Identifying Organizational Culture

What makes working for one company so very different from working for another company, even if the products and services are alike?
Culture is what makes the difference. It is the characteristic that influences how a company handles its day-to-day operations, and it determines how an organization communicates with its employees.
Culture affects the policies and procedures that are implemented. And culture is what gives an organization a different feel from other businesses in the same industry.

Types of culture

Every organization has a culture of sorts. In fact, every organization actually has two cultures.
The visible culture is the one that is expressed in the company's charts, policies, and procedure manuals. This is the organization that is apparent to outsiders.
The shadow organization is the informal day-to-day behavior carried on as a result of tradition and habit. It's what people do, rather than what they say.

The shadow organization is often more powerful than the visible organization. It has its own leaders and unwritten rules of operation. This shadow is influenced by the values and habits of accepted actions and activities.
Think of it as a complex mesh of social forces that influence the behavior of each member of the organization. This makes up the norms of the organization.
Norms of operation are often formed by historical events within the organization. It may be representative of past victories, setbacks, rivalries and feuds. Additionally, this informal organization has these characteristics:

• It has its own communication channels
• It has unofficial networks and cliques
• It may determine how an employee feels

The shadow organization is what typically determines the average employee's experience at work. Interestingly enough, the higher individuals are in the organization, the less in-touch they will be with the understanding of what an average workday is like for an average employee.
Management may be sadly unaware of what the organizational culture really is, even though they are the ones most likely to talk about it.

Understanding the shadow culture
Successful leadership requires that you get in touch with the real culture of your organization. This is an integral part of giving meaning to work.
You can gain awareness of your shadow organization by exploring four areas with your employees. The following provides more information about these areas:

• Discuss how employees feel about themselves
• Determine how employees feel about their jobs
• Identify how employees feel about their teammates
• Explore how employees view the organization

When employees like themselves, their jobs, their teams, and their organization, they are more likely to be happy, energetic, involved, and committed employees. They are also more likely to create that same environment for the other people they work with.
Giving purpose, meaning, and direction to work is a fundamental leadership role. The art of molding an organizational culture that enhances meaning requires a leader who is willing to participate with employees rather than simply direct them.
It takes time and energy. However, the payoff is in having the information that allows you to shape a compelling vision around which employees can rally.

On Boarding Process – Some Industry Best Practices

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC): Every new joinee at CSC is welcomed with a flower bouquet and an announcement at the reception board. New joiners are assigned a buddy that helps them settle in and get acquainted with the company. The buddy role is open to all employees who have been with CSC for six months or more. He helps a new joiner through the initial few weeks.

MindTree Consulting: MindTree way of welcoming lateral joinees: The laterals who join MindTree are inducted into the MindTree culture through an initiative known as “Arboretum”. It’s the snazziest of workspace at Mindtree where the lateral recruits are helped to settle down, understand their new role, assimilate Mindtree’s culture and its way of handling people. The program could be from 3-28 days. Arboretum is a Latin word to mean a botanical garden where uprooted trees are nurtured before they are moved to the exhibition.

Intel: Throughout the first six months, new employees attend additional courses to help them understand and assimilate Intel’s culture, such as “Working Through Company’s Values”, “Problem Solving”, “Constructive Confrontation”, and "Effective Meetings".

Qualcomm: “Breaking Ice Over Breakfast”. At Qualcomm, a fresh idea like Touchpoint Breakfast has been introduced for new hires so that they can reconnect over breakfast after one week of joining.

Google: “Nooglers on a date”. The tagline is that the first days are special – it should be like a date experience. From small gifts, lunches with a buddy to make them feel special – wanted and celebrated. So from pranks to lunches, to getting introduced to Googlers at the Friday afternoon gathering. Google rolls out the red carpet to welcome new recruits.

"If you give people freedom, they will amaze you"

Interview with Laszlo Bock, VP, People Operations, Google
Q: Google is seen as a fun and lively place to work for. How do you build and retain that culture?
A: Fun, freedom, interactivity and the ability to explore is vital to this company. We look for very smart people who are creative and adaptable. The second is a formal mechanism to keep our culture going; we have small transforming communities of people that work on a wide range of ideas. The third is through a demonstration of culture and self-monitoring of that culture. For example, we have numerous email lists in the company, and if a person does something that is wildly outside the culture, another person will gently point it out to him.
Q: So there is no hierarchy? Can mistakes be pointed out by someone junior?
A: There is a primacy of ideas and debate here. If you have a compelling idea it doesn’t matter who you are. Our organization structure is simple. Until about 2-3 years ago the most senior title at Google, other than the founders was VP. Two years ago when we added a Senior VP title, that was a big deal for us. While there are some gradations, generally we think of ourselves as individual contributors, managers, directors and VPs.
Q: Do you put the new recruits through a new learning process and do people just learn by doing?
A: It’s a little bit of both. New Googlers are called “Nooglers”. When you join Google, the workstation is decorated with balloons. We say you are a “noogler” till your balloons drop to the ground. We work in small teams of 2-5 people, that helps people to learn by doing. We fundamentally believe that people are good, people are smart and if you just give them freedom they will surprise and amaze you.
Q: How do you account for the 20 percent free time to innovate that Google gives to its people?
A: It’s individually managed; some people spend a little time everyday, some take it all in one go.
Q: Are you the best paymasters in your industry?
A: We think about the total rewards. At Google every employee gets a bonus, then there’s the café, the massage parlor and all our other benefits. We believe in pay for performance and if you are a strong performer you have an opportunity to earn more. Apart from that how much you learn, the environment, the people you work with is equally important. We try to be very competitive in every one of those areas.

How Mentoring supports professional development

The 21st century business environment demands employees who are lifelong learners and companies with cutting-edge training strategies. How can mentoring help?

Do you sometimes feel as if your training department is becoming a mini-university? Developing job-specific skills, keeping your employees on the cutting edge, and preparing employees for advancement all require considerable resources and commitment. But your payoff is having more qualified employees and a more productive workplace.

Mentoring can help you meet your organization's professional development needs by identifying current training needs and methods, evaluating the effectiveness of current training, and developing compatible mentoring approaches.

First, you have to identify your current professional development needs and the methods being used to meet those needs.

Training Methods - Your training methods may include outside classes, on-site trainers, books and manuals, Web-based training, and training from supervisors, co-workers, or inside experts.
Training Needs - Your employees may need to acquire skills and knowledge related to technology, computers, writing, presentation, accounting, leadership, sales, and so on.

Next, you need to evaluate the effectiveness of your company's current professional development.
Are all professional development needs being met?
If your company has a high turnover rate, you may need an induction program. Or if you lack qualified candidates to promote from within, you may need to focus professional development efforts on leadership preparation or providing support to new leaders.

Are training methods appropriate for the material being taught?
A classroom is an effective setting for training a group of people on the same skills. But most classrooms—except for computer labs—don't allow learners to apply what they're learning. You may need to replace or supplement classroom training with other hands-on methods.
Finally, you must develop mentoring approaches that are complementary to and compatible with your company's current professional development. Mentoring programs should support other training methods, not conflict with them. Depending on the specific need, mentoring may replace or supplement other training methods, but shouldn't duplicate them.

When new employees need to learn specific job skills, mentors provide the most effective instruction by working alongside their proteges on actual project work.
If you provide Web-based training and leading books to help prepare promising employees for management positions, you will find supplementing those training methods with a mentoring program for new managers will improve the effectiveness of your training program.

Having a mentor is like having your own personal instructor and guide. You can use mentoring to meet professional development needs and improve the outcome of your current training programs. Mentoring supplements traditional training. When you identify current training needs and methods, evaluate the effectiveness of current training and develop compatible mentoring approaches.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.
1. Physiological needs
These are the basic human needs for such things as food, warmth, sex, water, and other body needs. If a person is hungry or thirsty or his body is chemically unbalanced, all of his energies turn toward remedying these deficiencies, and other needs remain inactive.
2. Safety needs
With his physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take over and dominate his behavior. These needs have to do with man's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent, and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.
3. Social needs
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs is social. This psychological aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally-based relationships in general, such as:friendship intimacy having a supportive and communicative family Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group (such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs) or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure.
4. Esteem needs
All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. However confidence, competence and achievement only need one person and everyone else is inconsequential to one's own success. It may be noted, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.
5. Self actualization
It is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can. Working toward fulfilling our potential, toward becoming all that we are capable of becoming.
In Maslow's scheme, the final stage of psychological development comes when the individual feels assured that his physiological, security, affiliation and affection, self-respect, and recognition needs have been satisfied. As these become dormant, he becomes filled with a desire to realize all of his potential for being an effective, creative, mature human being. "What a man can be, he must be", is the way Maslow expresses it.
Maslow's need hierarchy is set forth as a general proposition and does not imply that everyone's needs follow the same rigid pattern. For some people, self-esteem seems to be a stronger motivation than love.

Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor in his book, "The Human Side of Enterprise" published in 1960 has examined theories on behavior of individuals at work, and he has formulated two models which he calls Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X:

• Theory X people are naturally lazy and will do as little as possible. They must be forced with the threat of punishment to deliver results for their organization, and they often prefer to be directed.
• Theory X people want to avoid responsibility; they are relatively unambitious and want security more than anything. As managers, they tend to be results- and deadline-driven and have an authoritarian style of management.

Theory Y

• Theory Y people apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organizational objectives. They are committed to objectives as a function of rewards associated with their achievement, and they often seek and accept more responsibility.
• Theory Y people have the capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in solving organizational problems. Often their intellectual potential is only partly utilized. They use a participative style of management.

Frederick Herzberg's hygiene-motivation theory

Hygiene factors
Hertzbergs' first component in his approach to motivation theory involves what are known as the hygiene factors and includes the work and organizational environment. These hygiene factors include:

• company policy and administration
• Supervision (leadership and management, including perceptions) which people receive while on the job
• working relationships, including those with co-workers and your relationship with your manager
• status
• salary
• working conditions security (including ergonomics)

These factors do not lead to higher levels of motivation but without them there is dissatisfaction.

Motivation factors
The second component in Herzbergs' motivation theory involves what people actually do on the job and should be engineered into the jobs employees do in order to develop intrinsic motivation with the workforce. The motivators are:

• achievement
• recognition
• the work
• responsibility opportunities for advancement and growth

These factors result form internal instincts in employees, yielding motivation rather than movement.

Both these approaches (hygiene and motivation) must be done simultaneously. Treat people as best you can so they have a minimum of dissatisfaction. Use people so they get achievement, recognition for achievement, interest and responsibility and they can grow and advance in their work.

Ethical Perspectives

Four perspectives from which decision makers examine ethical issues:

1. Relationships - From a relationships perspective, actions that nurture and support a web of relationships are right. Actions that harm or destroy relationships are wrong. When decision makers examine ethical issues from the perspective of relationships, they may overrule considerations of fairness.
2. Fairness - A fairness perspective assumes that people are naturally competitive and willing to fight to gain an advantage over one another. By agreeing to cooperate, societies avoid conflict and work toward shared interests. Competitive people cooperate with one another as long as everyone is treated equally. In a fairness perspective of right and wrong, actions that treat people equally are right. Actions that show preference or bias are wrong. A fairness perspective is generally useful only after the rights of all parties to a decision have been recognized.
3. Rights - A rights perspective applies an absolute standard to measure ethicality. Right actions are always right, regardless of whether they provide utility for the society. Absolute "rights" define what members of a society must always be permitted to do or always be prohibited from doing. Rights can be positive and grant access to certain privileges, such as the right to freedom of speech. They may also be negative and prohibit society from denying privileges, such as the right to be free from invasions of privacy. Decision makers generally examine decisions from a perspective of rights only after the utility of an action or decision has been established.
4. Utility - Actions that bring benefits or happiness to many people provide utility. Decisions or actions that provide benefits to many people are generally considered more ethical than those that benefit only a few people. The utility of an action or a decision is the most fundamental measure of its ethicality.