Culture begins with attention
An organisation's culture requires attention and control. Before you know it, a culture runs out of control and causes needless disturbance. A culture must receive continuous attention from the management, all the time – not just in times of crises, mergers or takeovers.
Characteristics of a strong culture
A corporate culture is the shared understanding of all stakeholders of an organization (Sanders and Neuijen). This shared understanding concerns the daily affairs of a company. Means for expressing culture are symbols, heroes and customs. These means of expression refer to deep-rooted patterns of values and ground rules, which form the heart of a culture. When is a company said to have a strong culture? It has a strong culture if "the shared understanding" is supported by – nearly – all employees, and if they express this shared understanding in generally the same way. Homogeneity is key.
Corporate culture: diagnosis and influencing
This is the title of perhaps the most practical book ever written about corporate culture. MVCM's approach is mainly based on this reference book by Sanders and Neuijen. Before a strong culture can be achieved, it is important to have a clear view of the actual culture. MVCM uses both qualitative and quantitative surveys for this purpose. The qualitative part consists of in-depth interviews with 6 to 12 employees at different departments; the actual number will depend on the size of the organization. The results of these interviews are the basis and the inspiration for drawing up a questionnaire for the quantitative survey.
Six dimensions are dealt with in the quantitative survey:
These dimensions all concern behavioural practices that people experience at work. Depending on the results of the qualitative survey, we ask employees to fill in a questionnaire of 36 to 48 questions about these six dimensions. For the quantitative survey, MVCM has developed an online format in cooperation with Motivaction International.
Defining the desired culture
The survey results show where an organisation stands. This is the basis for formulating the desired corporate culture. This is achieved during a workshop with a "culture team" consisting of no more than 12 persons. It is important for the desired corporate culture to be rooted in the core strategy or mission, and that the profile works as an inspiration. At the same time, its formulation needs to be realistic, so that it links up with the familiar ways of thinking and taking action.
Developing a change programme
How will we realise the desired corporate culture? An answer to that question is given during this phase. The programme and approach are again achieved at a workshop with the "culture team". In certain cases MVCM chooses to bring in "creative minds", experts who can speed up the process and encourage new insights.