Effective ways of managing
organizational culture

What is OB ?
• Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and
application of knowledge about how people, individuals,
and groups act in organizations. It does this by
taking a system approach. That is, it interprets
people-organization relationships in terms of the whole
person, whole group, whole organization, and whole
social system.
• This area of study examines human behavior in a
work environment and determines its impact on job
structure, performance, communication, motivation,
leadership, etc. Internal and external perspectives are
two theories of how organizational behavior can be
viewed by organization

What is organizational culture ?
• Organizational culture is a system of shared
assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how
people behave in organizations.
• These shared values have a strong influence on the
people in the organization and dictate how they dress,
act, and perform their jobs.
• Every organization develops and maintains a unique
culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for
the behavior of the members of the organization.

Characteristics of organizational
culture
• Organizational culture is composed of seven
characteristics that range in priority from high to low.
1. Innovation (Risk Orientation)
2. Attention to Detail (Precision Orientation)
3. Emphasis on Outcome (Achievement Orientation)
4. Emphasis on People (Fairness Orientation)
5. Teamwork (Collaboration Orientation)
6. Aggressiveness (Competitive orientation)
7. Stability (Rule orientation)

How do you manage culture ?
• There are plenty of frameworks for managing strategy,
talent, leadership, or performance, but not culture.
• Culture has been this elusive, mysterious subject.
There are numerous surveys and models but most
culture management guidelines resort to over-simplified
tips, keys or other suggestions.
 Focus on a critical few behaviors with the most
cultural impact.
 Expand change capabilities beyond leadership and
communication alignment.
 Activate informal levers, such as peer networks and
storytelling.

Effective ways of organizational
culture
• There are almost as many ways to develop an
effective organizational culture as there are companies
that have them.
• For organization the key to building an effective
culture began with an understanding of the people
with whom they work.
1. Consistent communication
2. Celebrate success
3. Be transparent
4. Respect everyone's contribution
5. Continually benchmark your performance

Consistent communication
• The cultural principles of the organization must be
communicated consistently by the leadership and
demonstrated every day.
• Organization should know that nothing would bring
greater discredit to our culture than leaders who said
they subscribed to the culture but behaved another
way.
• Internal newsletters, business planning processes and
company awards all needed to be structured around
the principles organization held.

Celebrate success
• The key to maintaining cultural momentum has been
providing all employees with a line of sight on every
success the organization achieves.
• Success needs to be celebrated throughout the
organization, and the teams primarily responsible
should be lauded across the company.
• A leader must have the good sense to make these
successes about his people, not himself.
• Celebrating success drives the esprit de corps and
a pride that enhances the quality of the work a
company does.

Be transparent
• Organization's need to be transparent in their
strategic planning and how they treat their employees.
• The more a organization shares information, the more
employees feel like a team and have a shared
responsibility over the success of the organization.
• This transparency should even extend to lessons
about the failures that occur – because failure can be
our best teacher, provided people learn from those
mistakes.
• You should talk about them and not cover them up.

Respect everyone's contribution
• You need to be able to listen to your people, and
accept their feedback and criticism.
• A good organization also invests in the training and
welfare of its staff and trusts what employees have
to say.
• This rule of thumb must cascade from the most
senior levels of the organization right down to the
company mailroom.
• Everyone needs to feel that their contribution is
respected in a meaningful way.

Continually benchmark your
performance
• Being a great place to work doesn't happen overnight
– its a process of continual improvement, where each
year you try to do a better job of employee
satisfaction and retention.
• There are a variety of benchmarking metrics you can
use and you must survey your organization annually –
in good times and bad – to get honest feedback.
• Then you need to have a transparent discussion
about the findings and put a plan in place to make
improvements for all to see.