It is no secret that the workplace is changing. Since COVID and with advances in technology, more and more people are working remotely or in a hybrid arrangement. As this huge work place change evolves, we are seeing a lot of discussion about the impact of this on employees including the benefits of reduced commuting, less office politics, and increased flexibility offset by the risk of employee isolation. There is also a lot of discussion about management concerns as to whether employees are less productive, or more productive, at home. As an example, we recently heard icon Elon Musk tell Tesla employees that they can come back on site or pretend to work somewhere else. What is not having enough discussion is the impact that remote or hybrid work will have on the culture of organizations.
Decades of management research indicate that culture is critically important. Over time, culture and culture management have been often talked about. College professors at business schools have historically been telling students that corporate culture can be a source of competitive advantage or reason for an organization’s down fall. C suites have had many discussions and even off-site retreats to plan and manage their culture. The importance of culture is probably best summed up by what management guru, Peter Drucker famously stated:
Most leaders agree that the corporate culture is vital for enduring success although, when asked to describe what culture is, it gets very muddy and varied. The American Heritage Dictionary defines culture as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions and all other products of human work and thought that characterize a community or population.” In the book Corporate Culture and Performance, John Kotter and James Hesket define corporate culture as the shared values and behaviors that tend to persist over time, even when the people within the organization change.
This concept that culture sustains behaviors over time is profound. Corporate culture and the systems that it produces will guide the actions of individuals and are more enduring than the personality or charisma of the individuals within the organization. A culture develops character, norms and rules that actually transcend any of the leaders who originally contributed to its creation. When thinking about the influence of a company’s culture, author of Coaching with Backbone and Heart, Mary Beth O’Neil had a good metaphor of a spider web...
Similarly, the culture web within an organization holds everything together as an invisible hand. Just like the spider web, a strong corporate culture will help an organization survive adversity.
In their research for Built to Last, Collins and Porras see a common strength to cultures of the best companies that they describe as “cult like”. This isn’t a scary crazy cult like blind following but rather an indication of the strong identification that goes along with being a member of some of the strongest corporate cultures. Employees don’t just think of themselves as working at a company, they connect working with the organization with their personal and even family identity. The research from Corporate Culture and Performance is that cultures need to foster leaders that manage to satisfy the legitimate interest of all stake holders including owners, employees and customers. Cotter and Hesket point out that one of the most essential elements of culture is that it is aligned with the company’s competitive strategy and also its values. If this alignment is in place, then the culture is a huge competitive asset for the organization.
Of course, cultures within an organization can be good or bad. Cultures create the environment that dictates the kind of worker that thrives and stays. The culture creates the base that all decisions are made and guides the corporate behavior when no one is watching. It is bigger than one charismatic leader and ridiculously tough to change, whether it is for the good or bad.
With corporate culture being critically important to a company’s ongoing success, it is surprising that the impact of remote and hybrid work plans on culture is not being discussed more. How do companies maintain the essential elements of their culture and identity when they have historically depended on onsite immersion to convert new employees to the cultural norms?
01Recognize that culture management deserves as much discussion as whether employees are happy or productive in their tasks. Managing culture may be the difference between ongoing success or failure which will make these other discussion mute.
02Get very explicit in documenting mission, vision values, and key elements that describe the culture. While research indicates that companies that are successful over decades are more likely to have written mission and value statements, this hasn’t always the case. Many successful companies have been successful without written definition of their culture. This was true at my previous employer, the Acushnet Company. For decades, Titleist balls have been on top of the leader board all though there was not a lot of emphasis on the written expression of the Acushnet culture. New employees quickly were assimilated, and influence by pure strength of the culture. By coming on site, they saw it and they lived it. With such a strong culture, the signals and norms are communicated intuitively. However, with the post COVID-19 economy utilizing more remote or hybrid workforce strategies, this has changed. It is not easy to have that same confidence that new employees will get this same indoctrination to a company’s culture. Companies now have to be very deliberate to detail the mission, vision and values in their culture along with many relatable examples and spend intentional time to make sure the culture is understood. This culture management need will be a key issue for leaders going forward at companies like Acushnet where culture has been such an important contributor to their success.
03Expect sub teams/departments to further detail culture. Although a lot of CEOs don’t want to believe it, all large organizations have sub cultures. Manufacturing may have a different culture than the sales organization. Hopefully both of these cultures are aligned with the larger corporate culture. Leaders at every level need to consider their culture and do the same rigor of detailing and describing it. Top leaders need to set this process in place.
04Make it a priority to communicate and re-enforce the culture elements on an ongoing basis. Companies can use electronic town halls but leaders also need to do more. Leaders need to establish feedback loops to make discussion on culture interactive. Open agenda electronic water cooler meetings with can be used. In the best companies, culture sustaining activities top staff meeting agendas. Leaders who in the past would interact with employees in the normal course of business now need to make it a point to have virtual touch base meetings at various levels of their organization. Examples and heroes of the desired culture norms need to be shared broadly.
05Quickly rework orientation, onboarding and initial training plans to ensure that the elements of culture and expected behaviors and norms are clearly communicated and re-enforced. Talent development teams need to be creative to make this not just a one-way communication but provide an opportunity for new team members to demonstrate alignment with the culture. I recently saw a company that made an electronic jeopardy game associated with the culture that new team members played just re-enforcing the values and mission of the organization.
My personal opinion is that it will be very difficult for companies with strong cultures to sustain this over time in fully remote work situations. However, this should be very achievable in hybrid worlds. If you’re a leader in an organization that is going forward with a full return to office, you will need to be able to articulate why the need to sustain corporate culture for ensuring the ongoing viability of the organization eats the all those other concerns for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Whatever work plan is chosen, the key is to put your culture on top of the agenda and make your management of it a conscious effort.
What do you think? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.