- No explicit policy, just an implicit rule that no other behaviour is acceptable.
- Norms are based on values but values alone are not enough to constitute a culture.
- Your culture could value the development of people but no one may be doing it.
- A norm is in effect when people are actually behaving in accordance with it.
- Norms imply underlying values, but the latter does not mean norms are operating.
- A norm specifies what behaviour will be accepted/rewarded/reinforced in what situations
- The only way to cultivate norms is to ensure that the desired behaviours are reinforced and role models exhibit the required behaviours consistently.
- Punish deviants, but role models and positive reinforcement are more powerful.
- Those who try to change a culture often fail because they stop at exhortation.
- They do not consistently reward or model the appropriate behaviours.
- Behaviour change can mean compliance - we would like people to WANT to change.
- But there is nothing wrong with combining reinforcement with rational persuasion.
- The problem is only in expecting rational persuasion to be enough.
- While people can comply just to be rewarded or accepted they can change their attitudes after behaving in line with new norms for awhile and getting rewarded for so doing.
- The culture concept suggests a uniform set of norms across the entire organization.
- You need to be sure that the culture appropriate for one part of the organization isn't imposed on parts for which it would be counterproductive.
- A risk orientated culture shouldn't be applied where you need efficiency to ensure profitability.
- A "right first time" culture is too risk averse for the entrepreneurial parts of the business.
- You might want a single cultural umbrella over a diversity of subcultures.
Can management shed its negative image, be reinvented for the 21st century and differentiated from leadership? See Leadership and Management Reinvented. Also 21st Century Management.
We have an ideal image of leaders that actually says more about us and our needs than it does about leadership.
Do you think leadership should be redefined for a knowledge-driven world? Is our current concept of leadership not working? Is there room for heroic leadership today or is it now all about post-heroic leadership? Is emotional intelligence essential for leadership? Is leadership a role, like being a CEO?
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