Copyright (c) 2010 Peg Jackson

Learning to understand an organization's culture is much like peeling an onion. There are layers upon layers to peel back.

Organization's are not just the people that populate them, although the people are the face of an organization. From deep within organization's come the rules written and unwritten about how things are done, how problems are solved, and what is valuable. The unwritten rules exist because either everyone agrees with them, or everyone feels compelled to obey them for reasons they often can not explain.

For example, there may be an unwritten rule that says mistakes or errors should be hidden from supervisors. Other unwritten rules may preclude production supervisors from contacting executives about breakdowns of equipment or other mishaps after hours or on weekends.

Organizational culture is also reflected in the way newcomers are selected to join the organization in the capacity of administrator, employee, board member or other specific role. In any new job, there is generally a group of people tasked with showing the ropes to the new hire.

Often the unwritten rules come under the heading of how to get along around here. Some organizations are very open about how decisions are made, how ideas can bubble up and how grievances are settled. Others are more secretive. Information does not readily flow upward and downward within these types of organizations.

Probably the most powerful illustration of an organizations culture is centered in how normative behavior is molded. Normative behavior describes the types of behavior that are expected and considered acceptable within the organization. For example, the clerical employees in an office are expected to arrive on time at 8:30AM Monday through Friday, wear business attire, limit personal phone calls and take lunch at the time assigned to them. If they vary significantly in these behavioral expectations, there will probably be consequences imposed in the form of progressive discipline.

In understanding organizational culture, reward and punishment are not to be taken as entirely positive or negative. Consider the two words in terms of whether negative consequences are imposed by the organization for engaging in particular behaviors. Staff who do not show up for work and have not called in sick will probably have some sort of unpleasant consequences imposed for this behavior reduction of pay for that week, assessing multiple sick days/ vacation days, or a letter of reprimand. However, depending on a managers style, other negative behaviors such as failing to meet deadlines, failing to comply with new directives, or ignoring current rules might have no consequences imposed.

Conversely, some behaviors are discontinued, i.e. extinguished, because the person received insufficient positive reinforcement for the effort that s/he made. Consider the case of a staff member who worked long into the night to complete a report for the next day. If his/her supervisor does not show an appropriate level of appreciation, it is unlikely that the staff member will go to those lengths in the future. The behavior of working hard to make a deadline has been extinguished generally for the rest of the time that the staff member works for that particular supervisor. Negative behavior can be extinguished as well if the immediate consequences are fast and sufficiently unpleasant to make a lasting impression. Whether or not any behavior is repeated is contingent upon the degree of positive or negative reinforcement that the person receives in response to the behavior.

An organization's culture supplies the reinforcing environment, values and beliefs to either reinforce or extinguish behavior. Every organization has a unique and irreplaceable culture that reflects its human dimension.

As any organization becomes populated with toxic individuals at any level, the potential for dysfunction increases as does the potential for a reputational crisis.