“Organizational culture is
civilization in the workplace.” — Alan Adler
When you look at companies including
Google, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos.com, they did exceedingly well due to
strong organizational culture. A. G. Lafley of P&G strove hard to connect
people by emphasizing organizational culture.
Other leaders include Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com and Ross Fowler,
the Managing Director, Cisco Systems Australia.
In fact, strategy and culture are two eyes of an organization with
strategy as the guiding path while culture as the driving path. Balancing and
blending these both will enhance CEO’s effectiveness.
Thomas P. Wise and Reuben Daniel,
their book Agile Readiness: Four Spheres
of Lean and Agile Transformation says, “The right horse for the right race
is an axiom meaning the leaders must carefully choose the right style for the right
goals. Leadership style, personality, and goals must align with the desired
culture of the organization. Steve Jobs built a culture of creativity and
cutting edge technologies. Jack Welch created a culture of rapid delivery of
new products that people want to use. While you may not agree with these
leaders and their styles, it is a pretty well settled argument that their
personality and leadership style were aligned with and for that matter drove the
culture of the organization.”
Culture
versus Strategy
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
― Peter Drucker
Culture and strategy are two sides of
a coin. Given the choice between culture and strategy, it is the culture that
must be given more importance because culture cannot copied but strategy can be
copied. Culture is unique and it takes a lot of time to create it. Strategies
can be changed as per the situation but culture cannot be changed easily.
Strong culture connects employees emotionally and engages them
effectively. Richard Perrin rightly
remarked, “Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve
as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.” Healthy organizational
culture promotes fraternity, eliminates organizational politics, and builds
trust which is missing globally. It enhances productivity and performance.
Precisely, organizational culture builds value system.
As
Culture is to Your Family, Organizational Culture is to Your Company
“You can’t sell it outside if you
can’t sell it inside.” ― Stan Slap
When you want to succeed in your
family life, you must create a strong culture in your family. You must spend
your quality time with your family. When you create a healthy and peaceful
climate at home, children grow healthy and happy. They develop a positive,
right and strong attitude and present themselves as healthy citizens. As a
parent, you will be successful. Similarly, when you want your organization to prosper,
you must emphasize organizational culture as it helps connect with other
employees, develop team spirit and work in a healthy organizational climate. It
ultimately paves the way for organization productivity and performance. Recently,
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the importance of organizational
culture. As culture defines the individuals organizational culture defines
companies. To conclude, emphasize
organizational culture to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness.
"Organizations do not transform
unless people at the top of organization adopt new values and change their
behavior. The organizational culture reflects the personality of the current
leadership and the legacy of personalities of its previous leaders." ―
Richard Barrets
Note: This article is adapted from my book,
21 Success Sutras for CEOs: How Global
CEOs Overcome Leadership Challenges in Turbulent Times to Build Good to Great
Organizations to be published by Motivational Press.
References
21
Success Sutras for CEOs: How Global CEOs Overcome Leadership Challenges in
Turbulent Times to Build Good to Great Organizations by Professor M.S.Rao, Motivational
Press (2016)
http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in/2015/11/free-sample-chapter-21-success-sutras.html
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Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR
Leadership Consultants India
Recipient
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