{"id":1371,"date":"2016-06-06T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2016-06-06T13:31:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T13:31:55","slug":"enterprise-culture-what-is-it-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=1371","title":{"rendered":"Corporate culture, what is it practically ?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-right'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style1 like-1371 jlk' href='javascript:void(0)' data-task='like' data-post_id='1371' data-nonce='3e49a96320' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-1371 lc'>11<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-1371 status align-right'><\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/values-147x110.jpg\" alt=\"Picture : courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net\" width=\"147\" height=\"110\" \/>We often hear and talk about corporate\u00a0culture but what is\u00a0it practically ? What is it made of ? How does it influence the functioning of a company and how can it be changed ?<\/p>\n<p>One way\u00a0to attempt to answer these questions is to look at it\u00a0from the angle of what is explicit\/conscious versus what is implicit\/unconscious.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The conscious part is made of advertised company values, they are explicitly shared \u00a0(human resources, management, web sites, presentation, poster campaign, &#8230;) and consequently managed and controlled. On the other hand the unconscious part is made of implicit values and beliefs (sometimes limiting)\u00a0which are unmanaged by nature and consequently unconsciously propagated\u00a0and perpetuated. But how ? and what are the main enablers ?<\/p>\n<p>The top and middle management have the most influence and responsibilities in propagating conscious and unconscious culture (good or\u00a0bad).\u00a0Employees lower in the organisation hierarchy often have no choice but to comply i.e. accept or leave. But behavioural programming is also a key element: employees mindset is\u00a0shaped by the \u201cenvironment\u201d and they also consequently perpetuate its implicit rules, values, habits and unwritten traditions unconsciously. The &#8220;system&#8221; is self-perpetuating.<\/p>\n<p>This can only be changed by first recognising\u00a0the substantial impact these implicit or unconscious aspects have on the enterprise functioning and this is most probably the hardest part because a crisis or extreme difficulties are often necessary to start to envisage\u00a0that causes are of this nature. It is often after having attempted more classical approaches like re-organisation, drastic cost cuts, rationalisation initiatives that a &#8216;soft controls&#8217; approach is finally\u00a0envisaged (rarely though). So corrective actions are not only taken in a reactive manner but\u00a0the true root causes may ultimately\u00a0not be addressed at all.<\/p>\n<p>If a\u00a0&#8216;soft control&#8217; <a title=\"What are Soft Controls ?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=880\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[1] <\/sup><\/span><\/a>\u00a0approach is finally adopted, it is then necessary to\u00a0identify the specific unconscious aspects of the\u00a0company, its \u201csignature\u201d in a way. This signature has its upsides\u00a0we would like to keep\u00a0but unfortunately it has also its downsides we ideally want to get rid of. Here are a couple of examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fear<\/li>\n<li>Lack of\u00a0active listening<\/li>\n<li>Urgency to react (all mighty time pressure)<\/li>\n<li>Interactions considered as parasitizing (no collaboration, job protection)<\/li>\n<li>Type of initial reaction to challenges:\n<ul>\n<li>Intellectual (risk of analysis\/paralysis paradigm <a title=\"Analysis paralysis\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Analysis_paralysis\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/span><\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Energetic (risk to miss the target by lack of focus)<\/li>\n<li>Seek help (risk of stagnation)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These unwanted aspects and behaviours typically lead to\u00a0:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Two levels of functioning: official and implicit, which one is predominant ?<\/li>\n<li>Disengagement<\/li>\n<li>Increased\u00a0risks,\u00a0costs,\u00a0delay<\/li>\n<li>Waste of resources<\/li>\n<li>Decreased\u00a0quality<\/li>\n<li>Deterrent to change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is absolutely crucial to detect\u00a0when these aspects come into play and to react by applying the appropriate actions. This can be achieved through various means like projects post mortem, audit and control, behavioural analysis, coaching but more importantly by accompanying employees and all management levels in the elaboration of the best actionable corrective steps.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #333399;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The corporate\u00a0culture is a key parameter to an efficient and effective enterprise management and not an accessory topic to be left to the only attention of the Human Resources department:<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201c<strong>The corporate culture is the most powerful control in any organisation<\/strong>\u201d<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8211; James Roth, author of \u201cBest practices : evaluating the corporate culture&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #333399;\">References &amp; related topics<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[1] <a title=\"What are Soft Controls ?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=880\" target=\"_blank\">What are soft controls ?<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[2] <a title=\"Analysis paralysis\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Analysis_paralysis\" target=\"_blank\">Analysis-paralysis, wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[3] <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anti-pattern\" target=\"_blank\">Anti-pattern, wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[4] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Organizational_culture\" target=\"_blank\">Organizational culture, wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[5] <a href=\"http:\/\/rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/367\/1599\/2213.full\" target=\"_blank\">The role of metacognition in human social interactions<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[6] <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lucifereffect.com\/links_add_norms.htm\" target=\"_blank\">The Power of Norms and Groups on Individuals<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11 We often hear and talk about corporate\u00a0culture but what is\u00a0it practically ? What is it made of ? How does it influence the functioning of a company and how can it be changed ? One way\u00a0to attempt to answer these questions is to look at it\u00a0from the angle of what is explicit\/conscious versus what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organisation","category-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":109,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1501,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}