Begin 2018 with a review of our most popular organizational culture posts from last year.
The new year is always an excellent time, not to just think about our goals for the future, but to reflect on the successes of the past year. We decided to do this by taking a moment to share our most popular blog posts from the last year with our readers. Maybe you missed these when they were first published, or maybe you’d like to take a moment to refresh your memory. Either way, we hope you enjoy this selection and that it can help bring some inspiration for 2018.
1. Organizational Culture in the Gig Economy
2017 was a big year for understanding the gig economy. As the trend toward remote office and mobile careers continues, more and more organizations are looking for ways to build a strong culture across a transient workforce. Fortunately, our experience working with the University of Michigan provided some insight into how organizations with a short-term workforce (such as universities with a specific program cycle) can create a culture that can be successfully transmitted to subsequent generations.
2. The Denison Model: Diagnosing and Building Cultural Alignment
Many corporations want to build a stronger organizational culture. The trouble is knowing where to start. It this post, we discuss the Denison Model as a tool to measure cultural performance across multiple variables and how organizations can apply these results to their own culture.
3. How Organization Culture Fits into the Mergers and Acquisition Process
Mergers are never simple. When two organizations come together, they don’t just join their financial, human, and physical resources. They also bring together a series of habits and routines, a “way of doing things” that is sometimes explicit, but just as often unspoken. However, by approaching the M&A process with a series of honest conversations designed to facilitate understanding, organizations stand a much stronger chance of successfully weathering the new merger.
4. Are You Focused on Organizational Culture or Climate?
Culture and climate are related cultural ideas. However, understanding the difference between the two can help solve any number of culture-related conundrums. Organizational climate can be more changeable, like the weather. A culture hoping to foster open sharing of ideas can be temporarily thwarted by a supervisor who may ask for feedback, but never seems to be in the mood to hear it. Read our article for more about the nuances behind this discussion.
5. National Culture vs. Organizational Culture: Which One Wins?
We all understand the concept of a “culture clash” between individuals from two different countries. But what happens when national cultures collide within an organization? For multinational organizations, understanding when organizational culture needs to accommodate national culture—or vice versa—might be key to global success.
What culture challenges does your organization face?
Is your organization hiring members of the gig economy? Are you thinking of acquiring a new partner? Do your international branches struggle to communicate with each other? We’ve worked with many businesses to help them discover, discuss, and overcome these challenges. Contact us if you would like to learn more about our consulting services.
