Leaders are the custodians of organisational culture, but every employee is accountable for it. Leaders need to be behavioural champions, but you need to create a workplace environment that enables all employees to champion these positive behaviours. “This is why you should adopt workplace culture by design,” Hani says. “If you don’t actively set the behavioural standards for your organisation, you tend to end up with negative behaviours, which can harm your workplace environment. With a clear plan, you can build a culture that matches your goals and ensure success.”


KEY METRICS IN CULTURAL ANALYTICS – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MEASURE CULTURE? Analytics help you create value through using behavioural science to understand your culture and your people, he says. “You get to know why events have happened in behavioural terms and you get an understanding of why organisational frameworks or values are being lived or not and where,” he says. You can then work out how to drive change and


make improvements, what outcomes will be impacted by these changes and by how much, what your return on investment (ROI) will be and how to construct an optimal roadmap to drive behavioural change. The real differences cultural analytics can deliver are


foresight and a deep understanding of how difficulties might appear in the future, he says. “You can apply that lens across the whole organisation to discover where future issues may arise, helping you drive behavioural change before undesirable outcomes or events happen. In other words, it helps you measure and deliver actionable behavioural insights effectively and efficiently.”


REWARDING THE WRONG BEHAVIOUR CREATES NEGATIVE OUTCOMES In his case study of a start-up tech company, the road map to a thriving team included an effective work-life balance, accountability, psychological safety, recognition of performance and good quality coaching, all of which enhanced the effectiveness of the business. It is important to see where you might be rewarding


behaviours that are harming the company. For example, in some organisations, you are 14 times more likely to be classed a high-performer if you are self-focused rather than prioritising team and group efforts, but these self- focused behaviours may actively work against some of the results you are looking to achieve. “When a company is able to define and measure


its culture it gains real-time information into what is working and what is not across the whole of the organisation,” he says. By using these insights, leaders and managers can create robust business strategies, which can drive a culture of innovation, ensure protocols and safety procedures are followed and reinforce good governance. In turn, this should help protect an organisation


against the kind of reputational damage that happened as a result of shortcuts at Boeing and VW and the financial mismanagement and lack of governance that ultimately led to the collapse of Enron.


REDUCING RISK & INCREASING FORESIGHT THROUGH CULTURAL ANALYTICS The ultimate goal of cultural analytics is to move from relying on engagement scores or retention rates, which only reveal issues after they have occurred, to a more proactive approach that uses leading indicators to provide insights into potential risks and opportunities and to drive forward actions that will bring positive outcomes. Hani explained that in many traditional workplace


frameworks, culture is measured by employee engagement scores or exit interview feedback, both of which are retrospective. Cultural analytics instead emphasises forward-looking metrics to understand not only the current state of culture, but also to predict future outcomes. “Four behaviours are a predictor of working


effectively,” he says. “Where those four behaviours are present we are almost ten times more likely to work effectively. We are far less likely to be effective in the work we do in the absence of those behaviours. So these metrics become easy to explain to people.” The four behaviours of a successful workplace are:


1. accountability 2. psychological safety 3. recognition for work and effort 4. good quality and effective coaching.


Closing the presentation, Hani quoted Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, the US technology giant, on the importance of culture. “Culture is not just one aspect of the game. It is the game. In the end, an organisation is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” “It is so critical to understand this,” said Hani. “You


can drive skill, you can drive knowledge, but really it is the culture that becomes the enabler.”


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Understanding Culture: why is it important?


Global mobility requires individuals and their families to operate successfully in different cultural environments.


Changes in societal and organisational cultures require adjustment for successful assignment outcomes.


THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND CULTURE Culture comprises basic assumptions, values, behaviours, and artefacts which together determine how people respond to their environment. Culture also determines how groups manage themselves and cope with change. Countries all have different cultural


norms which impact on everyday life and in the workplace. Societal cultures influence working practices such as leadership style, performance management, working time, work-life


CULTURE SHOCK Moving to a new culture can result in culture shock. This affects employees’ and their families’ ability to function effectively. Heightened excitement, despondency and depression are all symptoms that people experience before achieving cultural adjustment. Culture shock seriously affects


wellbeing, productivity and morale. It can damage engagement and motivation and result in early return or resignation. The effects of culture shock can reduced and organisational


be employee/family improved through appropriate


outcomes can be culture


shock awareness training. In addition, international relocation


Organisational cultures


All organisations have their own unique qualities that distinguish them from others. Organisational culture represents a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by its members. These provide the code by which each organisational community achieves its objectives. and


policy should provide societal cultural awareness training and language training as these help employees and their families to settle in. These forms of training also aid wellbeing by reducing stress and can improve employee productivity through speeding up the adjustment period.


balance and wellbeing, and


reward management. Organisations and professional groups also exhibit cultural distinctiveness. Mergers, acquisitions and joint


ventures in an international context involve bringing together different societal, organisational and professional cultures. This can lead to misunderstandings and poor operational outcomes unless cultural understanding, good communication and tolerance are in place. Employees will need to adjust to


changes in how things are done at work, within professional groups and in their everyday lives in their new society. Accompanying partners and children will also need to adapt. Children will need to adjust to different educational cultures in their new schools. Transition support is crucial for success.


THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Culture dictates how those in the organisation should behave in a given set of circumstances. It affects everyone from senior leadership to those lower in the hierarchy. Culture resides in shared behaviours, values and assumptions. It is implicit, persuasive and enduring. It legitimises certain forms of action and negates others. While all organisations necessarily have


PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Employees are expected to realise business objectives speedily. However, performance management processes should recognise the time needed for cultural adjustment because during this period employees will not achieve full productivity. Performance appraisal should be tailored to the prevailing societal and organisational cultures.


REPATRIATION Returning home after an international assignment can lead to reverse culture shock as assignees and their families experience cultural disorientation. This can lead to workplace dissatisfaction and high turnover. This results in a significant loss on investment to organisations.


rules relating to standards of behaviour, how things are done, responsibility for expenditure, and so on, it is the culture that determines how these are applied.


Some organisational cultural attributes Preparation and training


repatriation should address organisational and societal cultural changes. These can help to improve


psychological effects of leaving the host location and reintegrating into the home country also need to be addressed.


are drawn from the society in which the entity is based and/or headquartered, others from the industry sector, and some from the types of professionals employed. The combination of attributes is unique which is why every organisation possesses its own specialness. In a global


for retention. The context,


LOCALISATION Cultural differences need to be addressed for those settling permanently either as a result of a one-way transfer or if they remain in the host location after their assignment has been completed. Employees and their families will need to fully embrace their new ‘home’ country while maintaining a global mind-set to recognise the potential for future moves.


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mergers,


acquisitions and joint ventures bring together different societal, organisational and professional cultures. Without cultural understanding, good communication and tolerance, there can be misunderstandings and poor business outcomes.


MEASURING CULTURE Organisational culture can be measured using a number of dimensions. These include: mission (a clearly articulated strategy and key performance indicators); values consistency (whether values articulated are adhered to); adaptability (focus on learning from competitors and being open to change); and employee involvement (empowering and developing employees/teams). Organisational culture checklists can


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be completed to provide an overview of an organisation’s unique cultural attributes.


STRONG VERSUS WEAK CULTURES Organisations tend to have strong cultures when members have worked together for a long time and have faced and overcome a number of threats successfully. Strong cultures can serve as both enabler and barrier to organisational change. Research has indicated that a strong


culture that aligns members’ behaviour with organisational objectives boosts financial performance. Notwithstanding this, strong cultures are thought to be less effective in dynamic environments if they promote adherence to routines and


behavioural uniformity. However, firms with higher levels of consensus across many norms, as well as an intensive emphasis on adaptability that may promote conformity without the inertial effects of uniformity, perform better financially in volatile periods. Hence, whether cultural strength is an advantage or disadvantage depends on both strength and content of culture.


MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE The extent to which culture can be actively managed is contested. One way to bring about alignment between the existing and the desired culture is by adopting a “consistent cues approach”. This involves organisational leaders exercising their power to influence culture through symbolism. How leaders use language, time, encourage employees to think and act in particular ways, and the sensitivity they exhibit in their communications must demonstrate consistency with the organisational values that they espouse. Senior leaders need to “walk the talk”. Consistent cues can be bolstered


by Human Resources policies and procedures. How recruitment, induction, socialisation, training, performance management and reward are conducted can act as cultural levers to drive forward desired organisational change.


Podcast


series


“Managing across cultures.”


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CULTURE


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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP MINI FACTSHEET: WORKING ACROSS CULTURES


Societal cultures


Cultures affect ways of living, including values, beliefs, linguistic expression, behavioural norms and styles of communication.


Culture determines how societal groups manage themselves and deal with change. Understanding societal culture is critical to successful international leadership.


DEFINING CULTURE Culture has been described as mental programming; this means that we learn our culture from a young age. Culture refers to how a society or group goes about


solving problems in its own


particular environment. Culture comprises several layers. At


its core are the basic assumptions which each society takes for granted. These are invisible but they drive societal values and what are considered as acceptable behaviours. Rituals and ceremonies, societal


role models and heroes, and


visible artefacts or symbols (such as style of dress, food and architecture) represent culture at a surface level.


SOCIETAL VERSUS COUNTRY CULTURES Culture is usually associated with a


country but societal


sub-cultures. Nonetheless, has tended to


cultures can


transcend country borders. Each country/region


can have regional research


focus at country level


and attempted to measure cultural dimensions based around differences at the basic assumptions layer. Societal cultural norms affect


everyday life and flow across into the workplace. They influence leadership and communications styles, team functioning, performance management, time management, hours of work and work-life balance, and reward systems.


MEASURING CULTURAL DIMENSIONS Research has attempted


to measure


societal cultural differences, primarily by using survey instruments to attach scores to specific cultural dimensions, and thereby draw distinctions between different countries’ cultural values. The work of Geert Hofstede, and Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden- Turner are particularly well known as cultural theorists. Cultural


dimensions address such


differences as: the distribution and acceptance


emphasis placed on individualism versus a collective


of power relationships; the group/team approach;


acceptance of ambiguity versus tolerance of uncertainty; an emphasis on long- term versus short-term time orientation; a preference for reliance on relationships rather than upon written rules and contracts; status being ascribed or achieved; the separation of work and personal lives versus these being closely inter-linked; and a preference for pursuit of quality of life rather than financial success.


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CULTURAL INFLUENCES IN THE WORKPLACE Cultural theory predicts that different approaches will need to be adopted in leadership styles, negotiations and working practices. For example, in a society than values high power distance, leadership styles will work best if they are top-down, operate through a hierarchy and are authoritarian. In a low power distance society, a more participative and democratic approach will be effective. When emphasis is placed on relationships rather than written contracts, time must be spent to cultivate relationships if negotiations are to succeed. In individualist societies, performance management and reward structures will be based around individual contributions. In a collective culture, team work and rewards linked to group efforts are likely to be effective. Where quality of life is valued over material success, work-life balance is likely to be sought ahead of monetary incentives. With every country having different scores attached to


each cultural


dimension, and no two countries being exactly alike, using cultural dimensions to predict the best course of action is difficult. Cross-cultural training is critical to global leadership.


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