Company culture is the distinctive personality of the organization. It determines how members act, how energetically they contribute to teamwork, problem solving, innovation, customer service, productivity, and quality. It is a company's culture that makes it safe (or not safe) for a person, division or the whole company to raise issues and solve problems, to act on new opportunities, or to move in new, creative directions. A company's culture is often at the root of difficult people-related problems such as motivation, morale, absenteeism, communications, teamwork, retention, injuries, and insurance claims.
We think of culture as a circle. The bottom is the operations half, WHAT we do, the hardware, systems, controls, production, and profits. On the top is the human half—HOW we do operations. This includes communication, trust, relationships, involvement, motivation, morale, and the meanings people give to management's actions. |
