Primary mechanisms to pass on corporate culture

One may distinguish between the following 5 primary mechanisms:

• focus of attention, evaluation and control
• criteria of reward and encouragement
• intentional formation of role models
• conflict/crisis management strategies
• criteria of employee selection, promotion and dismissal.

Now let’s consider these mechanisms in more detail.

1. Focus of attention, evaluation and control

If a manager understands how important it is to keep the focus of employees’ attention on the most meaningful issues, then he/she will always follow this method. For example, at a meeting, a manager concentrates other colleagues’ attention on a certain issue taken under a certain angle. Giving arguments that this issue is important and can be effectively managed, he/she may achieve the set goal: to get his point of view taken as correct.

1. Criteria of reward and encouragement

Members of any company learn from their experience how an employee’s status is changed, what is encouraged and what is punished. It is usually rather easy for managers to deliver their priorities to subordinates: managers correlate reward and punishment with a subordinate’s behaviour. What is important here is the system in action rather than written rules or declarations at meetings.

1. Intentional formation of role models

Top managers and founders understand that their behaviour is often a model to emulate fand can better than any other methods signal subordinates (new members) their assumptions and values. Thus, for example, the Action Company president intentionally tried to deteriorate the importance of hierarchy and status since he was sure that valuable innovations may be put forward from any level. He attempted to deliver this assumption to his subordinates with the help of various means: his car was small, his office did not differ from others, his clothes were casual, he spent much time with employees from all the levels. His behaviour brought on many stories that, in their turn, solidified these norms in corporate culture.

1. Conflict/crisis management strategies

Top managers and employees’ behaviour in a crisis brings about new norms, values, work techniques as well as reveals important principles of corporate culture. Crises are significant in corporate culture formation since they are emotionally more loaded than any collective experience and that is why they teach a lot and are kept in employees’ minds for a long time. W.G. Ouchi gives several examples of American corporations in a financial crisis: they had to made many people redundant but in order to avoid layouts they decided to cut employees’ salaries. The same decision was taken in the Proctor&Gamble Moscow subsidiary in the August collapse in 1998.

1. Criteria of employee selection, promotion and dismissal

As a rule, companies try to employ candidates who have both professional skills and correspond to norms and values of their corporate culture. Thus, for instance, in the Action Company all candidates, who got through interviews, were intelligent, smart, self-confident, persistent and were able to formulate clearly their ideas. At interviews they were warned that they were expected to survive with a minimal support from their bosses. And if later on there was a conflict between a new employee, who turned out not to be quick-minded enough or persistent, and his colleagues, the management did not interfere (due to corporate values), leaving it up to the employee either to quit the company or to dramatically change his/her conduct.