What Organisational Culture Is
What Is Organisational Culture
The pattern of shared values and beliefs that produce certain norms of behaviour.
For example: how things are done.
- For some, culture is the “glue” that holds an organisation together.
- For others, the “compass”.
It is a system of meaning that members share and that distinguish the organisation from others.
Dominant vs Subcultures
- Dominant culture. Core values shared by the majority of organisation’s members.
- Subcultures. Core values of the dominant culture plus additional values unique to members of a department or geography.
Why Culture Matters
The topic of organisational culture is increasingly understood as a company asset that can be used to increase business performance.
The culture of an organisation greatly influences its countless decisions and actions.
Every school has a culture. The culture shows up in how people greet each other in the corridor, how disagreements are handled, how new staff are welcomed, how parents are treated. A school’s culture is real and powerful, but often invisible to the people inside it.
A working definition
A clear definition of organisational culture: the pattern of shared values and beliefs that produces certain norms of behaviour. In short, “how things are done here.”
Three components.
- Shared values and beliefs. Members of the organisation hold certain things in common.
- Patterns. The values and beliefs are consistent across many situations, not random.
- Norms of behaviour. The values and beliefs produce observable behaviour.
A school’s culture is what its members share that shows up in their behaviour. It is more than individual personalities, more than official policies. It is the collective way of doing things.
Two metaphors
Two useful metaphors for culture: glue and compass.
For some, culture is the “glue” that holds an organisation together.
The glue metaphor. Without culture, the organisation would fragment. The shared values are what hold the parts together as one whole.
For others, culture is the “compass”.
The compass metaphor. Culture points the way. When decisions are unclear, the culture tells members what direction to go.
Both metaphors are useful. A strong culture both holds the school together and guides its members through the daily choices.
A system of meaning
Culture is a system of meaning that members share and that distinguishes the organisation from others.
Two important phrases.
System of meaning
Culture is not random shared values. It is a system: the values fit together, reinforce each other, and produce a coherent way of being.
A school whose values are “academic excellence”, “individual attention”, and “honest relationships” has a culture that hangs together. The values support each other.
A school whose values are “academic excellence” and “we prioritise paperwork” has values in tension. The culture is incoherent, and members feel the incoherence.
Distinguishes from others
A culture marks an organisation as different from others. Two schools with the same building, the same curriculum, and similar staff can have very different cultures. The cultures make them different schools.
This is why parents who visit several schools have a sense of which one “feels right” for their child. They are reading the culture without naming it.
Dominant culture and subcultures
A useful distinction. A dominant culture is the set of core values shared by the majority of an organisation’s members. Subcultures share those core values and add ones that are unique to a department or geographic location.
A larger school has one dominant culture and several subcultures. The dominant culture is what the school as a whole shares. The subcultures are what specific parts of the school have in addition.
A school’s dominant culture
The values most staff share. The way “we do things here” that applies across the school.
For example: “We treat each child as an individual.” “We are honest with parents.” “We support each other in the staffroom.”
Subcultures in a school
Different parts of the school may have additional values.
- Primary section. May have a subculture around warmth and patience.
- Secondary section. May have a subculture around academic rigour.
- Sports department. May have a subculture around discipline and teamwork.
- Admin office. May have a subculture around efficiency and precision.
The subcultures are not in conflict with the dominant culture; they are within it. The whole school shares the dominant values, and each part adds its own.
When subcultures conflict with dominant culture
Subcultures can drift away from the dominant culture. If the primary section develops a subculture that contradicts the school’s dominant values, the school becomes fragmented.
A school head should watch for this drift. Subcultures are fine; subcultures that contradict the dominant culture are a problem.
Why culture matters
Organisational culture is increasingly understood as a real organisational asset that lifts performance.
Culture is not soft. A school with a strong, healthy culture outperforms a school without one, even with similar resources. The culture greatly influences the countless decisions and actions taken across the school every day.
Every day in a school, hundreds of small decisions are made. How to handle a late student. How to respond to a parent’s question. How to give feedback to a colleague. How much effort to put into preparation. Each decision is shaped by the culture. Across thousands of decisions over years, the culture determines what the school is.
A school head who attends to culture deliberately shapes these thousands of decisions. A school head who ignores culture lets them be shaped by whatever cultural drift produces.
Where culture comes from
Three main sources of a school’s culture.
Founding values
A school founded around specific values usually retains those values in some form for decades. The founder’s beliefs become embedded in how the school operates.
A school founded by a passionate educator with a clear philosophy has a different culture from one founded as a business venture. The founding values shape the culture long after the founder is gone.
Leadership behaviour
The current principal’s behaviour shapes culture daily. What she rewards, what she punishes, what she models, what she ignores. All become cultural signals.
A school head who treats teachers with respect in front of students teaches students to respect teachers. A school head who is sarcastic to junior staff teaches sarcasm. The leader’s behaviour ripples.
Staff selection and retention
The people the school hires and keeps shape the culture. A school that hires only obedient teachers gets an obedient culture. A school that hires teachers who push back gets a more engaged culture.
Over time, the cultural fit of new hires reinforces or shifts the culture. A school that hires consistently around its values strengthens them. A school that hires randomly drifts.
How a school head reads her culture
A culture is largely invisible to people inside it. They are too accustomed to it to see it. Three ways to read it.
- Ask outsiders. New staff, new parents, visitors. They notice what insiders take for granted.
- Watch the boundary cases. How does the school handle a difficult situation? The handling reveals the culture more than the routine.
- Listen for the implicit norms. What does everyone seem to know without being told? Those are the cultural norms.
A school head who does these three regularly has a clearer picture of her culture than one who assumes she knows it.
The pattern of shared values and beliefs that produces norms of behaviour.
Two metaphors: culture is the glue that holds the organisation together, and the compass that guides members when decisions are unclear.
Policy is written and explicit; culture is implicit and lived.
- Policy is written; culture is implicit.
- Policy changes by decision; culture changes slowly over years.
- Policy can be ignored or worked around; culture shapes daily decisions whether anyone notices or not.
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