Tapping the best that is within: Why corporate culture matters.

• Author: Schulz, Justin W.

What is this fuzzy thing called "corporate culture"? It is the stuff that breathes life into organizations. Tackling the psychological life of a company is often dismissed as "soft" or "touchy feely." While it may be dismissed as soft, it is actually the hardest part of managing any enterprise. And the evidence for devoting as much attention to the soft, human side of business as well as to the technical and financial challenges is just too compelling. What difference does it make? Companies that know how to develop their cultures effectively enjoy significant advantages in both the productivity of their organizations and the quality of work life for employees.

Anyone who has traveled to another country is aware that "culture" is real. All social organizations that have been around for any length of time develop cultures. Not only does this include the obvious groups, such as countries and tribes, but it also includes smaller social organizations, such as companies and cooperatives. Culture is important because it provides continuity, structure, common meaning, and order. Culture makes it possible for people to know just how to act to support the organization or group they are in. These social actions -- "the way we do things around here" -- develop into patterns that become stable. When dysfunctional, these patterns may seem like bad habits, which prove to be annoying, but somehow seem to flourish even though we do not like them. When positive and effective, these patterns make the organization function better.

Biology Replaces Mechanics

For over a century the machine has been used as the model for organizations. The best organization runs like a well-oiled machine. But organizations are biological in nature, not mechanical. The root for the word "organization" is "organism," not "machine." Organizations are comp1ex ecosystems that have life within them, not Erector Set constructions.

While machines are inanimate requiring external agents to turn them on, biological systems are alive and purposeful. Animals have drives primal biological forces from within that direct their behavior. Higher-order biological systems, like humans, not only have drives, they have motivations--psychological needs that define who we are. Likewise, organizations are driven by internal psychological forces that define their "character" and affect the way they relate to the world.

All companies have cultures. However, most end up with their culture by default, not by design. In over two decades of consulting to organizations, from small non-profit agencies to global information technology businesses, I have found that few organizations pay real attention to the very thing that makes them who they are: their culture. Culture is to organizations what personality is to individuals; it defines who we are. The hallmark of a person with a well-developed personality is maturity. To achieve maturity as individuals requires that we be...