environment or adopting modern techniques. Perhaps this is because it seems too expensive and the returns are speculative. Investing money in today's uncertain business world only adds to the complexity. Maybe this is the reason why most organizations are not performing well.

Dear friends,

Namaskar.

When we talk about a culture, we presuppose that it has certain traits that depend upon its constituent members. The culture may be pathological, fit and fine, or at any intermediate level. To diagnose, we must have diagnostic tools. If a culture is pathological, then we must have convincing remedial measures that will impress the authorities of any organization. This is not one person's job. So, it is necessary to pool experiences.

Regards,
Jogeshwar.

Namaskar Dr. Mahanta,

Yes, I agree with you that there should be a proper diagnostic tool to diagnose the organizational culture.

As a matter of fact, there are many tools available. However, the problem is that there are no time-tested and universal tools that can be used in any type of industry with little customization. Research is ongoing in this direction.

Diagnosing a culture and attempting to change it by incorporating remedial measures is a slow and time-consuming process. Therefore, many people try to avoid doing this.

Actually, what I have found out is that diagnosing OC is a double-edged weapon. It can be a boon if used properly or it can do more harm than good.

You have rightly said, "it is not one man's job" or "person," a politically correct word. But I believe that it takes only one person to at least get things moving in this direction. That person can definitely motivate others to be a part of this process.

Attn Mr. Umalme, I am attaching a paper that was presented in April 2002 in Toronto.

If you ask to any manager about culture´s enterprise, the most common answers may be: it´s ok, anything is ok, I am ok, employees are ok, why change??, sometimes crisis are a very good source to introduce changes, unfortunately it´s the time when company start a change to improve organizational culture, (obviously reactive).
Tip: keep prepared for this moment.
how? keep monitoring work environment, business needs, improvement areas, etc.

"You have rightly said, 'it is not one man's job' or 'person' a politically correct word, but I believe that it takes only one person to at least get the things moving in this direction. That person can definitely motivate others to be a part of this process.

Dear Godbole and friends, Namaskar.

The most fundamental characteristic of a culture is that it is sui generis. It evolves or degenerates automatically. A member, however mighty he/she may be, is not indispensable in a culture, even though a cog in a machine is indispensable. Buddha has not produced a second Buddha; Christ has not produced a second Christ, and Gandhi has not produced a second Gandhi. Everyone, whoever came to this earth, has lived his life, and you and I too are living our lives. This, I think, is a practical way of looking at things.

Regards, Jogeshwar."

I have had an opportunity to observe how the culture in an organization determines the bond or the relationship of people with the company.

Here are some aspects which I feel make a lot of difference to people in an organization:
- Positive attitude
- Openness and transparency
- Downward communication
- Timely guidance from top management
- Team orientation.

Gillian
HR

Dear Mahanta Sir,

I beg to differ with your opinion that culture degenerates automatically. There are some reasons behind it. Yes, we don't have a Second Gandhi or Christ, but we do have their lessons, don't we? We also have a lot of people following them.

I strongly believe that if the climate of the company is changed, then it will have an effect on the culture of the company. Changing climate is easy but not culture. For any change to occur, be it of any kind, a single person is enough to initiate the change. Whether that person becomes successful or not depends on their competency and ability to convince the top people about the change process.

I am very optimistic about it, and if at any time I come across any examples, I will definitely communicate them to you!

Regards,
Hemant Godbole

Dear Godbole,

Namaskar.

First of all, thank you for your respect. You are perfectly at liberty to differ. Differences make us unique, while harmony helps us to survive. So let us find a fine balance between the two.

You are optimistic, and perhaps I am even more optimistic than you. However, I am also down to earth. Let me present you with a down-to-earth problem.

There is an organization with a few lakhs employees (please do not ask for the name). The employer is concerned about their drastic stress reactions. I was in charge of scrutinizing the employees at one station where there are about 2000 employees. We tested around 1500. The finding I would like to bring to your attention is that stress proneness is normally distributed, ranging from most stress-prone to least stress-prone. The data is negatively skewed, with scores being concentrated at the uppermost level of the scale. Stress proneness and lying have a negative and significant correlation, meaning that greater liars are less stress-prone.

What should I do? Can anybody suggest a plan of action for me? On one hand, I am expected to reduce stress, and on the other hand, I am supposed to elevate the organization's image.

Regards,

Jogeshwar.

Somya,

I think you are right in saying that it is only the HR department that will bell the cat at the right time and in the right place. I personally believe that you have worked in a corporate culture because only then can you understand the working system.

Rima

Dear Dr. Mahanta,

Thank you for appreciating my post. I agree with you that the posts which you have mentioned should be liked together and discussed further to develop a workable plan of action that will have the potential to shape the future of the organizational world. I believe that "bright people" have the right kind of "attitude" which helps the organizations to change their existing organizational culture to a more conducive one!

"I believe that 'bright people' have the right kind of 'attitude,' which helps organizations to change their existing organizational culture to a more conducive one.

Dear Hemant,

Namaskar.

You have made a marvelous observation. Now, it needs to be applied across all organizations.

Regards,
Jogeshwar"