"We could only be something when we were, when we were faithful to our values." Jaime Sicard.
Summary
This article shows the importance of managing the productive identity of organizations based on the analysis of their organizational culture, as a fundamental element of competitiveness in a globalized world. A first approach is made to the concept of organizational culture, and then propose an analysis methodology through the interested parties, both inside and outside the organization. Finally, it is shown how culture and identity studies allow managers to get to know their companies better and consequently make better decisions.
The article seeks to take elements from the different approaches to study the culture of organizations to integrate them into a new approach proposal that contemplates not only the visible features of the organizational culture, but also the factors that generate it, from a more perspective Comprehensive covering the perceptions of stakeholders, both inside and outside the company. For this, a systematic review of 55 documents related to Organizational Culture (27), Management (14), Sociology (11), Business History (2) and Management Research Methodology (1), from both Colombian sources (29) was carried out. as foreigners (26).
Abstract
the importance is demonstrated of managing the productive identity of the organizations from the analysis of its organizational culture, like fundamental element of competitiveness in a globalized world. One first approach to the concept of organizational culture is performed, soon to propose a methodology of analysis through the interested parts, as much to the interior as to the outside of the organization. Finally one is how the studies of culture and identity, allow the managers to know their companies better and therefore to make righter decisions.
The article looks for to take elements from the different approaches from study of the culture of the organizations to integrate them in a new proposal of boarding that not only contemplates the visible characteristics of the organizational culture, but also the generating factors of the same, from one more an ample perspective that includes the perceptions of the interested parts, as much to the interior as to the outside of the company. For this a systematic revision of 55 documents was realized, on subjects related to Organizational Culture (27), Management (14), Sociology (11), Enterprise History (2) and Methodology of Investigation in Management (1), of Colombian sources (29) as as much foreign (26).
Introduction
The vertiginous process of globalization that our economies experience goes beyond the mere economic exchange of goods, culturally penetrating the different societies on the planet. Behind the design of a certain product are hidden the knowledge, values and customs of the organization that produces it, which in turn is strongly influenced by the culture of the society to which the individuals who compose it belong. Thus, when buying for example a Coca Cola, you not only acquire a refreshing drink, but also a way of thinking and acting, which in this case could be identified with aspects such as freedom and comfort, typical of American society.
Globalization is causing a strong culture shock. It is no longer strange to see thousands of Japanese vehicles from brands like Nissan or Toyota circulating on American highways, nor to see Chinese citizens eating hamburgers in the restaurants of Beijing's Mc Donalds. This intercultural penetration, motivated by the desire for competitiveness, undoubtedly endangers those organizations that do not value, recognize and appropriate their culture, those that do not consolidate their own cultural identity that their workers can experience and can recognize their clients. Javier Medina and María del Pilar Ruiz, in the Prologue of the Memories of the Colombian Colloquia on Culture of Competitiveness (MEDINA, 1998), emphasize the importance of culture in the face of the globalization process in a very concrete way:
“Cultural factors and processes are of primary importance to promote endogenous development processes in the long term. It is necessary to look at globalization also from a cultural perspective. To interact in the international environment requires a strong cultural identity and the promotion of knowledge of our culture and those cultures of the markets that are intended to reach. Efforts are required to carry out an anthropology of development, because the only way to achieve lasting and meaningful changes is by influencing the culture, the set of behaviors, values and customs of a community or social group. ”
Colombian society, from its organizations, must make an important effort to recognize the elements that make up its culture and that identify it productively before the world. And it is the academy, the productive sector and the national government that are called to analyze the Colombian organizational culture, through a serious and permanent prospective exercise that guides the productive development of the country and promotes the competitiveness of its organizations.
Methodology
The preparation of this article required a process of reviewing the state of the art that started from the identification of the most representative authors and works worldwide, by consulting related documents in libraries and newspaper archives, as well as in specialized databases, such as EBSCO Premier and Business Source, E-brary, J-Store, Harvard Bussines Review, American Management Association (AMA), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and Gestiopolis.
The location of Colombian research groups with work in organizational culture was carried out through the SCienTI Network (Colciencias), managing to identify, among others, the work of Carlos Eduardo Méndez, from the Business Endurance Group of the U. del Rosario (Bogotá); Olga Lucía Anzola, from the Organizational Management Group of the U. Externado (Bogotá); Claudia María García Álvarez, from the Management and Organizations Group from the Emerging Currents of the Pilot University (Bogotá), Gregorio Calderón, from the Organizational Culture and Human Management Group of the National University (Manizales); and Álvaro Zapata, from the Humanism and Management Group of the U. del Valle (Cali). Articles published in national specialized magazines such as Cuadernos de Administración (U. Javeriana), Innovar (U. Nacional), Academia (U. Andes), Sotavento (U.Externado) and Thought and Management (U. Norte), Human Management (Legis) and Money (Weekly Publications).
The documents identified were systematically reviewed, to contemplate only those that contribute conceptually or methodologically to the issue of organizational culture and productive identity, excluding those focused on issues such as organizational climate, labor well-being or compensation, which although they are close, are not the focus of this research. 53% of the documents reviewed are of Colombian origin, 13% of Latin American origin, 24% of North American origin, 9% of European origin and the remaining 1% of Japan.
Conceptions about the culture of organizations
Before speaking of organizational culture, it is necessary to locate the concept of culture as the basis of this analysis. There are many definitions of culture, depending on the different schools of thought, but I consider Edgar's definition
Morin (MORIN, 1992) from complex thinking is quite clear and complete:
"The culture that is characteristic of human society, is organized and is organizing, through the cognitive vehicle that is language, based on the collective cognitive capital of acquired knowledge, of knowledge / doing learned, of lived experiences, of historical memory, of the mythical beliefs of a society. In this way, collective representations, collective consciousness, collective imagination are manifested. And, by disposing of its cognitive capital, culture institutes the rules / norms that organize society and govern individual behaviors. Cultural rules / norms generate social processes and globally regenerate the social complexity acquired by this same culture ”
Social scientists, in general, consider six main elements of the cultural system: beliefs -explanations of shared experiences-, values -criteria of moral judgment-, norms and sanctions -guidelines to limit behavior-, symbols -representations of values and beliefs -, language - symbolic communication system- and technology -knowledge and utensils for shared work- (MARTÍNEZ, 2002). Although these elements allow identifying cultural tendencies of identity, they are in no way erected as unchangeable principles. In this regard, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz (GEERTZ, 1990) states:
"… believing with Max Weber that man is an animal inserted into plots of meaning that he himself has woven, I consider that culture is that warp and that analysis must therefore not be an experimental science in search of laws, but an interpretive science in search of meanings ”
And although the aforementioned elements can be used to differentiate a certain culture, they do not remain unchanged in time, since cultures are constantly enriched and transformed through exchange and self-generation, which allows the leaders of societies to make cultural changes that modify harmful or negative aspects according to your interests.
Taking the aforementioned concepts of culture as a reference and taking into account that the reasoning about organizations is particularly rich in analogies and metaphors, we can speak of organizational culture based on that metaphor that sees organizations as small societies. If it is assumed that culture is the indefinite and immanent characteristic of any society and that organizations are small societies, cultural characteristics can be attributed to the organizations that describe them, being able to affirm that culture is to the organization as the personality to the individual. The researchers from the HEC of Montreal2- Allaire and Firsirotu (ALLAIRE, 1992) describe the organizational culture as:
“… A particular system of symbols, influenced by the surrounding society, by the history of the organization and by its past leaders, as well as by different contingency factors. According to this conception, culture is not a static element, but a living raw material used differently by each employee and transformed by them during the process of decoding organizational events. In this way, organizational culture is an effective tool for interpreting organizational life and behavior and for understanding the processes of decline, adaptation and radical change in organizations. ”
However, the particular system mentioned by Allaire and Firsirotu is only the tip of the Iceberg, whose components we can call visible features of organizational culture (symbols, beliefs, languages, norms, and customs). In such a way that a judicious analysis cannot be limited to the description of these visible traits, but must include the recognition of determining factors of the organizational culture such as histories, structures, values, technologies, and strategies of the organization.
Most of the studies on the culture of organizations have fallen into the temptation to elaborate cultural taxonomies, which in one way or another assign value judgments when they place companies in a certain range on a scale that goes between “successful cultures ”And“ cultures of failure ”.
But if the assumption that culture is to the social group as the personality to the individual is accepted, the analysis of the culture of one organization does not serve to compare and classify it as better or worse than another, only to know, understand and on that basis. project it. In other words, culture is neither good nor bad, it just is.
In Latin America it is not strange the discourse on the ideal of Japanese business culture and the supposed gap of our culture against it, but that is nothing more than a fallacy, because simply the Japanese culture and the Latin American culture are different. There are features of Japanese culture that may seem admirable to an ordinary Latin American worker, but surely there are others that may be unpleasant to this same worker. For example, for Latin American workers, the Japanese teamwork capacity may be admirable and even enviable, but surely the submission and servility of Japanese workers to their superiors may be somewhat unpleasant.
The example can be constructed in the same way in the opposite case, a Japanese worker would be surprised by the skill and creativity of Latin American workers, but he would surely be disappointed in the degree of commitment of these to the company. Good or bad? It depends on the cultural reference with which it is measured. Surely the Japanese teamwork capacity could be attributed to their need to share a territory so small and difficult, or to the harsh historical conditions they have had to face to survive as a nation. And the recursion of Latin American workers is surely due to the paradox of living with many limitations in the midst of so much natural wealth.
But the point is that the culture of one and the other people is the result of different historical and sociological processes, so trying to change your own culture to emulate that of another people is not a sensible decision. Precisely the industrial success of the Japanese is not due to a change in culture, but on the contrary to a nation-building on their own cultural values. So the important thing is to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the culture, to enhance the former and try to minimize the impact of the latter.
Characterization of the productive identity from the analysis of the culture of the organization
After recognizing the influence of culture on the productivity, competitiveness and sustainability of organizations, it is worth asking how to identify the cultural features that make up the productive identity of an organization? and above all
How to use the analysis of organizational culture to achieve continuous improvement of the organization?
First of all, it is important to point out that the culture of a community, whatever it may be, cannot be defined with complete precision and certainty, given the complexity of the network of human relations that shapes it and the evolutionary character that characterizes it. So it is only possible to identify traits of cultural identity in a community and a certain time, in the same way that a photographer captures a place and a certain time when taking each photo. And it should be recognized that the mere review of a photograph does not fully define the circumstances in which it was taken, but it does give the observer a lot of information about the subjects and objects that appear in it.
But the photographer's simile allows you to make some other precisions, because just like this you can adjust your lens to take shots of the level of detail you want, and program the shutter to extend or decrease the light exposure time of the photographic film, the Cultural analysis requires defining a social zoom to be analyzed and specifying a time interval to make such an analysis. In other words, you can look at the Latin American culture of the 1980s, just as much as the post-war Ford Motor Company culture.
Now , at what point does a social group configure its own cultural identity? Although there are surely different opinions in this regard, the truth is that one can speak of culture when, in the balance of cultural convergences and divergences (values, beliefs, rites, customs), within the group the former prevail and the latter outside, and when the cultural features of the group manage to determine the behavior of the individuals that compose it.
From this perspective, a good example of analysis would be in the question: does Colombian society configure its own cultural identity? The first filter would be to determine if the similarities or differences between paisas, pastusos, coastal, cachacos, santandereanos, boyacenses, llaneros and opitas are greater. If the similarities were greater (as indeed I believe they are), it would be possible to subject the hypothesis to the second test, to determine whether the similarities or differences between Colombian culture and that of other countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador or Panama are greater, so that if the differences are greater, it could be passed to the final test, evaluating whether the cultural features of Colombian society determine the behavior of citizens ("cultural inertia" 3), that is, their way of being,case in which one could definitely speak of their own cultural identity.
Organizational analysis requires zooming in on "the company", to which the same procedure described above can be applied to verify whether or not it configures its own cultural identity. There are multinational companies, where the analysis described above shows very different cultural identities between the different plants, and others where although the plants are located in very remote regions, the cultural features of the company predominate over those of the region where the plant is located, configuring a single corporate identity.
Therefore, the analysis of the culture of an organization requires the review of both the determining factors and the visible features of the culture, in the different interest groups inside and outside the organization, to identify the convergences and divergences that configure or limit the productive identity of the company.
The internal analysis contemplates the study of the cultural traits that the shareholders, managers and employees perceive in the daily life of the company, and should be done as disaggregated as the size and structure of the company requires. While the external analysis evaluates the perception of customers, suppliers, competitors and regulators, over time in the commercial relationship with the company.
In an organization with a solid cultural identity, there should be no greater variation between the results of the internal and external analysis, because in this type of company, “cultural inertia” causes the same image to be projected both inside and outside the organization. On the contrary, if the internal analysis diverges greatly from the external analysis, it is most likely that the organization has a weak cultural identity and for this reason one is facing outward and the other facing inward. In the latter case, the culture of the organization is not strong enough to determine the behavior of its agents, most likely because the subcultures are stronger and more divergent.
Now, the burden of subjectivities typical of the researcher's culture makes it more difficult for him to recognize the cultural features of his social group, but instead makes it easier for him to recognize the cultural features of other social groups with cultures different from his own. This phenomenon is called the "cultural foreigner" principle, widely used in organizational culture studies to detect cultural traits that would be invisible to members of the company. Gareth Morgan (MORGAN, 1996) clearly explains this principle in the following way:
“One of the characteristics of culture is that it forms an ethnocentrism.
Taking for granted that it provides action codes that we recognize as “normal”, it allows us to see activities that do not agree with such codes as “abnormal”. By adopting the position of the cultural foreigner we can see the organizations, their employees, their practices and their problems from a new and fresh perspective ”
Contribution of organizational culture studies to the management of organizations
Having reviewed some basic concepts of organizational culture and the approach proposed for its study, the reader of this article may still have a very valid concern about the practical application of culture studies in the management of organizations.
In this regard, it can be affirmed that the study of organizational culture helps managers to make better decisions about the future of their companies. Managers who are able to know and understand the culture of their organizations are able to lead them on safer and more reliable terrain, they know what they can and cannot do with their companies, and above all they can design a strategy for continuous and sustained growth on a firm and solid foundation.
So the study of culture is a fundamental input for the design of strategic business plans, an obligatory step for the formulation of a mission, a vision and corporate values, truly shared and assumed by those who are part of the organization and they are reflected in it.
In the same way, studies of the organizational culture of productive sectors allow unions and local governments to formulate development policies, plans and programs, based on the recognition of productive vocations and the capacities of each sector. Leveraging the most competitive aspects of business culture is undoubtedly the way to achieve sustainable, responsible and fair economic and social development.
On the other hand, the management of culture allows managers to have a better management of conflicts and disputes within the organization. The manager who knows the organizational culture of his team knows when to intervene and how to do it, to prevent the problem from growing and affecting more members of the organization. The manager who does not know the culture of the organization surely ends up adding more fire to the stake with his intervention and instead of solving the problem he can aggravate it.
Conclusions
The analysis of the different studies of culture clearly shows how it generates a collective consciousness that regulates the behavior of individuals (cultural inertia), facilitating the understanding of organizational phenomena, and thus allowing them to participate in the generation of the culture of the organizations to which they belong.
The culture of an organization is not in itself good or bad, but it is manageable according to the expectations of its leaders, which requires them to design coherent strategies based on the cultural realities of their organization, and they It restricts the monitoring of the strategies used in successful cases of other organizations, with cultural realities very different from their own.
Since culture is not static but evolves over time, culture studies are limited to a specific time and community, which is why its results have limited validity and scope, so it is recommended for In the case of organizations, repeat these studies periodically in order to demonstrate their cultural evolution.
Although many authors limit culture studies to characterizing the visible features of organizational culture (such as symbols, beliefs, languages, norms, and customs), a holistic analysis also requires taking into account the determining factors of organizational culture (such such as stories, structures, values, technologies, and strategies), in a study that addresses not only the internal agents of the organization (owners, managers, middle managers, and workers), but also the external agents with whom the company interacts permanently (customers, suppliers, competitors and regulators), which in one way or another also shape the culture of the organization.
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