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Culture Shock - do your people align with your corporate culture?

Guest post by: Cori Maedel

Article Overview: Why do people stay with organizations and why do they go? What prompts someone to join a company or move to a new one, particularly if there isn’t much difference in salary or position? Thinking about these questions, I began to reflect back on my recent vacation to Europe.

Culture Shock - do your people align with your corporate culture?

As I lay on my deck chair, watching a concrete bridge pass inches above my head, I thought, "This would never happen at home." Why do people stay with organizations and why do they go? What prompts someone to join a company or move to a new one, particularly if there isn't much difference in salary or position? Thinking about these questions, I began to reflect back on my recent vacation.

My husband and I recently travelled to Europe. A highlight of our trip was a river boat cruise for seven days on the Rhone River from Lyon to Arles. At a briefing just before we sailed, John, our cruise director, told the 100 passengers about the many bridges the ship would pass under during our voyage. Some would be lower than others. He said there would be times when passengers would need to follow the directions of the crew if we wanted to remain on the upper deck during a bridge crossing.

As we sat on deck watching the French countryside glide by, the crew began preparing for our first bridge. The Captain's wheelhouse was lowered (it had the capability to almost flatten and the Captain ran the boat with controls that were positioned on the side), the sun canopies were lowered, and the crew began telling everyone that we must lie down, either on the deck or on the lounge chairs. All the time I was thinking to myself, "Really, how bad could this be?"

I realized this would never happen in Vancouver, Canada or North America. Passengers would be asked to leave the deck while we went under the bridges. I've heard others say that, coming back from travelling abroad, they realized how many rules we live under, but I never really understood that until this trip.

In Paris, twelve arteries join into one massive traffic circle at the Arc de Triomphe, where the only rule is that the vehicle on the right has the right-of-way. The circle is shared by cars, mopeds, and bicycles with riders that don't wear helmets, and yet everyone is fine. Paris is a place where I personally would be afraid to drive because I need a little more structure to do my best. Or maybe it's just what I'm used to.

Our cruise director told us about his last visit to Canada, which was about ten years earlier. He began by telling us a story about our outdated system for purchasing alcohol. With an air of disbelief, he said, "I had to go into these special stores and I had to stand in line!" He was sure this antiquated system must have changed by now, but I was quick to let him know that no such thing had happened, although some of "those" stores are now open on Sundays. He looked at me in shock - really, it was something he could not comprehend. Different cultures give us different expectations.

I began to think about the parallel between countries and companies and the role that cultural norms and values play in our working lives. At Jouta, we are often asked by clients to help them build a culture of motivated employees that want to stay with the company.

The least desirable situation for humans and companies is probably the most common. When people work within a company where the cultural values and norms don't align with their own, many of those people eventually get used to the status quo. These are the people you don't necessarily want in your organization. They know what's expected, but it requires them to act in ways that are inconsistent with their core beliefs. Ultimately, they are sacrificing something that is fundamentally who they are.

So why don't we do a better job of defining and aligning the culture and values of our organizations? It's often one of those areas that are considered HR mumbo jumbo, and yet everything that happens in an organization is driven by its cultural norms and values, whether they are written down or not.

Cultural norms and values usually originate with the entrepreneur who conceived of the idea and built the business. Aligning the executive team's values and beliefs with those of the entrepreneur and the company is critically important when growing a business because, if they are not aligned, the culture will fragment. Depending on the executive in charge, different areas of the company will develop different cultures that create conflict and misunderstandings when inter-departmental cooperation is required.

At Jouta, we have seen too many companies rush to implement new practices, only to have them ignored or misapplied because they didn't align with the existing culture.

I am not saying that executives should think alike, I am saying that they should have common values. Yet we rarely see companies who hire based on value fit, in part because they have not articulated even what the values are. Then well-intentioned executives, consultants, and HR practitioners try to change the company to do things the "right" way, often without understanding what has made the company successful to this point.

If you want employees to stay with you long term, ensure that you are clear about who the company is and what it really stands for. Then create practices around that. Whether you write them down or not, cultural values exist - so align to them.

The fabulous thing about businesses is they can be successful in many different ways - with or without following certain rules. Look at Europe and North America - chock full of different rules (some that work better than others), but somehow things get done, even though they are managed in very dissimilar ways. The same variability occurs in business. Some organizations run like a European country with an emphasis on personal responsibility, while others have a culture more in line with North America, where rules are designed to protect people from themselves.

To what extent can people in your company be who they really are, and to what extent must they change to fit your corporate culture? If you were the captain of a river boat with 100 passengers, would you allow the passengers to stay up on deck or would you keep them below each time you pass under a bridge?

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Article Tags: corporate culture, culture, HR, salary



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