Sunday, December 1, 2013

How to Create a Company Culture?


Key factors to create a company culture

Sustainable and strong company culture is one of key factors for companies to keep them alive for long years. But how can companies create a sustainable culture? Let’s ask this to Prof. Ugur Zel who is specialized in Organizational Psychology. Ugur, how do you define “company culture”?

The shortest definition for culture is “the way of doing things”. Everything happening inside a company reflects its culture. Cultural norms begin to appear from the birth of a company. And when a norm is formed it will not be easy to change it. Researches show that a country’s cultural norm changes in 30-40 years. This period decreases to 7-10 years for companies if there is enough effort to change it.

What do you mean with “norms”?

Norms are written or unwritten rules shared by the members of a society, for example a country or an organization. The word “normal” originates from the word “norm”. We accept something as normal when we think that this is in harmony with our accepted norms. If something happens to be “abnormal” in a society, it means that it is not acceptable for the majority of members of that society. It is very important to decide about the “norm set” you want to spread throughout the company in the beginning. After norms are established among the employees it becomes harder to change it.

How can we shape the culture of a company?

When we are talking about culture, we mean “common behaviors” among the employees of the company. How can a behavior be common in a company? This is critical to find an answer. In fact, to answer to this question is easy: by changing the thoughts of each employee in the way you want. In this case another question appears: How can we change their thoughts? To do this, you have two mechanisms to use. One is communication, the other is observation. Answering to these types of questions is easy, however, applying it to real life is not so easy.

What do you suggest for companies in this respect?

If you want to change the way employees behave, first thing you have to do is to understand the “root cause” of their behavior. Every behavior has a root of “emotion” and every emotion is originated by a “thought”. This means your thoughts trigger your emotions and your emotions trigger your behaviors. Unless you change somebody’s thoughts you can not change his/her behaviors. One thing you have to do is shifting his/her thought from A to B. We call this persuasion. This is why communication and observation are so important.

Can you give some examples about how to communicate with employees in this respect?

The way of communication with you employees may be formal or informal, periodic or spontaneous. The manager’s role is important in changing the behaviors of employees in the way company want. This is why “leadership” is necessary rather than “management”. Coaching is an important skill for leaders to use while communicating. Researches show that when leaders support their coaching with “feedback” the change in behaviors happen in shorter period of time. The leaders should also make sufficient observation to recognize the employees’ development. Communication integrated with observation is the most powerful tools of leadership to create a culture.

Thanks for your comments, Ugur. I think we can summarize 3 things which are important to create company culture ;

1- Setting right norms and cultural characteristics
2- Effective communication of these cultural characteristics and values
3- Leaders should be role models to shape culture

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