Culture Dictionary

We help companies/people who have high turnover costs and lost productivity opportunities because their team members don’t or won’t go the extra mile.

Corporate culture as a platform for all activities and strategies…

Often we refer to particular terms when talking about workplace culture and below we have summarised a number of key terms to make it easier to understand. So whether you want to know more about discretionary effort, the link between behaviours and beliefs or even the term corporate culture, itself, this page has the answers you are seeking.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Actions:: Technically actions include speech, how we dress, gestures, all ‘body language’- some highly nuanced language to suit a particular audience (say swearing or droppin’ the ‘g’ off words), writing, involuntaryactions (like sweating or blushing which too can be read). All actions have a purpose in human meaning making. We ask ourselves “Why did s/he blush then?” … and we answer ourselves … and often mis-understand.

Ask; Listen; Act; Ask Again:: The Culture Doctor’s major prescription for ailing corporate cultures. Embedded in this minessential four-step prescription are the probiotic processes for a return to good corporate health.

Azande Indian:: Azande reasoning (see rationality) includes the infallibility of a poison oracle as a primordial and incorrigible assumption. The poison oracle consists of administering ritually prepared poison to a chicken and interrogating the poison, or benge, regarding anything the interrogator seeks knowledge about, for example, the future. See also the ancient Greek Oracle of Delphi.

B

Beliefs: (See Values): Beliefs drive action. Understand this simple proposition and you are on the way to understanding the authentic change process.

Behaviours: (See Actions): Organisational behaviours are driven by the beliefs held in common by the people of the organisation. The stock market is a prime example, society wide. Bibow argues that “the notion of speculative bubbles is nowadays so familiar that it has become part of most investors’ taken-for-granted world” (Bibow, Jorg. Uncertainty, conventional behavior, and economic sociology. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, April, 2005.)

The All Ordinaries Index tracks price movements of approximately 500 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). It is the main measure of the Australian share market, comprising industrial and resource stocks.

High: As of 1 November 2007, the All Ords index was at a record 6873.20. Low: As of 22 January 2008, due to turmoil related to the US 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis, the index had fallen 24 percent to 5,222.0 points. Lowest to date: On 6 March 2009, in the wake of a worldwide drop in stock values, the index reached a low of 3,111.7 points, a drop of over 54% from the 1 November 2007 high.

The index in fact is a measure of the collective fears and greed existing at any one time. Society now has this beliefs record right down to every hour for the last 30 years. It has no logic or rationality despite the beliefs of many and their ‘systems’. How can it have logic when it is driven by human beliefs? The Global Financial Crisis paid homage to no system. Fear and its sister Panic know no master.

C

Change:: If nothing changes; nothing changes. Albert Einstein reputedly defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. The dynamics of change are both complex and beguiling. That’s why so many change agendas fail – it’s almost a proverb. Real, lasting and authentic change comes when and only when beliefs change. Beliefs though are deep seated, stoutly defended and highly resistant to change. The Culture Doctor® has a proven methodology for change processes.

Climate:: Because it is based on attitudes, climate can change quickly and dramatically; culture is an enduring, slow to change, core characteristic of organizations. Culture refers to implicit, often indiscernible aspects of organizations; climate refers to more overt, observable attributes of organizations. Culture includes core values and consensual interpretations about how things are; climate includes individualistic perspectives that are modified frequently as situations change and new information is encountered.

Common-sense:: It would be impossible for humans to communicate (make meaning) unless we possessed a common stock-of-knowledge. In fact, humans rely on this so called common sense. We confirm this when we talk of “layperson’s language”.

Community of beliefs:

A good simple definition of a corporate culture. Toxic cultures develop where behaviours and beliefs are badly misaligned.

Culture:Multi-defined with many common-sense understandings (ethnic culture; the Arts; bacteria). In sociology it is the why and the way of an organisation. The why is the invisible part (the values and beliefs) and the way is the visible part of the culture – the observable behaviours. The why drives the way. Why do we behave the way we do around here? The answer to that question takes you to the real values of the organisation, and there lies culture. It’s not the shiny brass plaque at the front door.

D

Discretionary Effort:: Napoleon famously said, “You can’t buy a man’s life, but he’ll give it to you for a medal”. Soaring productivity comes when an enabling culture motivates team members to give this extra effort owned exclusively by that individual – it can’t be bought and is more precious than gold.

Discretion relates to freedom from constraint or impediment to make a free will choice to do something … or NOT.

Effort describes the work undertaken.

So, within an employee – employer contracted relationship there are roles that must be performed to satisfy the two requirements of competence and conduct. These behaviours are codified. There are no discretionary components to this contracted effort.

However, employees control significant resources, notably effort, which an employer has no lawful capacity to command. The effort is owned by the team member and they may choose freely (at their entire discretion) to gift that effort (or other resource) to their employer. It is usual for it to be given in satisfaction of a high priority value of the giver. The purpose is selfish but the benefits are mutual. The Law of Reciprocity holds that in healthy cultures, the gift is reciprocated, in time, ideally in an endless loop- a virtuous cycle. This is the ‘Holy Grail’.

Sociologically, powerful social resources are marshalled in workplaces to enhance or repel discretionary behaviours. It requires gifted, attuned leadership to nurture an enabling culture for discretionary effort to flourish.

E

EBIT:: Earnings (profit) Before Interest and Taxation is the key measure of productivity. EBIT margin is a key rule of thumb ratio achieved by dividing EBIT by sales expressed as a percentage (should be around 5% for high volume businesses and 15% to 20% for high margin businesses). Very healthy organisational cultures produce such results.

F

Fashion: (see stock market).: No rationality drives this human behaviour. Fashion is all about beliefs and identity.

Feel:: Carl W. Buechner is reputed to have claimed that “People will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.” There’s no rationality in this common-sense.

G

GFC:: The Global Financial Crisis of the first decade of the second millennium was driven by a worldwide panic driven by beliefs. If a significant number of Australians believed that the Australian banks were going to collapse, then they would have withdrawn all their cash to hide under the bed or in a tin buried in the back yard. That behaviour would surely have brought about the very collapse that they feared. The Australian Government calmed those fears with actions and words that reassured the population. Fear was controlled and a believable new norm was supplanted. Why then would a company leader continue to base strategy on logic and rationality? Human behaviour is driven by beliefs, not logic or rationallity.

H

High-trust workplace:: The goal of any corporate or organisational cultural intervention by The Culture Doctor®.

Haecceity: (pron. hack-see-tee): The ‘just thisness’ of data.

Harold Garfinkel:: Often referred to as the “father of sociology”

Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory:: To better understand employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg performed studies to determine which factors in an employee’s work environment caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction. He published his findings in the 1959 book The Motivation to Work.

I

I (first person singular pronoun):: There’s no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM’.

J

Jayyusi:: Developed Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) further in her 1984 publication. Key distinction between ‘belief in’ and ‘belief that’. This Jewish academic’s seminal work on Conversational Analysis (CA) amplifies ethnomethodology (EM).

K

Knowledge:: Knowledge is socially determined and culturally valued. The teaching culture values practical knowledge and eschews theoretical (academic) knowledge (See Doyle and Ponder(1977), The Practicality Ethic – Practice counts; theory doesn’t. Why did the Roman Catholic Church lock up Galileo for so long? Why does the Burma military dictatorship keep Aung San Suu Kyi under close house arrest? Why did the Roman Catholic Church in Australia ex-communicate Saint Mary MacKillop? It was about what they knew/know that posed/es the threat to the existing culture or social order.

L

Listen:: One of the most powerful yet misused tools in the leader’s toolkit, and the second step of The Culture Doctor’s prescription for healthy corporate cultures. It’s more that simply hearing. It’s initiated by asking and then paying attention to what’s said – even the unpleasant and unwelcome information.

M

Minessence:: Well worth a visit to this website – http://www.minessence.net/.

N

Norms:: There are none. However, we believe that there are norms so we orient to that belief. Our most gifted and talented thinkers and entrepreneurs understand this and use their counter-intuitive thinking to ask “Why not?”. It’s hard to soar like the eagle if you flock with the turkeys

O

Organisation:: A community of beliefs often led by confused and competing visions and purposes.

P

People and Culture:: This apt new label replaces the so called human resource function in organisations in switched-on modern companies.

Performance and Culture:: The two concepts are inextricably linked. Healthy corporate cultures have aligned team beliefs. When team members have their values met at work large dollops of discretionary effort are released resulting in significant and measurable increases in performance. It has the effect of metaphorical corporate endomorphs.

Productivity:: When leaders get the centrality of their corporate culture as a platform upon which to scaffold strategy, they understand why productivity measures such as profit-to-cash soar.

Psychology (compare with sociology): Study of the workings of the individual mind and includes personality. Discursive Psychology (DP), a newer discipline gets sociology. Has misled organisations for decades with a jaundiced view of how society and organisations really work.

Q

Quiddity:: Ethnomethodological reference to ‘just that-ness’. It was Garfinkel’s (2002) requirement of ethnomethodologists that they pursue the haecceity not the quiddity. This change from researching the ‘just that-ness’ to identifying the ‘just this-ness’ by asking ‘just how’ questions.

R

Rationality:: Most change agendas rely on a rational model for human behaviours. This is the orientation of psychology and explains why so many change strategies fail. Humans orient to beliefs which of themselves do not have to be rational (think of psychosomatic illness eg, pointing the bone practised in traditional Australian Indigenous cultures).

S

S.B.P. Syndrome:: Shiny Brass Plaque Syndrome is the delusional condition suffered by leadership teams and other executives who begin to believe their own propaganda. Hallucinogenic in nature, this syndrome is cured by a regular dose of Ask; Listen; Act; and Ask Again best sourced from their people and teams.

Sociology:: The study of how social (and moral) order is possible. Emile Durkheim, French philosopher was father of the science. Harold Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology (the method of the people) dispenses with rationality in explaining organisational behaviours and places the centrality of beliefs. We orient to our beliefs not rationality.

Staff Turnover:: A very financially draining factor on any business if this gets out of hand. It is a reliable metric for showing a corporate culture under stress. Cognitive dissonance drives staff elsewhere.

Stock Market:: Said to be driven by either fear or greed but in fact its indices represent most detailed metrics on where global beliefs drive action. No rationality here despite claims to systems that predict the path of the indices. Personification language is used by commentators and participants when describing movement of various indices. The indices in fact are lag indicators of the beliefs of the participant buyers and sellers. A great sociological study in itself.

Strategy:: Most important to have strategic plans in place but if they are scaffolded on a poorly aligned culture, then the strategy will fail. Refer ‘West’.

T

Toxic culture:: Every organisation and business has a culture. A toxic culture emerges where leadership lacks intentionality and where values and their beliefs are misaligned and incoherent.

U

Understanding:: All sensory stimulus is filtered by humans through their unique combination of lived culture and social relations to produce a unique reading of what the stimulus means. A message sent by the leader does not equal the same message received by the team member. We are scripted by our past sensations

V

Values:: Hall-Tonna Inventory developed in the ‘80s identified 125 values. Axiologists today (see Minessence) classify 128 values. Values are ideals that give significance to our lives, expressed through priorities…The emphasis on priorities points out that we all function on a number of values. It is the priorities that we live by on a day to day basis that underpin our behaviour. (Prof. Brian Hall)

Virtuous Cycle:: A virtuous circle and a vicious circle (also referred to as virtuous cycle and vicious cycle) are economic terms. They refer to a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favourable results, while a vicious circle has detrimental results.Both circles are complexes of events with no tendency towards equilibrium (at least in the short run). Both systems of events have feedback loops in which each iteration of the cycle reinforces the previous one (positive feedback). These cycles will continue in the direction of their momentum until an external factor intervenes and breaks the cycle. The four stage process of the Cultural Health Check™ creates a virtuous cycle.

W

West:: In a study of over 100 companies over an eight-year period, Professor Mike West demonstrated that organisational strategy accounted for 2 per cent of performance variability, whereas organisational culture accounted for 17 per cent of performance variability. In other words, he found that culture had a greater than 8:1 impact on performance variability over strategy. West, M., The Power of Culture: Driving Today’s Organisations, Management Today, Australian Institute of Management, McGraw-Hill, London, 2004.

X

X-factor:: The release of discretionary effort from an organisation’s team members is the competitive x–factor that aligned values generate. It turns good companies into great companies.

Y

You:: You should become the change you want to see in others. To change your behaviours, change yourbeliefs. We have a powerful on-line tool that will help you discover your driving values.

Z

Zing:: This is the fresh energy that The Culture Doctor injects into your organisational culture to enable your team to transform productivity.