There’s something paradoxical about organizational culture. The higher you go the more responsibility and power you have to develop or establish you own company’s culture. At the same time, you lose control over the elements that configure that culture.
Pretend (unless you are) that you are a CEO or an HR Director. You, your team and the ones that came before you have contributed to develop and evolve your company’s culture. You even inherited systems and resources that help maintain it.
Beautiful so far but… are you absolutely sure that the organizational culture in your company is actually operating the way it’s supposed to? How deep down do your ears go?
There’s always two very real but invisible barriers that distort and filter what you see and what you don’t.
Our own “reality distortion field”
We see things the way we want to see them, not the way they are. We should have to define what “real” is but the idea is not to get metaphysical.
You spend so much time working in those presentations, all the coaching hours, focus groups and meetings with the Marketing guys to promote the company’s culture but how do you know the message you are sending is the message that is being received and broadcasted through the grapevine?
The political barrier
Either you belong to the “Higher Up Club” or to the “Half-Plus-One Association”. That will determine the scope you have within the company. From your birds-eye view, you see the big picture but miss the details. If you are looking up from the basement (or the first couple of floors) you’ll see every little thing that changes around you (where most things happen) but you won’t be able to see the big picture.
In a worse case scenario, that culture that you so much love, actually, may only exist in your mind -and maybe in the minds of a couple more-. Corporate culture is not immune, it’s easily infected by “the other” culture. The one that emanates from personal interactions within the lower floors and the basement (A.K.A. operant culture) but unfortunately, you have no way of getting close to it.
Firstly, because to most people you are probably a popular name, a picture on the wall or the under-signer of important communications and letters. Even if you exercise MBWA (management by walking around), John from Operations won’t come at you and say: “Hey! You know Brian, from Logistics? He loves to take home the leftover donuts”. The idea of someone conveying more sensitive and relevant information to you belongs to the realm of Sci-Fi.
Line managers are supposed to gather that intel and airlift it, but there are still many things that also eludes them, so it’s something line managers can do in a limited fashion.
What’s lost when looking from a distance is the Grapevine, an unofficial yet powerful channel that always work horizontally. It’s where the small things that make big situations tip happen. Sometimes, the message that comes down from above is misinterpreted, not efficiently communicated or plainly, that message is in direct conflict with the perception that the majority have of their corporate culture and the perception they have of those who promote it. Thus, the legitimacy of the culture is compromised. Its influence weakens, it shifts (into something unintended) or worse, is ignored, which in a way is also a form of culture. In the event of any of this happening, how do we cross that chasm?
Having a team in the right position.
The role of this position should generate an Ascending Channel of communication. A direct line between HR and the staffing base. A person or unit dedicated to get the pulse of the organization/unit/office, responsible for the early detection of cultural hiccups or short circuits. This team should be able to experience he culture that is operating and relay information, assist in the conservation of the corporate culture and foster its change.
There are two usual communication channels: the descending and the horizontal channels. What is needed is an ascending channel, where the voice of the basement could be taken into account to finally achieve a “total” culture. One to which every member of the organization could relate to and feel included.
The caveat is that the team that gets this task will almost inevitably be considered the “Snitching Unit”, which raises the question: how do we make things clear enough to get the trust and confidence of everyone?
Image credit Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
Article by Fernando
This is my blog - I write about careers, talent management and organizational development. I've been featured at Monster.com, Alltop, WeBlogBetter and BloggingPro among others. I hope you leave this blog with more than you arrived and I look forward to discussing your ideas and projects with you. See you in the comments section.
Fernando has written 228 awesome articles for us at Fernando Tarnogol – Careers Blog
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