Organizational Culture and Leadership

Culture is an abstraction, yet the forces that are created in social and organizational situations deriving from culture are powerful.

Culture is an abstraction, yet the forces that are created in social and organizational situations deriving from culture are powerful. Culture is multifaceted. It encompasses observable artifacts, espoused values, and deep-seated assumptions that guide behavior within an organization. These elements form a cohesive system that provides meaning, stability, and predictability to group members. Culture has several key characteristics: Structural stability: It persists even when group members change Depth: It operates largely outside of conscious awareness Breadth: It influences all aspects of group functioning Patterning: It integrates various elements into a coherent whole Culture is learned through shared experiences as groups solve problems of external adaptation and internal integration. It represents the accumulated learning of a group, reflecting what has worked well enough to be considered valid and taught to new members.

The most powerful mechanisms that founders, leaders, managers, and parents have available for communicating what they believe in or care about is what they systematically pay attention to. Leaders embed culture through behavior. Their actions, rather than their words, communicate the most important values and assumptions to organization members. Six primary embedding mechanisms are particularly influential: What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control How leaders react to critical incidents and crises How leaders allocate resources Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching How leaders allocate rewards and status How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate These mechanisms work together to reinforce cultural values and assumptions. For example, a leader who consistently asks about safety issues in meetings, reacts strongly to safety violations, allocates resources to safety programs, and rewards safe behavior is likely to create a strong safety culture.

In a young organization, design, structure, architecture, rituals, stories, and formal statements are cultural reinforcers, not culture creators. Formal structures support culture. While less powerful than primary embedding mechanisms, secondary articulation mechanisms can reinforce cultural messages if they are consistent with leader behavior. These include: Organizational design and structure Systems and procedures Rites and rituals Design of physical space and buildings Stories about important events and people Formal statements of philosophy or values These mechanisms become more important as an organization matures, often outlasting the founders and becoming constraints on future leaders. For example, a company's annual rituals, office layout, or standard operating procedures can continue to reinforce cultural values long after they were first established.

The strength and stability of culture derives from the fact that it is group based—that the individual will hold on to certain basic assumptions to ratify his or her membership in the group. Groups develop culture through shared learning. As new groups form, they…