ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Interview with Dr Naomi Stanford (PhD, Warwick Business School, 1998-2002)

'Organisational culture' is a common phrase in business, but it is difficult to define exactly what it refers to. In her new book, Naomi Stanford explores what organisational culture means, and how it impacts on a company's performance and productivity. She argues that when companies strive to initiate a 'culture change', they fail to recognise that culture is naturally changing all the time; it is better to have a "conscious, dynamic and positive attitude to change in general".

“You can try to foster a particular organisational culture in a conscious way,” explains Naomi Stanford, author of Organisational Culture. “But it doesn’t always work out the way you intend. It is similar to when people go and have plastic surgery in order to improve their looks. It doesn’t always work, it’s a calculated risk."

There are, of course, processes which can be followed in order to minimise the risk of an adverse result. Naomi has developed her own method to get an impression of a particular company’s culture: “I make sure that I speak to a number of people from within the organisation who are working at different levels. I then look at what articles and research papers have said about the organisation and the way it operates. I talk to other stakeholders like the consumers and from these reports and conversations get a high level picture. I follow this with more detailed assessments so finally I end up with a layered view of the organisation’s culture. It’s somewhat analogous to identifying a climate zone, and finding within it the geographic variations, and within each geography the local weather conditions on a day to day basis. Organisationally there is high level common culture. This reflects somewhat differently within business units and differently again in day to day team or individual interactions. As with a weather forecast, you can predict how often managers talk to their workers in a day within a range, just like you can predict the likelihood of rain." Once she understands a company’s culture she can work with people in the company to help them clarify their ‘culture goals' and identify what are the potential drivers and barriers to achieving those goals.

As with a weather forecast, you can predict how often managers talk to their workers in a day within a range, just like you can predict the likelihood of rain.

Naomi has spent the last twenty years doing research into how an organisation’s culture impacts on performance and productivity. She studied for a PhD at the University of Warwick. Her thesis explored the factors that made executives joining an organisation successful or unsuccessful in their new role. She looked at British Airways as a case study because they were having trouble retaining senior personnel. She now lives in Washington DC, working on a range of consultancy work while continuing to engage with the theory by teaching on MBA and PHD programs. Her recent book deals with the question of what exactly is meant by the term ‘organisational culture’: “It’s a nebulous concept that people think they can measure, manage or change, but it’s not that simple. Going back to the climate and weather analogy, people experience weather but it’s difficult to change it."

Naomi first became interested in the subject when she was working as a trainer on a programme encouraging industry insiders to go into teaching: “So many of the participants just could not get used to the culture of educational institutions - the bureaucracy, the administration, the staff room. I went on to work in business and as soon as I walked into the office on my first day I finally realised the cultural differences; in business things were set up to facilitate the work - the lift operated, the photocopier was full of paper, life was suddenly easier, at least in some dimensions."

The office environment is one of many factors influencing the culture. Performance measures are another: “A company might say that they want a culture of teamwork but when you ask how they measure performance you find out it's based on cut-throat competition between individual staff." Naomi finds that, in general, flat participative organisational structures facilitate ‘healthier’ cultures than hierarchies with high levels of command and control but this itself is dependent on the business model and the organisational type. Gore is an example of a high performing but flat, participative organization where workforce members have a high degree of decision making automony within their teams. On the other hand the Royal Marines have a more hierarchical structure but still with a strong emphasis on team performance. Each of these two organisations has a high performing culture appropriate to its operating principles.

I anticipate that the emerging markets of China, Brazil, India and Africa’s nations will have a surprising effect on organisations as we know them in mature markets.

Many companies look at trying to adopt the cultural attributes they see in high performing organisations. Sometimes they attempt a complete ‘culture change’, and often this occurs when a new CEO arrives. This presumes that the culture is not changing, when in fact it is, all the time, regardless of any conscious attempts to change it. A desire to make radical cultural changes may be right but Naomi rallies against using this term to announce a ‘programme’ of cultural change. "A more successful approach is to identify the internal and external changes that are already moving the culture in the desired direction and use these as shapers and accelerators. It is far better to have a conscious, dynamic and positive attitude to ‘change’ in general as opposed to thinking about change as a particular process an organisation may or may not go through at specific time points."

Some examples of ongoing external changes that have an impact on organisational culture include those caused by the advances in various information technologies: “Previously there would have been whole departments dedicated to software but with the advent of cloud computing those could all now fade away." But there are yet bigger changes on the horizon: “I anticipate that the emerging markets of China, Brazil, India and Africa’s nations will have a surprising effect on organisations as we know them in mature markets. Emerging market business models tend to be different from mature market organizations and it is likely that at a meta level ‘business culture’ as we know it will change significantly as emerging market organisations make their mark."

Dr Naomi Stanford is an expert organization design, change management, and human capital consultant with twenty years experience working with clients in the private, government, and non-profit sectors in the US and Europe. Dr Stanford likes to undermine silo thinking, creating an adaptive mindset, and opening organisations to the possibilities of collaboration, change, and innovation that are required to play a significant role in stimulating recovery. She has a PhD (focused on growing leadership capability) and two Master's degrees. Additionally she is a Certified Management Consultant and a licensed corporate Wellcoach. She is the author of two books on organization design: Guide to Organization Design and Organization Design, The Collaborative Approach The Collaborative Approach, and The Economist Guide to Organization Design. She has written many articles on aspects of organization design and development and has frequently spoken on the topics at conferences. Dr Stanford can be contacted by email naomi at stanford dot cc, or through her website www.naomistanford.com.