Along my research I have focused to a large extend on corporate culture, organizational values leadership and management. I looked at the connection of these soft facts to financial performance and success measurements. I realized that the field of research is less explored then others in this area and that many researchers mainly borrow approaches from classical cultural research on nations. That approach is from my perspective a bit thin and too easy hence it might not capture an organizations unique approach. I invite all to look at my wok and share their work in the field to start a discussion on in which direction research will go. Because we know that just continue as we did so far will bring us not further.
Hi Bjorn:
A very interesting approach. I am in the organizational design/forms of work side of things with innovation thrown in as well. Culture is huge! National culture may (or may not) have in impact upon the corporate culture. Anecdotally, I would agree that it certainly may - but the question then begs what happens with multi-nationals? Do they somewhat take on their host country culture in some ways? Also, the structure and "character" of the company will impact the culture. A professional consulting firm may have an entirely different culture compared to a construction company or retail chain in the same geographic location. And, the age of a company will also have an effect; large multi-nationals with numerous divisions may also have numerous cultures within the company depending upon what the divisions do - similar to my example above in the same location, picture it in the same firm...
A couple of quick papers to have a look at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299616620_Management_of_ICT-based_Creative_Industries_Has_the_Medium_Muddled_the_Message
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262767162_The_evolution_of_complexity_within_firms
Conference Paper The evolution of complexity in High Technology Markets
Send me your email address and I can send a couple of other papers that address organizational trust and culture.
I look forward to following this discussion!
Cheers,
Brian
Culture is an important factor for a business’ long-term success. An organization’s culture is how the organization views itself and how the company wishes to be viewed by others.
Shaping values is the first step for capturing an organizational culture. We need to determine what we want them to mean to us and to our employees.
An organization’s culture is represented by the values which it truly lives by, not just by the words that it chooses to showcase on a wall somewhere.
I was at a seminar on employee engagement and organizational culture last year where the speaker took the approach of values (individual and collective) being at the foundation of it all. She used the Barrett Values model; are you familiar? https://www.valuescentre.com/
I found it quite interesting.
No question that values are important and Khalil is right emphasizing those truly live by, but this point toward practices that shape organiztional cultures, especially those of leaders. Most crucial are the level of trust among participants which practices generate, either leading to high- or low-trust cultures. See my book "Mismanagement, 'Jumpers', and Morality" and my paper in the attached book.
Thank you all very much for your valuable comments. I fully agree with you on the fact that culture matters a lot on how organizations perform and develop. I also indeed saw as a part of my analysis that this differs a lot between both regions (e.g. Nordics and central Europe) as well as between sectors as you commented Brian Mitchell and I send you a message regarding papers. I especially found significant differences between finance and banking to other industries.
Thank you also for the concept of values developed by Barrett Kate Toth : I have not used it so far but will take a look at it and potentially incorporate it into my work.
Dear Bjorn,
According to Chatman and Cha (2002), the corporate culture is the only dimension that is applicable to all organizations regardless of their size, stage of development, and a sector in which implement business activities. It is assumed that the size of companies and the peculiarities of the industry in which to compete influence the formation and implementation of their corporate culture.
The corporate culture is determined by management of the company, but management style, its approach, policies and practices of the organization are formulated, implemented and modified in accordance with established corporate culture.
Essential to improving the organization's competitiveness is to carry out activities that help to understand the company's values, beliefs, goals.The understanding of the corporate strategy by each member of the organization is a prerequisite for its successful implementation.
To measure the competitive performance are created and tested empirically different models, using indicators related to the corporate culture /culture strength, adaptability, management style, human capital management, customer reporting requirements, etc./ on par with economic indicators /return on sales; return on investments; income-sales ration; growth of assets, etc./. Despite the criticism for certain aspects of research methodology, and the need to refine the tools for studying the relationship between corporate culture and competitive performance, we can conclude that there exists such a relation, a positive character that emphasizes the multifaceted nature of corporate culture and its vital importance for the development of the modern organization.
The question is fascinating and multifaceted. If you are interested, you can view my publications; there are empirical researches based on a representative sample of the relationship between corporate culture and competitiveness in companies doing business in Bulgaria.
Regards,
Yanica
Based on compensation, leadership, team, environment, and employee sentiment, these companies have the best overall culture, according to a Comparably study...
The culture is being measured base on nine key measures...
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/these-20-tech-unicorns-have-the-best-company-cultures/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=26515897512689358169344413145444
https://www.comparably.com/blog/top-20-unicorn-companies-a-culture-scoreboard/
Measuring values is a fantastic tool. However, I love to collect artifacts and rationalizations. They give an incredible field for understanding the specificity of an organizational culture much better.
There are many validated instruments that measure specific types of org. culture
See my recent research on the development of serving culture:
Nowak, R. (2019). Developing serving culture: focus on workplace empowerment. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
This is fine example form Oracle!
Creating belonging
Oracle’s Belonging Campaign enlists management to make sure all employees feel at home, no matter their background. It’s a smart, strategic way to be a leader in diversity and inclusion and to shape an organizational culture that’s good for business...
https://blogs.oracle.com/diversity-inclusion/post/with-belonging-campaign-oracle-builds-a-culture-where-everyone-is-welcome?source=:em:nw:mt::::RC_WWMK200429P00044:NSL400147041
You can assess your current culture in several ways. This culture assessment can involve walking around, conducting interviews , or using a culture assessment instrument.
Leaders need to nurture organizational cultures strong enough to withstand and exploit change. McGowan says if your company defines itself by what it does, and then the pandemic hits, employees will struggle to adapt. But if it defines itself by why it exists, the organization is more likely to pivot successfully and survive. “It’s the exception to the rule when you really need culture to kick in, and the pandemic was the biggest exception to the rule that we’ve seen in a lifetime,” she says...
https://www.smartindustry.com/articles/2021/the-flexible-laborer-is-the-worker-of-the-future/?utm_campaign=SI_2021_CAMP_SIEnews&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=156499999&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--PfVVvvjhPWsxVj1E1xbSCwgDGYVIoOTBS__ptmkEUy0bQjPdRKs5VqxT-C-zYfq-LRsJqiyM8HiNE7Ua23O__5KSpog
Leaders have to make corporate culture as important as sales figures to win the talent war...
Tech companies took 13 of the top 20 spots in a new ranking of best corporate culture, according to a new survey from Comparably. The usual suspects–Microsoft, IBM and Google–showed up in the top three spots and two more–UiPath and Uber–jumped up higher in the list as compared to last year’s ranking...
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-ibm-and-google-employees-say-their-company-culture-is-the-best-in-the-us/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=top-10
Dear Björn Preuss . See the following useful link: https://www.achievers.com/blog/10-tips-to-improve-your-companys-organizational-culture/
Kindly see also the following useful link: https://www.superbeings.ai/blog/organizational-culture-examples
Also check please the following useful link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.themuse.com/amp/advice/6-ways-to-figure-out-a-companys-culture
The following link is also very good: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JWL-01-2018-0024/full/html
Article Measuring and Interpreting Organizational Culture
Article Measuring the learning organization culture, organizational ...
Thank you all for your suggestions. I think they all sound very interesting and relevant. Since you are also much into the topic, as I sense, you might be interested in having a read of this:
Chapter . Text Mining and Natural Language Processing to Capture Cultural Data
Culture change in any organisation takes considerable time to embed. It requires change at the executive and managerial level, at the administrative and academic unit level and importantly also at the individual staff level. At the organisational level a shared purpose or mission, strategy and accompanying systems, including policies and procedures, must align with the culture the institution seeks to have. These guide the behaviours of all staff within the institution. A significant part of the mission is a workplace culture grounded in shared values...
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220524150856828