FOOD FOR THOUGHT

DILEEP RANJEKAR

Organizational culture
through a process of evolving organizational values. [he lotindation is all set to grow from the current 300+ people strength to over 5000 in the next live years and we felt this is the right time to evolve values. The current 300 employees, each of whom has participated in evolving these values could act as the founders of these values. A consistent practice of these values over a period of time would create an organizational culture around these values. Organizational culture is the social glue that binds the members of the organization together. Not only it enhances the outward visibility of the organization, it also builds resistance to change the agreed values. At the less visible level, culture reflects the values shared among the organizational members. These values tend to persist over a period of time and become rather difficult to change. Consider the values that Azim Premji and his early team members in Wipro built such as integrity, respect for employees and value for nmney. Ihough Wipro rarely hired senior leaders from outside the organization, these leaders could not change the culture that was initially created. The folklore that got built around factual incidents such as employees having been fired foi minor breaches of integrity, or the organization choosing to face an employee strike than yield to the pressure of the union not to sack a union leader who was caught frauding or the organization running the factory with power generators than bribing the chairman of the electricity board for legitimate power connection all contributed
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t Azim Premji Foundation, we just went

to driving a powerful message that you cannot mess with the organizational culture. The four general manifestations or evidence of organizational culture are often (a) shared things (objects), (h) shares sayings (talk) (C) shared doings (behaviour) and (d) shared feelings (emotions). If you

want to hod out the cultural information within the organization, you must ask, ol)scrve, read and feel the organization. lhe late Sumantra (Ihoshal used to describe this as the siiiell of the place.

Organizational culture is a much deeper phenomenon than what many credit it to be. The recent Azim Premji Foundation values have not emerged out of thin air. They are not a result of a few leaders feeling in a certain way. They are a result of a shared organizational ethos that existed during the past nine years strongly facilitated by people in leadership roles in the organization. The Foundation very actively intends to combine the best of not-for-profit, corporate and government organizations. It is therefore no surprise that the value statements read as under: 1. Catalvse social change with passion 2. Act with integrity and courage 3. Intense commitment to quality 4. Deeply reflective and rational 5. Be open and caring Values such as social change and being deeply reflective are not normally found in corporate organizations. The value statements themselves do not automatically build culture. What builds culture is a meaningful and consistent practising of these values by majority of the members of the organization. What builds strength in this culture is when majority of the members find it useful to practice the values in terms of their work and their life. It is critical that there is a shared understanding of what each value means across the organization. The members must have clarity on what actions contribute to practising the values, what actions negate the values and what are the clear answers to some of the grey issues while practising values. For an effective culture to emerge from the values, you need organizational heroes individuals who personify the highest ideals of the organization. The special task force chief late Hemant Karkare who became a martyr in the 26th November terrorist attack in Mumbai will inspire the highest value of courage and sacrifice for the honour of the country for years to come. This, anyway, is a dominant value of the police force. What are the critical functions of the organkational culture? 1. Organizational identity: The culture provides
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members of the organization the identity that they often seek. It creates intensity fri the organization that provides the alignment and confidence among its members to go about achieving their goals with a missionary zeal. 2. Collective commitment: especially when you co create the values and culture, members identify themselves with the culture of the organization and are committed to the same. 3. Social system stability: the culture provides the standards for current and future members to make organization culturally robust, reduces conflicts, sharpens the cutting edge and creates an aura that pulls its members through adverse situations. 4. Shaping actions: the culture helps members in making a sense of their organizational surroundings. For new members, for instance, it helps in providing a basis for selecting, inducting and stabilizing in the organization around a fulcrum of values. The power of culture and values is legendary. When Jeff Immelt, the current Chairman of General Electric was chosen to succeed Jack Welch in 2000, the two other contenders Jim McNerney and Robert Nardelli both Vice Chairmen of GE had just 24 hours to decide to join the other organizations. While the former joined 3M, Nardelli joined Home Depot. Both were interviewed by leading newspapers and were asked the fundamental reason for choosing their respective organizations. In a stark similarity of answers, both stated that the new organizations fitted the culture they both operated in. Research has established that the primary reasons
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why leaders succeed or fail in the new organizations they join, is their ability to either shape or fit the culture of that organization. There are several ways of developing organizational culture. The most frequently used processes are (a) building a sense of history, (b) creating a sense of oneness, (c) promoting a sense of membership and (d) increasing the intensity of interaction among the members of the organization. Leaders use several methods to promote organization culture ranging from selecting the right people to socializing them in the best possible manner to creating people practices that recognize and promote the desired culture. Homes are probably the best examples of how culture gets imbibed you dont hire tutors to build values among your children. They learn it by observing and experiencing their parents. Organizational culture is like an operating system of the organization. It is a careful and courageous choice made by the organization. It is the medium in which everything else in the Organisation existsoperates-works. No competencies and processes can operate without an appropriate organisation culture. Organisational culture is what gives an organisation a character to which the employees and other associates either get attracted or repelled with.
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passionate

Dileep Raniekar, chief Executive Officer of Azim Premji Founclalion, H ahro a s/intent o/ human behaiiou r. He can be con/acted at
(lkr@azimpreln]I/ounclalion.org.

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