Organisational culture is largely defined as the way people behave in the workplace both towards each other and towards their tasks.  It is the set of unwritten rules that govern people's behaviour and which may even contradict any official or written rules.  It is not what people say they do or what the organisation says they do - it is what they actually do, day to day. 

Reinforcing the Culture

When a newcomer arrives in the organisation they are at sea for a little while until they learn what they have to do to fit in around here.  If that includes: challenging their boss if they think he's wrong; whingeing in the corridors about 'management', offering suggestions as to a more efficient way of carrying out a process; keeping their head down to avoid being the one to be blamed for a mistake; pointing out when others make a mistake or even encouraging others when they are going through a period of uncertainty - he or she will quickly learn to do these things too.

Task Versus People

Organisational activity can broadly be divided into two categories - task-focused and people-focused.  Because, of course the task is paramount to the operation of the business and the revenue depends upon it being done well, many organisations tend to keep their eye on this aspect and more or less ignore the people focus. 

Many organisations tend to hold the corporate belief (which is in itself an aspect of the unwritten rules) that what you can see and measure actually exists and what you can't see and are unable to measure doesn't exist.  This leads them to assume that all the subtle people-related facets of operating the business don't exist because on the whole these facets tend to be very difficult to measure and somewhat tricky even to observe in action.  These are things like:

§         peoples' attitudes

§         what they are feeling

§         the dynamics of relationships that play themselves out on a daily basis

§         what people are afraid of or motivated by

§         the degree to which people feel valued

§         the extent to which their personal values sit comfortably with the business and the organisation’s values 

People-Issues and Productivity 

There are a myriad of other examples of the way in which these so-called 'soft issues' present themselves within organisations. Extensive research over the last couple of decades is indicating that these elements have an immense impact on the quality of the task which the organisation delivers and that to ignore them is indeed corporate folly.   When these 'people issues' are given inadequate attention it affects the way people go about their jobs and organisational performance and productivity are the prime casualties.