What is Organisational Culture?

Although most of us understand in our own minds what is meant by , it is a slightly woolly concept that is hard to define precisely. We know (and can often sense) a "culture" exists when we visit a business as a customer or work there, but how can this be explained?

A great way to describe business or corporate culture is:

"The way we do things around here"

Culture consists of factors such as:

• The shared values of a business
• The beliefs and norms that affect every aspect of work life
• The behaviours typical of day-to-day behaviour
• The strength of a culture determines how difficult or easy it is to know how to behave in the business

The culture of a business is reflected in many ways – including the following:

• How employees are recruited – the cultural factors that make one applicant more suitable than another
• The way that visitors and guests are looked after
• How the working space is organised
• The degree of delegation & individual responsibility
• How long new employees stay in a business
• How contracts are negotiated and agreed
• The personality and style of the sales force
• The responsiveness of communication
• The methods used for communication
• How staff call each other (e.g. first name)
• The nature and style of marketing materials
• The speed with which decisions are taken
• The number of layers in the management hierarchy

Strong v Weak Culture

When you visit a range of businesses you soon get a sense of the strength of the business culture. If a culture can be measured as then how might this show itself?

Signs of a strong organisational culture include:

• Staff understand and respond to culture
• Little need for policies and procedures
• Consistent behaviour
• Culture is embedded

Evidence that points to a weak organisational culture include:

• Little alignment with business values
• Inconsistent behaviour
• A need for extensive bureaucracy & procedures