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"Leadership and Organisational Culture"

    - by Simon Hazeldine MSc BA (Hons) FInstSMM
 

(c) Simon Hazeldine. All Rights Reserved.

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LEADERSHIP AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

The subject of organisational culture has become
increasingly popular with modern leaders. Every organisation
has a culture whether the people who belong to and lead the
organisation are consciously aware of it or not.

So what is ‘culture’?  One interesting definition is that
“culture is the way that people behave when their boss isn’t
around!”

Culture can be thought of as things that are:

Explicit and visible e.g. Behaviour, titles and buildings

Implicit and invisible e.g. Norms, values, beliefs

Organizational culture shapes and influences people’s
behaviour and the effective leader will recognise this and
contribute to building an organisational culture that
supports the vision of the organisation.

Culture can be quite a subtle and complex concept, and it
is helpful to understand the elements that contribute to it
and blend together to create it.

David Cowley from Ashridge Management College describes
culture as a ‘web’ that is made up of various strands or
elements. These include:

Symbols

The symbols prevalent in an organisation contribute towards
its culture and these include the dress code (is it a formal or informal?), status symbols or the apparent lack of them (e.g. parking places, directors dining room), building layout (how are offices allocated?), Role models (which members of the organisation are regarded as role models?)

Routines and Rituals

The events that take place in an organisation also
influence the culture. These would include things like
regular meetings (weekly team meeting, monthly sales
meeting), and recognition events and ceremonies as well as
more informal events such as office parties.

Control systems

The systems that are used to observe and monitor various
aspects of the organisation will make a significant
contribution to shaping the organisational culture. These
include budgets, financial reporting, surveys of customers
and employees, remuneration/rewards and training.


Power structures

The various power structures in the organisation also exert
an influence onto the organisational culture and include
the CEO, the board, departments within the organisation,
shareholders, trade unions as well as more informal
networks that may exist.

Myths & Stories

The stories that are told in an organisation are a further
contributor to organisational culture. Who are the heroes
and villains? What are the great successes that are talked
about? And what are the great failures? What is talked
about from the past and the future?


This complex web of factors all contribute to each
organisations unique and distinct culture.

The effective leader needs to understand the elements that
make up an organisations culture.  Organisational culture
exerts a powerful influence over people’s behaviour and
therefore the results that they deliver.

The effective leader will consider what sort of culture
will be most appropriate in their organisation (or their
part of an organisation) and then understand that they, as
the leader, play a powerful role in shaping this culture.

Leaders shape culture by:

•What they pay attention to

•What they measure & control on a regular basis

•How they react to critical incidents and crises.

•How they are seen to allocate scarce resources (e.g.
budgets)

•How they are seen to allocate rewards and status

•By deliberate role modelling

•By teaching and coaching

•How they are seen to allocate rewards and status

•How they are seen to recruit, select, promote, retire and
excommunicate organisational members


It is time for you as a leader to consider what culture
your organisation has now.  What culture does it require
for the future? What can you do as a leader to shape your
organisations culture? How can you shape and influence it
so that it best serves and supports the vision, mission,
goals, aims and objectives of your organisation?

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Simon Hazeldine is a best selling author, professional
speaker and performance consultant. He is passionate
about helping individuals and organisations improve
their performance.

Simon has run leadership development programs in over
15 countries across 4 continents.

Simon is the bestselling author of Bare Knuckle Selling,
BareKnuckle Negotiating, Bare Knuckle Customer Service
and The Inner Winner

For more valuable information on improving your
sales, profits and performance (including sample chapters
from all of Simon's best selling books) at zero cost to you
visit: http://www.simonhazeldine.com today!


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