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By Chris Chittenden

Organisational culture, and the impact it has on an organisation's performance, is seen by many observers as one of the key determinants of success. But just what is culture and why is it so important. Let us begin with our interpretation of an organisation and what makes up its culture.

At Gaia, we claim to offer a highly effective approach to organisational change. The key to our approach lies in our interpretation of human beings and organisations. We offer an interpretation that human being is unique in the way they see the world and then work within three domains associated with that interpretation - language, emotion and body. These domains are interrelated such that they form a coherence. For example, changes in our emotional domain will have an effect in the domains of language and body.

We support this with an interpretation of an organisation as a "network of relationships". From an understanding of the importance and impact of relationships in an organisation, our clients are able to learn to relate more effectively with others in the workplace.

So what is "organisational culture"? We draw our interpretation from the book "The Paradox Principles" by the Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team and see culture as:

• Values
• Beliefs
• Climate
• Norms
• Symbols
• Philosophy

Values are the principles that are considered meaningful and would include such things as integrity or innovation.

Beliefs are the assumptions and the business model that are valid for those within the organisation. These beliefs generate the organisational paradigms. We view these as the stories that last within an organisation and that provide a cohesion about the way things are done.

Given our interpretation of human beings around language, emotion and body, we see climate very much in the context of organisational mood. That mood is fundamental to the functioning of the organisation as it predisposes people to act in certain ways and not others and also influences the mood of the people who come into the organisation.

The norms are the standards that are generally accepted as applying within the organisation. They relate to things such as how hard people work, dress code etc.

The symbols are the rituals and traditions that exemplify powerful messages about what is important within the organisation.

The philosophy is the organisation's stated policies and ideologies that guide actions towards the stakeholders within the organisation.

When combined these six areas create the environment from within which each member of an organisation acts. They are the major factors that impact on the behaviour and decisions within the organisation and directly affect performance.

Let us go back and look at culture in terms of our interpretation of human beings and organisations. We claim that a human being's underlying mood predisposes them to act in certain ways and not in others. In other words, from a given mood people are more likely to speak and act in certain ways. To add to that, moods and emotions are contagious and it would seem that we are more likely to catch negative moods rather than positive ones.

Of the six characteristics of organisational culture we have mentioned, values, beliefs, norms, symbols and philosophy are linguistically based. They show up as words either written in the form of policies, standards and procedures or the language spoken every day. Climate is the odd one out and is the key to assessing the culture of an organisation. If we follow on from the idea that our mood predisposes us to act and speak in a certain way, the organisational mood will directly impact on the other aspects of culture. Furthermore, you will be able to get a sense of the organisational mood from the oral and body language used.

So to achieve optimal performance, leaders have to ensure they establish an organisational culture that takes into account all three domains of the human being - language, emotion and body. And they need to be aware of how to establish the coherence they want and in which domains to intervene to achieve that coherence. Mastery in this is one of the keys to being an exceptional leader.

Copyright © 1999 Chris Chittenden