4 Organisational culture

One of the most crucial parts of starting a new role, whether in a hybrid workplace or not, involves understanding exactly what is expected of you. Organisational culture can be defined as the way work is performed in an organisation (Atkinson, 1990). Culture can be seen as embodying the values of an organisation, particularly in the way it operates (Johnson, 2013). These definitions illustrate just how important culture can be to the underlying workings of a company, and therefore it is important to have a clear understanding of your organisation’s culture.

Johnson and Scholes’ (1992) Cultural Web Theory suggests that there are six interrelated factors which, when combined, produce the cultural paradigm of an organisation:

Maximise

Figure 4: The cultural web, adapted from Johnson, 1992 (MindTools, 2018)

Show description|Hide description

Figure depicts the cultural web of an organisation, showing seven interlocking circles. In the centre is The Paradigm, surrounded by the following six interlinked circles: Symbols; Power structures; Organisational structures; Control systems; Rituals and routines; and Stories.

Figure 4: The cultural web, adapted from Johnson, 1992 (MindTools, 2018)

Whilst this is a fairly academic approach, it obviously has a number of practical implications, and using the Cultural Web as an example, it could perhaps be beneficial to try to and analyse the different aspects of your organisation during the early months of your employment:

• What are the common rituals and routines which need to be observed? (daily video calls, weekly team meetings, etc.)

• What are the power structures and where do you fit in? (managers, who you report to, the levels of delegation to each role, etc.)

• What are the stories or values of the organisation and how can you make sure you are navigating these ‘unwritten’ rules?

At iungo Solutions, Jessica Leigh Jones MBE talks about the pivot towards ‘intrapreneurship’ in a hybrid world. In the next video Jessica and Ploy explain how they are trying to increase the diversity of the talent pool and harness different perspectives to take the company to the next level.

Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_8_2022_sep107_helping_people_grow_compressed.mp4

Show transcript | Hide transcript

Transcript

JESSICA LEIGH JONES:

As employers, we can build more inclusive workplaces by firstly adopting a triple-A approach to recruitment and provision of opportunities. So triple-A is attitude first, then aptitude, and then ambition. So what that means is, rather than thinking about qualifications, previous experience, we're thinking about the potential that individuals have to offer our organisation. And we're thinking about where those individuals could grow in the future, and the value that they could add once we've made an investment in them, be that through L&D, or intrapreneurship, or other mechanisms. We may have hired somebody into an administration role who happens to know a lot about social media, for example. So how can we migrate those into those roles?

PORNNARAI NILDUANG:

The upside of working for a company who is at the forefront of hybrid working, and flexible working, and Workplace 4.0 is that we utilise everyone's skills, whether it be within their job description or not. So we don't want to confide anyone to just their role. If they want to work in a project that's outside of their department, and we know that they've got the skill sets for that, even if they don't, we welcome them to try new skills and develop their existing ones. So I think that's, I think more companies are doing that, trusting their employees’ initiatives, and rolling with it, and seeing how it goes.

JESSICA LEIGH JONES:

So this framework really helps employers to take that broader, longer-term, holistic view as to how they develop their workforce to get the best. Organisations need to pivot their business models and create new strategies in order to take them forward in a new era. And this is really where intrapreneurship comes in.

So is intrapreneurship is less of a formal L&D intervention and more about harnessing the unique experiences, qualities, and attributes of a socially diverse workforce to help them kind of take the organisation to the next level. So it's very much about innovation. And I think lots of people think that you have to be an entrepreneur, you have to set up your own business in order to be entrepreneurial. But actually, these are the exact kind of qualities that socially diverse people can bring to our companies to help us make the boat go faster.

Intrapreneurship is a mindset that we can adopt at all levels of the business, but particularly for those individuals who may be underemployed, it's a really good opportunity to elevate their profile, to sponsor them to work on a new initiative, and to really help build their confidence and their social mobility and progression within the organisation.

So we've developed a framework within the report that helps employers to think holistically about how they recruit, reward, and retain socially diverse talent within their organisations. So thinking about what the key business needs are, thinking about those skills deficits, looking at where potentially we can pull skills from different areas of the business that we may not have thought of.

So first and foremost, I would say adopt a triple-A approach. Secondly, to build an inclusive workplace, we really need to create a culture of understanding. So we need to understand the social diversity of our workforce, and then be able to identify and develop mechanisms for addressing specific barriers so that we are levelling the playing field and giving everybody an opportunity to bring their best to work.

End transcript

Download

 

Your success in any role depends on your ability to understand the expectations of your organisation and integrate your authentic self with the organisational culture. There has been an increase, in recent years, in organisations making diversity and inclusion a priority, to nurture employee creativity and autonomy in how work gets done, so you're aiming for a mutually beneficial integration between what you have to offer and what the organisational culture has to offer you, rather than just assimilation. If you can do this, it will make your working experience much smoother, and can help you quickly fit into your new role.