Text 4. Business ethics and corporate culture nowadays.

Today people understand the business ethics as the integral part of their daily work, and managers should serve as role models preferring the key elements of ethical behaviour; they should act in supporting their corporate culture. As for the firms, they should not be obstacles for that activity in local and international market. Remember: the more bureaucratic a firm is, the greater the danger would be for unethical staff behaviour within it.

People at work must apply the socially acceptable, tension reducing behaviour: they must be capable of keeping their instincts under a relatively tight control and maintain the favourable social environment; they must prevent irritability and arousal in communication and focus on systematic decline of any conflicts. The English proverb says: people are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. There is the rub.

The rules of the game, what behavior is ethical and accepted, the mood of the organization, and the enthusiasm of employees are all contained in the culture. So, culture can be a powerful, hidden asset or it can be a liability - a time bomb waiting to go off. If your leadership team has not actively created a corporate culture to support the company’s purpose, then chances are that the culture is a hidden liability. This is the foundation for all actions and decisions within a team, department, or organization.

Visible Manifestations of Culture

Dress Code

Work Environment

Benefits

Perks

Conversations

Work/Life Balance

Titles & Job Description

Organizational Structure

Invisible Manifestations of Culture

Values

Private Conversations (with self or confidants)

Invisible Rules

Attitudes

Beliefs

Worldviews

Moods and Emotions

Unconscious Interpretations

Standards of Behavior

Paradigms

Assumptions

The energy fields that make up a group’s culture are dynamic and change continuously. Culture is created and constantly reinforced on a daily basis through conversations, symbols, rituals, written materials, and body language. It is the small, mundane actions and behaviors that create a culture and can shift a culture.

Creating and sustaining a healthy, vibrant culture requires reinforcement of the culture through daily and proactive conversations and communications. The failure to discuss the values, purpose, and rules within a group often leads to a culture that is at cross purposes with the stated intention of the group. Poor communication creates a lot of confusion and often a crisis of meaninglessness

Since a culture is created every time a group of people come together to form a team, a company will have many sub-cultures that exist within its main culture. For example, the marketing and technology teams may have different worldviews, jargon, work hours, and ways to do things. A big challenge for today’s company is to create a strong, cohesive corporate culture that pulls all of the sub-cultures together and ensures that they can work as a unified team.

Most companies try to “fix” perceived problems by addressing the parts of the corporate culture that are easy to see. Some quick-fixes include holding Friday beer bashes and company picnics or adding fringe benefits and perks. None of these actions will have a powerful or lasting effect on a company’s culture.

The CEO and leadership team of a company have a powerful impact on culture through their conversations and behaviors. Business leaders can pro-actively create a thriving culture by understanding what culture is (and is not) and learning how to have fundamental business conversations. Unfortunately, most business leaders receive little to no education on how to have powerful conversations that generate culture and actions. Culture building can be learned, but it takes an honest commitment from the leadership team of an organization.