This weekend I finished the first of four modules of a certificate program I am taking for work. This particular module was on Organizational Culture - something I have intuitively known is important at companies, but could never quite put into words.
In short (to digest 4-6 hours of videos), organizational culture matters because without it, people do not stay. There is nothing to keep them engaged in the work nor is anything to keep them there except for an income (and incomes can be easily replaced). And eventually, it will destroy any company.
I write this as someone who works at a company that has not sufficiently defined its culture - in our case, we went from less than 20 to almost 200 in the space of two years. As a small company, culture is almost something instinctive - after all, you see each other every day. Culture is almost assumed or just an extension of the relationships that you have with each other. But get enough people involved just doing the work to keep a company going and all of a sudden you find that suddenly have no culture at all, in fact nothing but a mad dash to be doing and keep doing essentially until the end of the company or the end of time, whichever comes first.
Oddly enough, when the subject is mentioned (I have brought it up, others have as well) it seems to get a general sort of nod and "We should do something about that", followed by the comment "That is something we are looking for the department leaders to do" (research suggests this is the responsibility of senior management, by the by). Unfortunately, as anyone slightly lower down on the rung from the top knows, trying to put anything in place which has not been approved by the top inevitably ends (at best) with a "Cease and Desist" or at worst with more rigorous consequences.
What am I going to do? The part I can, of course. I can propose a culture for my department, I can live by it - but I have no sense that it will permeate the company.
That, of course, and consider what my next steps should be.
Do the videos explain how to have this culture in a day when people can't talk freely or act "like an adult" without offending someone over something?
ReplyDeleteThose videos were probably made when most people knew how to act, and had some sort of moral compass to go by.
You know your next steps. God grant you the...serenity? the... God show you when it should happen.
Linda, these are fairly recent videos done by university professors (researchers) that really are focused as much on the social ramifications of a company as they are on the actual business of companies making money.
ReplyDeleteTrust me - morality no longer enters into the conversation at all.