Organizational Culture.
Culture itself a system of informal rules that spell out how people are to behave most of the time. It is made up of a collection of values, myths, heroes, and symbols that have come to mean something to the people that work within that culture.
Although every organization has a culture; sometimes it is weak and hard to assess, especially from the outside, other times is it strong and obvious. In either case, culture always exerts a strong influence on the organization, from the ways in which people interact and do their jobs, to who gets promoted, to how decisions are made. The existence and upkeep of a strong culture can have an immeasurable impact on the organization in almost every way. The elements of culture have historically been thought to provide a touchstone, a guide, and a common bond for those within an organization.
At Corporate Jester, we believe that culture always plays a large (and crucial) part in not only the financial results of any organization but also in human issues such as loyalty, motivation and morale (which effect productivity, turnover, etc).
Many organizations currently find themselves going through changes in regards to scope, size, vision and goals that could result in negative shifts from desired culture. It is critical to understand the truth about your organization’s cultural situation and take steps to ensure desired culture is maintained through change. This is particularly true for larger organizations.
In smaller organizations, culture is relatively easy to transmit and maintain due the shared perspective and influence of key members. However, as organizations grow larger and more spread out (globally) the ability of those key members to create and maintain culture through their individual influence diminishes. Larger organizations need to embrace new ways of defining and communicating culture . . . not only to ensure that it is not lost, but to ensure that it continues to drive behavior and decision making on a global basis.
A healthy culture needs artifacts
Artifacts are the physical things that are found that have particular symbolism in an organization. They may even be endowed with mystical properties. Examples can include: the first products of a company; achieved documents or letters from delighted customers. Artifacts can also be more everyday objects, such as the bunch of flowers in reception. They main thing is that they have special meaning, at the very least for the people in the culture. There may well be stories told about them. The purposes of artifacts are as reminders and triggers. When people in the culture see them, they think about their meaning and hence are reminded of their identity as a member of the culture, and, by association, of the rules of the culture. Artifacts may also be used in specific rituals. Churches do this, of course. But so also do organizations. What artifacts do you have in your organization? Do they symbolize aspects of the culture you want to maintain?
