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Japanese businesses, for example,
think very much in the long-term:
Toyota Motor Corporation has a
100-year business plan.
Why culture matters
Every organization’s culture has
varying degrees of these different
dimensions. The best leaders know
which cultures operate within
different parts of their organization
(and within different parts of the
world), and adjust their leadership
style to suit—valuing collective
approaches, for example, when
dealing with Asian subsidiaries.
Today, organizational culture is
more important than ever before.
Increasingly competitive markets,
globalization, the prevalence of
mergers, acquisitions, and alliances,
and new modes of working (such as
teleworking) require coordination
across vast numbers of staff and
huge geographic distances.
Hofstede’s observations highlight
the difficulties that leaders face in
maintaining unified business
cultures, whether operating across
multiple national or international
cultures. The challenge is to balance
the promotion of “one culture” within
an organization against the
influences of local cultures in
the external world.
Companies with strong
cultures, such as Nike and India’s
Tata Motors, are intensely aware of
their history and image. At Nike it
is not unusual for employees to
have the company’s “swoosh” logo
tattooed on their body. At these
businesses, culture encompasses
an internalized sense of “who we
are” and “what we stand for” to
such an extent that many of the
staff are able to recite corporate
maxims from memory. Similarly,
the UK smoothie company Innocent
has worked hard to create a
corporate culture based on
communication. Dan Germain, the
brand’s Head of Creative, explains:
“if people aren’t involved in allORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
decisions, big and small, then they
start to feel unloved and removed
from the business and its success.”Cultural benefits
Strong cultures give staff a sense
of belonging, which in turn brings
benefits, such as job satisfaction and
staff retention. At Nike, staff are
considered rookies if they have been
at the company for less than a
decade. Moreover, culture defines
“the rules of the game,” simplifying
priorities. Decision making is faster
and easier if everyone understands
company values, beliefs, and vision.
Deeply embedded cultures also
improve the customer experience; if
staff believes in the product, they
will transfer this belief to customers.
Culture also protects an
organization from the whims of
charismatic leadership and the
fickleness of fashion. A leader may
influence corporate culture, but a
successful culture should endure
even when management changes.Features of culture
Strong organizational cultures can
suffer from problems of groupthink
(everyone is too like-minded),
insularity (too narrow a vision), and
arrogance (a belief that everything
the company does is right). Culture
can become a source of power and
resistance; necessary change may
be resisted simply because “that’s
not the way we do things.”
Terrence Deal and Allan
Kennedy’s 1982 publication
Corporate Cultures outlined a range
of cultural phenomena. The authors
suggested that culture is composed
of a framework of six interlocking
elements: a company’s history; its
values and beliefs; its rituals and
ceremonies; its stories; the heroic
figures whose words and actions
embody corporate values; and the
cultural network.Visible aspects of culture, such as
an organization’s rituals, stories and
symbols, are only the tip of the iceberg.
Its beliefs, values, attitudes, and basic
assumptions are hidden but definitive.
SymbolsCeremonies
Stories
BehaviorsValuesAssumptionsAttitudes
BeliefsFeelings