The First 90 Days (17 page)

Organizational culture is expressed in the way people treat one another (friendly, formal, relaxed), the values they share (honesty, competitiveness, hard work), the routines they follow as they hold meetings and exchange information, and so on.

Organizational cultures vary within and across industries. For example, managers in an established, traditional consumer products company may be comfortable with more elaborate processes and systems than managers in a start-up in the same industry. An energy industry executive might feel he’s on shaky ground working in a fashion retail company.

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Professional Culture.
Managers as a group also share cultural characteristics that distinguish them from other professional groups such as engineers, administrative assistants, and doctors or teachers. But this doesn’t mean all managers are alike. In fact, you’ve probably seen huge cultural differences within and between business functions.

For example, financial managers have different worldviews than marketing or R&D managers. In part, this is because the people who gravitate toward these functions have different professional training.

Geographic Culture.
Geographic changes can present the greatest diversity in culture. The way people do business in different regions of a country can vary significantly. Differences in business cultures between two countries are even more pronounced. For example, U.S. managers tend to work within a more individualistic culture, whereas Japanese managers stress more collectivist values and behaviors.

Moving into New Cultures

If you’re moving to a new company within the same industry, or to a new industry (from financial services to food management, for example), you’ll likely confront organizational cultural changes.

Your new position may take you to a different functional arena (for example, from operations to marketing) or to a whole new level of responsibility (for instance, from a functional area to general management). In such cases, you will face professional cultural changes—differences that are significant even when you move to a new position within the same organization.

If you’re taking a position with a division in your company that is located in a different city or region in your country, or in another country, you’ll likely face geographic cultural changes.

These different kinds of culture change can overlap and reinforce one another (see
figure 2-2
). For instance, if you move to a new company that’s also in a new city or region, you’ll face organizational and geographic culture changes.

It is useful to assess your culture adaptation challenge on a scale of 1 to 10 on each of these three dimensions. On the organizational culture dimension, a 10 would be a move from a highly centralized, process-focused organization to a highly decentralized, relationship-focused organization. On the professional culture dimension, a 10 would be a move from finance to human resources or vice versa. Finally, on the geographic dimension, a 10 would be a move from Minneapolis to Tokyo. If the total of these three numbers is 15 or greater, then you are facing a major cultural shift. To avoid missteps, you must devote significant energy to understanding and adapting to the new culture or cultures.

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Figure 2-2:
Intersecting Dimensions of Culture

Adaptation or Alteration?

After identifying the organizational culture to which you’re moving, you need to decide whether to adapt to or alter that culture. Whatever your situation, you’ll need to understand the impact of existing cultural characteristics on your new situation. In particular, you’ll want to assess which cultural characteristics are helping performance, and which may be harming performance. Your future success depends on knowing the difference—and taking the proper action.

[1]For an informative exploration of organizational culture and the role of leaders in shaping it, see Edgar Schein,
Organizational Culture and Leadership,
2d ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992).

[2]Geri Augusto, unpublished presentations to executive programs at the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.