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Going inside corporate cultureAmanda Kramer
It wasn't the dramatic 30-foot curtain wall in the office on South Bedford Street in Madison, although that was impressive. And it wasn't the office view of Lake Monona, although that was beautiful. It was the way people worked toward a company goal, not a department goal, and not an individual goal. It was the attitude and the personality of the company. It was the culture, he said, that really got him in the door, and got him to stay. "The tip-off was that everybody worked together," recalled Tubbs, the construction company's director of business development. "The other big thing I saw was this sheer empowerment of being able to make decisions -- for all the employees." Comments like Tubbs' are what companies often listen for in the hope that they're doing something right, that their employees are happy and able to be productive. Occasionally, it's useful for an owner to step back and get a bird's-eye view of the whole package, of the fundamental corporate or organizational culture of the business, since culture affects nearly every aspect of success in the marketplace -- from employee morale to efficiency to the bottom line. Start with the basics "I think my definition of corporate culture would be more or less 'the way we do things around here,' " said Tim Allen, a business instructor with Upper Iowa University and the director of marketing and development with Wisconsin Sports Development Corp. There are a number of types of corporate cultures that occur in various professions, and not all are well defined. However, Allen offered three examples that seem to be common in many offices: collaborative, closed-door and innovative. • Collaborative cultures, Allen said, are places where employees are generally "pitching in" with their colleagues and working together toward a goal. • Innovative organizations, he said, are places where workers constantly ask, 'What are we going to be doing in (so many) years?' -- constantly inventing or planning their next move. • Closed-door cultures are organizations where employees can often be found working alone. Often, managers are making decisions without needed input from the organization. Closed-door cultures can be potentially hazardous, explained Upper Iowa University instructor Daniel Zinsmeister, who often cites the work of late management-related author Peter Drucker, explaining that there are some universal principles of organizations and one "is that organizations have to be transparent." "That really breaks down this whole notion of 'closed-door,' " Zinsmeister said. "If (the management) can't include employees in their culture, then the employees start to check out," he said. John Whitley, owner of BEST Cleaners, Madison, knows that his style is what sets the atmosphere at his business, not just because he's got quite a few family members working for him, but also because he continues to be intimately involved with the everyday operations. "The hardest days we have here are the days I'm not getting along too well (with work or equipment problems). My bad mood could affect the atmosphere, and it rolls down hill," Whitley said. However, Whitley explained, it's the family nature and deliberately careful culture at the company -- they can take up to three days to clean your clothes, he said -- that have allowed the dry cleaner to enjoy solid business over the past 10 years. "If you're a crab, that's the kind of workplace you're going to have," Whitley said. "It takes a lot of work to keep a positive attitude." Be consistent Aside from a company's shared values and management styles, there are a host of other characteristics that can determine the culture of an organization. Joel Goldberg, founder of Corporate Cultures Consulting in New York, works with hundreds of organizations nationwide helping them take a better look at the way they do business. "(Corporate culture) is the written and unwritten rules and regulations of behaviors, from what gets encouraged to what gets discouraged," Goldberg said. Owners can take stock of their company's culture by reflecting on the way employees are punished, the type of competition inside the workplace, the collaboration level, the aesthetics of the building, the hierarchy of the management and the business attire. "There are probably no favorite corporate cultures because it would all depend on the environment a person is competing in," Goldberg said. "But if you have a culture that's very collaborative and supportive and you have a marketplace where that exists, that would be the ideal culture. A really perfect culture would be one in which the individuals themselves, and their own personal values, aren't in conflict with the organization's values." Goldberg said a company can be sure it is maintaining a healthy culture by exhibiting consistency between what is done and what is said, allowing an openness in the company where employees can ask questions and make mistakes, and teaching employees directly about the organization's cultural practices. The 'Trek Way' One example of how corporate culture can affect the success of a business is seen at Trek in Waterloo. The company, which is often a destination-type job for young workers, has made the name Trek nearly synonymous with the word "bike." How they got there has had a lot to do with the personality of the organization. The building itself exudes confidence, recently undergoing an 18-month facelift in which 45,000 square feet were added and 60,000 square feet were renovated. "Find the job of your dreams at the coolest company on earth," says the jobs page of the company's Web site. "All you need is tons of enthusiasm, talent, and a few of the skills that we're looking for." The cubicle-like workstations have low partitions so employees can talk to each other. Skylights let in natural light so the space feels airy and open. The color is modern and cool but not too trendy. Managers discussed the purchase of new desk chairs at length in an effort to make sure their employees were going to be comfortable and productive. And, most importantly, there's a "Trek Way," explained human resources director Mark Joslyn, that encompasses 12 values: Tolerate nothing less than excellence; be open to ideas from anywhere; have unyielding integrity and honesty; live quality and be obsessed with massive improvement; create a clear, simple vision and communicate it; have enormous energy and the ability to energize others; recognize and reward progress; understand accountability and commitment; see positive change as opportunity; think and act globally; make internal and external customers wildly successful; eliminate wasted cost — question every expense! "It is these 12 individual points that constitute the core values of the company," said Joslyn, who said company leaders created some of the values themselves but also observed other successful companies and adapted some to work into the Trek culture. The 12 key points have been combined into a training experience that managers and employees throughout Trek's U.S. and international offices go through. "The goal is that everybody experiences these sessions and the attempt is to take them through what the value means, what its origin is, where the original idea came from and how it applies to Trek," Joslyn said. "In training, as people are learning these values, they're also making commitments to the things they are going to do (for the company)." Cultural failure Sue Herman, vice president of training and consulting at Erickson & Co., a human resources consulting firm, said there are a handful of behaviors managers may want to watch for that could derail efforts to create a healthy culture. "I've gone into places where all they do is complain about management, and that can impact culture," Herman said. Other behaviors that can negatively impact culture include a lack of trust in an organization by its employees, backstabbing or finger pointing, and a lack of opportunities for workers to grow and perform. Herman said managers and owners should also watch to see if their employees think of themselves as having "careers" or just jobs they go to daily, and whether the company is perceived as a whole or as simply individuals who do work. Do they "want to make a buck?" Herman asked, or "do they care about us?" Managers should also make sure they're hiring employees who are going to work well against the backdrop of the company's culture. Asking open-ended questions in interviews with job candidates can help measure how they'll fit in. "You could ask them something like, 'what did you like about your last job?' What are the likes and dislikes of what they've done?" Herman suggested. She said managers could talk to candidates about their feelings on working alone and in groups, their comfort level at a computer desk, or even how they feel about wearing a suit or casual clothes to work. Questions like these, she said, help a manager do a better job of getting the right person into the right position in the company. If an organization is operating under a monopoly-like structure or one that's too regulated, it is likely to have a harder time adapting to the changing marketplace. An organization may need to put more emphasis on customer input or responsiveness; if its leaders can't do that, Goldberg said, it's likely the organization will falter. Little things Tubbs said there are nearly a million little pieces of the culture puzzle at Findorff. There are very few doors on the offices inside the building, a deliberate move by management to get people talking between walls. About 50 current employees, Tubbs said, have been with the company for 25 years, and there are scores more who boast multigenerational relatives in various positions, illustrating the family-type culture the organization has worked hard to create, he said. For employees who are just starting at the company, the culture is communicated through discussions of the organization's core values. Managers also put new employees into groups with a project team so they can learn the ropes, he said. But in the end it's up to employees to learn the organization's personality and use it to help themselves and the company succeed. "Like everything, you believe it once you live it," Tubbs said. kramer.news@gmail.com What do you think? Add your comment to the forummadison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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