So before diving deep into psychology, data science and people analytics let's talk about how sociologists define culture.
Culture: a set of attitudes, values, and beliefs that define one group and distinguishes it from other groups.
Now, lets move on to more "psychology oriented definitions".
... develops as a result of creating meaning for its participants & managing the world around them. (Like any culture really!)
Culture is a combination of many many things. Every small piece of the puzzle can effect and contribute to the culture differently. ... OK. Show me the pieces!
- norms of the group
- values
- the way people interact & behave in groups
- (Do you ever hug your co-worker or drink coffee with them when you come to the office?)
- habits
- language paradigms & mental models
- formal & informal rituals
- game rules
- formal philosophy
- organisational climate
- artefacts
So you've probably noticed even more fancy words ... Not to fear, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about it. Let's start with a few more important parts of the puzzle.
Values are something that help us connect with the group. They are "good things" & are directed towards the future. Values present systems of ideas and beliefs about what is desired/right in a particular company, group etc.
- Values are not static.
- They vary across time, between groups, and from culture to culture.
- This is due to people evaluating, debating , and changing collective beliefs through time.
- Values are intangible qualities or beliefs accepted and promoted by an individual and the society.
- They also influence individual and group action.
Values are not the same thing as attitudes, traits, norms, and needs. Values share the following characteristics and qualities:
- Values are hard to observe.
- They are usually intertwined with other social & psychological phenomena.
- Values varied across history and cultures.
- And to explain why values are "good things" ... Values express an idealized state of being.
Norms are shared rules, customs, and some kind of "behavioural guidelines" that define how people should behave in a society or a team or an organisation. Norms are usually institutionalised and internalised. Norms present conditions & rules for social relations between groups and individuals. Norms can vary depending on the context; there are norms that apply to all members of society or only to certain subgroups of the population. For example, there are specific norms that police officers follow and the rest of population doesn't have to.
Simply put, norms help us have peaceful interactions and help us predict our behavior and behavior of others in different situations.
So how are norms different to values?
Norms are a "prescribed instructions" on how to behave in specific situations. Norms define appropriate behavior in specific situations of particular culture. They present an operationalisation of what is right and wrong in a specific culture. Norms are divided into formal (or officially written) and informal norms.
Values are individual conceptions of desirable states of being. Norms, on the other hand, can only be sustained by a group. Norms are generally accepted "rules" for or against specific behavior, belief, or feeling. This brings us to another big difference between the two. Values never include sanctions, in contrast, norms always do. Positive sanctions are for example rewards, smiles, positive gestures, praise and compliments. Negative sanctions include fines, imprisonment, guilt, social exclusion, condemnation (Opp, 1979). Sanctions can be formal or informal, but in both cases their goal is to navigate our behavior towards implementation and maintainence of norms.
Edgar Schein (Who's this guy?)
Culture is combined by series of layers of assumptions a person makes about the group in which they participate. Schein (1990) divided these into three levels. Deeper layers are harder to articulate and also harder to change.
- Artefacts are the "outside layer" and the layer that is the easiest to manipulate. It includes any tangible, obvious or verbally identifiable elements in the organisation. Artefacts are the visible elements in a culture that can be recognised by people not part of the organisation/culture.
- What means "the visible elements"? That they can be seen, heard, and felt.
- Examples such as architecture or structure of the office space, dress code, office jokes, language - how people communicate internally & externally, how they address each other (for example "Yo!" or "Miss" are two very different ways), ...
- Espoused beliefs and values are the "middle layer" and present organisation's stated values and rules of behavior. It is how the members represent the organisation both to themselves and to others.
- Examples such as ideals, goals, aspirations, public statements about what are the organisational values ("core company's values")
- Often presented as part of the "formal/official philosophy" of organisational identity.
- It can be a projection for the future - the goal of what people in the organisation & organisation as a whole hope to become.
- But when is this part problematic? Trouble may arise if espoused values by leaders are not in line with the deeper tacit assumptions of the culture.
- Basic underlying/shared assumptions are the "deepest layer" of organisational culture & the hardest to change. They present the foundations on which culture is based. They are often difficult to describe, are intangible and are often only really understood by people who've become accustomed to the way the organisation works.
- They are "the ways things get done in the organisation".
- They are "taken-for-granted" behaviours & are usually unconscious.
- Because of being so deeply integrated in the office dynamic they are often really hard to recognise from within.
Culture is the deepest, and often unconscious part of group dynamics. This is what it makes it so hard to grasp & understand. At the same time, once culture develops it covers every function of the team. Imagine a tree growing and spreading it's roots deeper and deeper in the ground.
Additional reading:
- If you want to learn more about what kind of assumptions come under each level this 3-minute article can help.
- Need more about the Schein's model of organisational culture?
Charles O'Reilly (Who is he?)
"Culture is the behavior you reward and punish."
"Culture can be seen in the norms and values that characterize a group or organization; that is, organizational culture is a system of shared values and norms that define appropriate attitutdes and behaviors for its members."
Organisational culture is "a system of shared values defining what is important, and norms, defining appropriate attitudes and behaviors" (O'Reilly & Chatman, 1966)
"To manage organizational culture effectively, managers must be clear in their own minds about the type of culture and the specific norms and values that will help the organization reach its strategic goals; next they must decide how to promote the needed norms and to diminish the importance of those that may hinder the attainment of critical tasks."
Norms "are socially created expectations about acceptable organizational attitudes and behavior."
... That's why jokes like sexism & racism aren't acceptable at work but unfortunately might be somewhere else.
Most of what we know & what we accept as true or important comes from social agreements or norms - these vary from unit to unit and across organisations.
To understand what is important we may rely on:
- our own experience,
- info from other group members (e.g. the approval/disapproval of specific attitudes & behaviors)
- clear signals from management (e.g. what is rewarded or punished)
Tushman & O'Reilly in their book Winning through Innovation:
"Ford underwent a cultural revolution driven by Don Petersen and his senior team. More than 80 percent of these improvements came from the human side, not from automation."
A big part of management in the organisations is about control. It means getting people to do what is necessary to get work done (if possible in a way that motivates & engages them).
Formal vs. Informal control => both guide behavior
- formal: financial planning, inventory, safety programs, ...
- informal: caring about others
Culture is not the same thing as values/vision espoused by senior management.
When thinking about designing control systems we usually think about measuring either outcomes or behaviors.
- Measuring behaviors when assessing outcomes (e.g. sales per hour, number of defects, customer satisfaction) is extremely difficult or even impossible.
- If we can measure both outcomes & behaviors => we can know with precision whether the work is being done in the prescribed way
- this helps us identify "high performance" & "bad performance"
"With work requirements becoming more complex, uncertain, and changing, control systems cannot be static and formal."
(Tushman & O'Reilly, Winning through Innovation)
=> control has to come in the form of social control systems that allow directed autonomy and rely on the judgement of employees informed by clarity about the vision and objectives of the business
It is important we create a workplace that encourage innovation - creativity & implementation of new ideas. So what are the norms that promote ...
- *creativity:
- support for risk taking & change
- tolerance of mistakes
- *implementation of new ideas:
- emphasising effective teamwork & group functioning
- emphasising speed & urgency (flexibility & adaptability; fast decision making; autonomy)
In case you want the whole academic paper :)
Chesky understands that culture is not something that pays off on the first day. It is something you have to invest in every single day. But at the end, on a long term having the right culture and taking care of it will pay off!
He wrote a post on Medium about the importance of the company culture.
Andddd here are a few cool quotes from him:
"Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall."
"Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with passion."
"The thing that will endure for 100 years, the way it has for most 100 year companies, is the culture. The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products."
Culture is the way you get work done!
- It requires continuous work.
- Data is needed to make good decisions on how the organisation gets it's work done.
- It helps answering on how can we make the organisation future proof.
_Alright! Congrats on learning about different views on culture :) But if culture is SO important and so awesome, why is the leadership team usually the one that need to start the
change in an organisation?_
Two main things that Schein established a few decades ago (in 1985 to be exact :)):
- Culture reflects the values, beliefs, and actions of their senior leaders.
"The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture."
"The unique and essential function of leadership is the manipulation of culture."
- Organisational culture is a significant determinant of organisational performance.
These fundamental assumptions still hold true (with some small modifications). Organisational culture is largely shaped by an organisation’s leaders and is presumed to be important because it can have consequential effects on firm performance.