If someone asked you what the organizational culture of your business is like, would you know what to answer?
This is one of the key concepts that has emerged in the business world in recent times and has been gaining ground, becoming increasingly fundamental for the development and of organizations.
The organizational culture of a company is one of the pillars that lead to good development of the potential of the team of collaborators and also that of the internal structure itself.
Do you want to know more about this concept, its importance and how to apply it in your business? Join us in this article!
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What is the organizational culture?
It is a set of values, beliefs, missions and objectives that guide the way an organization acts and that is adopted by its members.both in their internal and external relations.
Or, put another way: it is the way the organization thinks, perceives, feels and acts.
Swiss psychologist Edgar Schein, one of its main ideologues, says in his book Organizational Culture and Leadership that “Culture represents in groups and organizations the same as character in individuals.”
Thus, when an organizational culture is well defined and grounded, it gives the company a unique personality, also functioning as a moral and ethical compass.
Who defines what the culture of the organization is?
As you can imagine, the organizational culture is born from the identity and mentality of the founders of a business. Your worldview will determine the values of the organization, drawing heavily on the personal beliefs of each founder.
Therefore, creating and stimulating the growth of the organizational culture of your business will mean developing a line of thought that reflects much of your own thinking.
Of course, people are expected to follow these values, which may even become a legacy that lives on in future generations.
Theoretically, organizational culture is defined based on the personal values of the founders of a business. In practice, however, what often happens is that various internal microcultures are also inadvertently created and developed, especially in large companies.
Given the case, it is up to managers and leaders to manage this type of phenomenon, making sure that all internal cultural variations harmonize with each other and, of course, are in tune with the primary organizational culture.
How is an organizational culture composed?
The organizational culture is, as we have already told you, like the character of the organization. It is governed by a series of precepts that can and should be clearly defined and, ideally, documented.
Thus, each organizational culture is based on three basic pillars of business constitution: mission, vision and values.
From the integration of these pillars it is possible to develop a culture with a strong, committed and inspiring purpose, and make all collaborators work in harmony to achieve common goals.
1. Mission
A mission is a clear and accurate statement of an organization’s purposes and responsibilities in relation to its customers. To define your mission, try answering questions like:
- Why does the business exist?
- What are you doing?
- Who does it for?
From these questions, it will be much easier for you to find the great mission of your business, which will help you define and create a cohesive organizational culture. and consistent.
2. Vision
The vision is the description of the ideal future of the organization. It is a statement that reflects the objectives to be achieved and that must be achieved through the efforts of each individual and team, and also through the distribution and use of available resources.
In the vision there are feelings of aspiration and inspiration. All professionals and organizations aspire to become something much greater and have a great goal in mind. Consequently, they are inspired by something that guides the trajectory and makes the path worth traveling.
The definition of the vision of a business must be a practical and realistic statement so that it is not confused with a simple unattainable wish.
In other words, it should suggest results that can be achieved. Answering the following questions will help you define it:
- What does my business intend to become?
- Where will my business be in X years?
- What will my business be in the future?
- What path must leaders and employees take for us to reach our goals?
3. Values
Finally, Values are the principles and beliefs that guide all behaviors, actions and decisions employees during the performance of their duties.
Compared to the idea of individual character, values guide the execution of the mission according to the direction of the chosen vision. They function as ethical and moral precepts that define the lines of action of the organization.
Therefore, they are a set of principles that help people committed to the ideals of the organization, both when acting within the business and in their attitude towards the community.
In summary, we can define the values as the set of basic and immutable rules that will guide the behavior and attitude of all collaborators, so that by meeting the goals, the previously defined vision and objectives can be achieved.
What are the levels of organizational culture?
We can divide organizational culture into three distinct levels: artifacts, shared values, and assumptions.
1. Artifacts
In the first (and outermost) layer are those characteristics that are easily identified by the public. They are considered the first level of an organizational culture.
Some examples are the organization chart, the degrees of formality in the internal and external treatment, the product catalog, the symbols and the branding (brand development)
2. Shared values
The second level of organizational culture is made up of shared values, present at a deeper level than the previous one, but not completely hidden.
As an example of shared values, we can mention those established by the business itself: its standards of behavior, the philosophy of the organization and everything that justifies its performance in the market.
3. Budgets
Finally, at the third and deepest level of the organizational culture are the budgets, which are part of the core of the organization and intrinsically act on everything that is done within it that is unlikely to change.
The level of the budgets is not perceived externally, since it is composed of the unconscious feelings and beliefs of the founders, and from here starts the true purpose of any organization.
What are the types of organizational culture?
Determining what the cultural characteristics of your business are is very important for create teams aligned with the purpose of the organization. It is also essential to understand what kind of organizational culture is practiced or intended to be applied.
According to the Irish philosopher Charles Handy, an expert in organizational behavior, there are four different types of organizational culture: power, role, task and people.
1. Culture of power
In businesses of this type, the organizational culture is oriented towards the power exercised and maintained by some leaders, who end up influencing other collaborators.
It is very common in small organizations, where all decision-making power is concentrated in the owner and founder of the company.
An organization with this type of culture hardly has well-established rules and regulations and is mainly guided by the results obtained in the short and medium term.
2. Culture of roles
Unlike the culture of power, the culture of roles organizes the action of organizations in which there are extremely well-defined guidelines, rules, positions and functions. In this case, the decision-making power is usually held by the highest position.
In general, organizations that work with the culture of roles have a hierarchical and extremely bureaucratic structure, avoiding taking risks and acting within pre-established limits through clear and often severe rules.
3. Task culture
In this type of organizational culture, attention is focused on business projects, so decision-making is in the hands of those employees who can solve problems. The company can even create specific teams to solve problems.
This type of business is often much more flexible than the others, allowing changes in the organization of power much more easily and offering employees much more freedom to act creatively.
4. Culture of people
Finally, organizations that operate according to a people culture always put employees first, regardless of the positions they hold.
This type of organization always seeks to listen to the ideas of each collaborator and takes them into consideration when acting.
The organization is aware enough to understand that it only exists because each person works for it. For this reason, encouraging and valuing employees is one of its main actions.
In addition to these four types of organizational culture, Charles Handy classifies organizational culture as strong, weak, adaptive, or conservative.
5. Strong culture
In companies that have a strong organizational culture, each of the values is present in the action and mentality of its members.
The culture is organized and structured, and can easily influence the behavior of the team.
In addition, it forms part of all levels of the production chain and is present from the moment ofof people until the end of the employment relationship.
6. Weak culture
In turn, organizational cultures considered weak are those that allow constant changes in their values and in their way of acting.
They are usually present in young businesses, which are still discovering their way of acting.
7. Adaptive culture
Whether strong or weak, an adaptive culture is one that is open to change and innovation.
An organization that exhibits this type of culture is usually very flexible and constantly updates its values and characteristics.
Guided mainly by a sense of innovation and the application of creative decisions, it is constantly changingalthough it is stable enough to ensure that its identity remains unchanged.
8. Conservative culture
Unlike flexible companies, those with a conservative culture do not usually accommodate changes in their habits, let alone their values.
Bureaucratic and conservative, they have rules and customs so ingrained that,…
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