When
to take action to actively manage culture?
- The company is going through a merger or acquisition
- The company is growing rapidly (more than 20% headcount growth within one year)
- You want culture to support the strategy, not hinder it
- The officially defined company values are not visible in employees' work
- There are behaviors and attitudes toward work that hinder the business
If you recognize one or more of these signals, let’s talk.
How do we manage culture?
Culture is a strategic asset with a direct impact on organizational success. Research indicates that it may explain up to 46% of variation in EBIT (Flamholtz, E., “Corporate Culture and the Bottom Line,” European Management Journal, 19(3), 2001, 268–275).
The desired culture is expressed through the company’s stated values. The current culture consists of the values, beliefs, and norms that actually shape behavior. The goal of culture management is to close the gap so that the desired culture becomes part of employees’ everyday experience.
Six steps in the culture management process
The Management Systems approach to culture management includes six steps:
Step 1
Defining the culture
Defining the culture that supports the company's long-term success (desired culture)
Step 2
Diagnostics
Diagnosing the current culture
Step 3
Identification and analysis
Identifying and analyzing significant gaps between desired and current culture
Step 4
Management plan
Developing a culture management plan
Step 5
Communication of results
Communicating the diagnosis results and the steps that will be taken to manage the culture
Step 6
Monitoring and updating
Monitoring the implementation of the desired culture and updating the culture management plan
Case studies
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FAQ
In the Management Systems methodology, values work only if they are embedded in the company’s operating and management systems. In practice, this means:
- each value is translated into specific behaviors and practices, for example, “accountability” = clear owners, deadlines, review of results
- there is rhythm and ritual: weekly operational meetings, 1:1 meetings, error analysis, practices for recognizing effort and results
- there are structural mechanisms: key performance indicators (KPIs), prioritization criteria, escalation rules, quality standards
- there are consequences: behavior that supports the culture is rewarded, and behavior that contradicts it is corrected
Because leaders hold both formal authority and informal influence, they shape organizational culture in three main ways:
Expectations Leaders define acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and expectations toward people in the organization.
Behavior and example Employees look to leaders’ decisions, reactions, and behavior for signals about “how we do things here.” Leaders therefore shape culture through the example they set.
Systems, structures, processes Leaders influence the structures, processes, and systems, which in turn influence culture because they guide people’s behavior.
Read more about the three factors and what they mean for leaders’ behavior in our article “How Leaders Influence Organizational Culture”
Culture is integrated when every core process sends consistent signals. If HR processes say one thing, performance management rewards another, and leaders model a third, the desired culture cannot take hold. For example, hiring can assess both competence and alignment with the culture, while performance reviews can consider not only what was achieved, but also how it was achieved.
Because culture is intertwined with the organization’s systems, structure, leadership behavior, and stage of development, timeframes can only be approximate:
- First visible signals: 3-6 months;
- More stable change in processes and decisions: 6-18 months;
- Deep embedding, especially in larger organizations: 18-36 months.
These periods may be longer, depending on the effort the organization puts into managing culture and the
For sustainable cultural change, several factors need to be in place:
- Consistent leadership behavior
- Integration into systems and processes
- Periodic adjustment of systems
- Regular measurement and corrective action
