Corporate culture refers to the
character of a company's internal
work climate and personality
—as shaped by its core
values, beliefs, business principles,
traditions, ingrained behaviors,
and style of operating.
Because culturally approved
behavior thrives and culturally
disapproved behavior gets
squashed, company managers
are well-advised to spend time
creating a culture that supports
and encourages the behaviors
conducive to good strategy
execution.
In a strong-culture company,
values and behavioral norms
are like crabgrass: deeply
rooted and hard to weed out.
In adaptive cultures, there's a
spirit of doing what's necessary
to ensure long-term organizational
success provided the
new behaviors and operating
practices that management is
calling for are seen as legitimate
and consistent with the
core values and business principles
underpinning the culture.
A good case can be made that
a strongly planted, adaptive
culture is the best of all corporate
cultures.
Once a culture is established, it
is difficult to change.
A company's values statement
and code of ethics communicate
expectations of how employees
should conduct
themselves in the workplace.
Management by walking
around (MBWA) is one of the
techniques that effective leaders
use to stay informed about
how well the strategy execution
process is progressing.
Companies with socially conscious
strategy leaders and a
core value of corporate social
responsibility move beyond the
rhetorical flourishes of corporate
citizenship and enlist the
full support of company personnel
behind social responsibility
initiatives.
