Increase Organizational Performance: Over-haul Your Organization’s Culture
We’ve all faced it: dysfunctional organizational cultures. Cultures that hinder meeting organizational objectives, or worse, actively work against their achievement. Ensuring that your culture is healthy and aligned with organizational objectives are key leadership responsibilities. But changing an organization’s culture can be a daunting task: deciding where to go, where to start, and what to do. There are few easy answers. In this article I explore the elements of organizational culture and share the traps, tips, and strategies of fellow hoteliers.
What is Culture?
Culture is the expression of an organization’s values, beliefs, and norms as manifested through behaviours and attitudes. It’s how a group of people solve their everyday work problems and subsequently how new members are taught to act. For example, let’s say offering new ideas is actively discouraged by management, not only will current members not offer ideas but new members will quickly learn to keep their mouths shut.
In their book Exploring Corporate Strategy, Johnson and Scholes identify six elements that combine to form a cultural web. These are: stories, rituals and routines, symbols, organizational structure, control systems, and power structures. These elements combine to create organizational culture. The challenge for leaders is to manage these various elements so that the resulting culture is effective in
meeting organizational goals and objectives. Thus, managing culture becomes a key organizational strategy: a strategy that unfortunately doesn’t always make its way onto strategic planning documents.
Managing Culture
Tina Tobin, General Manager of the Alberta Place Suite, relates how when taking over a newly refurbished hotel she realized that there was an enormous business opportunity in changing her market mix to include more business travellers. Tobin knew that the culture had to change and provide a level of service that would draw and keep business travellers and the higher average rate they generate. In less than a year, Tobin saw her average rate climb by $17.00 and her market share rocket to 3 rd — no longer languishing at the bottom of the pack. Tobin shares that the first place to start with any culture change initiative is to know the current culture, have a good idea of the desired culture, and then plan towards making those changes. In the section that follows, I explore Johnson and Scholes’ six elements of culture and provide some strategies leaders can use to start re-booting their culture.
Stories
Stories refer to what organizational members tell themselves, each other, and to customers about the organization. These stories reflect what is important to the organization and what values the organization espouses.
Sherry Scott, Director of Human Resources at the Radisson Hotel Edmonton South, highlights the importance of effective communication in changing stories. Part of Scott’s communication strategies includes: a “scoop board” that displays the hotels daily activities to all employees, volunteer employee translators that help employees with a limited understanding of English, and employee surveys in multiple languages. These communication strategies ensure that new stories are effectively communicated to all employees. Tanya Yurko, Area General Manager at Belstar Hotels and Resorts, points out that getting to know your employees and helping them find meaning in their work is key to creating a culture that is healthy and respectful.
Rituals and Routines
Rituals and routines include the behaviours and actions organizational members view as acceptable and the underlying beliefs that drive these behaviours. For example, are there opportunities for employees to get to know each other? What is discussed at regularly scheduled meetings? Do managers walk the talk?
Tobin and Scott agree that role modeling is a key strategy when it comes to changing engrained rituals and routines. Ensuring managers role model new behaviours is key to having new behaviours cemented into the desired culture. They offer that managers saying one thing while doing another have derailed many change initiatives.
Symbols
Symbols refer to representations of the organizations’ culture. While these can be visual (think logos), symbols include how language is used in an organization and how employees dress. For example, you might have a general manager who prefers to be called Mr., Mrs., or Ms. and their last name. This sends a different message than a general manager who prefers to be on a first name basis.
Grant McCurdy, General Manager of the Mayfield Inn and Suites, shares anexperience in which he implemented a campaign called “How Do You Look” to drive the point to employees that how they dressed was an important part of how customers understood the organization.
Organizational Structure
Organizational structure includes who reports to whom and who has power within the organization. Lying underneath each formal organization chart is an informal network of influential members. While getting them on side is crucial for the success of any cultural change effort, it’s also important to recognize that not all employees will embrace change.
Tobin, Scott, and McCurdy all shared that while they were part of positive cultural change efforts that aimed at improving performance and the work environment not all employees were willing or able to adapt to a new culture. They noted that some employee turnover is to be expected as employees realize that they would be happier elsewhere. Yurko calls this “healthy turnover” in that it provides an opportunity for employees to re-commit to the organization. They reflected that expecting and planning for such turnover is key in ensuring successful cultural change initiatives. Edward Keenan, Vice-President Resort Operations, and General Manager of the Stoneridge Mountain Resort in Canmore, offers that having a clear framework that includes roles and responsibilities sets the stage for effective cultural change initiatives. He points to the importance of involving managers in being part of the change. Keenan claims that involving the team in creating this framework helps build ownership for the initiatives and build relationships throughout the organization.
Control Systems
Control systems refers to financial incentives, rewards, and training. For example, training is used to control the effectiveness of members and may include orientation and leadership development programs. Reward programs may be used to motivate employees or form part of an employee retention strategy.
Tobin relates how she re-vamped training at her hotel beginning with employee orientation and continuing to management development. For her, training is grounded in core values that reflect the desired organizational culture. McCurdy shared that successful reward programs must come from an a la carte perspective; what one employee sees as reward is not the same for another.
Power Systems
Finally, power systems are those systems or people that exert the most influence when it comes to strategic decision making or who have direct influence in the organization. Typically, these are department managers or leaders.
McCurdy offers that hotel leaders are key in ensuring the success of culture initiatives. Getting mangers on board isn’t enough. It is just as important to have an executive team that is able to function expertly—“ a team that can communicate effectively and support one another.” McCurdy shared that flexibility is key: allowing for a certain freedom within the framework.
Conclusion
Effective organizational cultures are at the core of performance and leaders create culture. Before embarking on change initiatives, leaders need to evaluate the current culture and clearly articulate the desired culture. To create this desired culture, leaders need to plan and execute strategies aimed at influencing the six elements of culture: stories, rituals and routines, symbols, organizational structure, control systems, and power structures. While culture change is painstaking work, and employee turnover a real possibility, the alternative of a dysfunctional culture is always more costly.