Workplace culture research
- 1. Culture Research: Celectiv Sophie Peck • July 2017 © Celectiv
- 2. Overview What is culture? ● How is it formed? ● Why is it important? Lit Review ● Interesting findings on different approaches to culture in the workplace Competitor Research ● How is this model being employed elsewhere? Issues & Questions ● Resultant concerns, and questions for moving forward
- 3. What is culture? Anthropologically ● "a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life." Geertz (1973) ● The totality of a society’s (or group’s) collective (learned) behaviors, ideas, belief systems, rituals, practices, traditions, values and forms of knowledge, which distinguishes them from another group. How is it formed? - Culture is always representative of a learned pattern, often passed down generationally through the communication of symbols that become naturalized. - Cultural diffusion theory suggests that transmission is largely instinctive, acting like an autonomous force that exerts itself organically on a group and is liable to change form over time. - Different arguments and evidence exist for either ‘top-down’, ‘bottom-up’, or ‘horizontal’ methods of diffusion, as well the impact of endogenous and exogenous factors.
- 4. John Bodley, Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States and the Global System (1994) Culture is made up of at least three components: ● what people think ● what they do ● and the material products they produce Here is where the disconnect between VALUES and BEHAVIOR become important. Bodley argues that there is a vast difference between what people think they ought to do, and what they actually do, which is supported by much ethnographic research. Often the problem with working alongside human subjects or interlocutors is that there are frequent discrepancies between what we say and how we act, or what we know is best for us vs. where our priorities lie and how they might shift over time. Self-selected assessment modelling needs to keep that in mind and explore ways to mitigate the effects.
- 5. Why is it important? In general ● Tracing the development and lived-experience of different cultures allows us to gain insight into how patterns of behavior change over time, as well as the limits of individual intervention into collective phenomena out of our control ● Provides a basis from which to understand any human universals In the workplace ● Attention to culture in the workplace can help us to identify how values relate to productivity, as well as the important inclusion of active or deliberate behaviors and practices, vs. ingrained patterns of tradition (“that’s just how things are done here”)
- 6. Relevant Research Findings: Fischer-Wright and Logan, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization (2008) ● “Tribes form all the time. What makes workplace tribes a little different is their staying power. Even if you leave a company, you'll probably keep in touch with some of the people you worked with.” ● “Designating someone as the leader or head of an organization doesn't mean that he or she is the tribal leader. Most of the time, tribal leaders are the silent face behind the leadership... It's usually obvious who is not the leader, but it's often harder to figure out who is the leader...It's harder at the earlier stages because there may not be a tribal leader; sometimes, there are just a lot of subversive elements at work.”
- 7. Relevant Research Findings: Kyser, Diana C. and Hill, Theodore, Through the Looking Glass: Company Culture As a Reflection of Founder Personality in Entrepreneurial Organizations (September 10, 2016). ● Reviews many key studies on the different effects that founding partners and ‘architects’ of organizations have on the overall culture of their company, tracing the impact overtime. Particularly interesting in that their results yield a lot of weight behind ‘aggregate personality’ on the development of workplace culture. “Using ethnographic, psychological and organizational data from the founders and employees of four small firms from multiple industries, we find that, contrary to ASA and P-O predictions, aggregate personality seems to mediate the effect of founder personality on culture. At the same time, the direct impact of founder personality seems to be enhanced by intentional efforts to build culture and by sheer force of personality.”
- 9. Affintus Key Features ● Pre-hire assessment and job-matching tools ● Candidates take an assessment during application process to identify cognitive, work style, and work culture preferences. Candidates are scored and ranked against profile, and behavioral interview questions finish out the hiring process. ● http://www.affintus.com/how-it-works/
- 10. Pomello Key features ● 10-minute culture surveys and analytics predict hiring outcomes such as performance and turnover. Company culture analytics ● Ability to screen current as well as potential employees for fit ● Highly focused data gathering, attention to the different ‘layers’ of culture - i.e team or department culture as something different to the workplace as a whole ● https://www.pomello.com/product
- 11. TalentRocket Key Features ● UK based, do not appear to be involved with the US market ● Primarily a database of companies, putting uniqueness of each company culture front and center ● https://talentrocket.co.uk/for-companies
- 12. TalentRocket’s ThriveMap Key Features ● Algorithmic measurement of ‘work style’ (and mapping preference), team design, and team performance. ● Hire for fit surveys, interviews, aptitude tests, psychometric testing and applicant tracking system. ● https://getthrivemap.com/
- 13. Attention Areas
- 14. Moving forward: Questions that need to be asked and answered: ● What makes Celectiv different? ● Executive search or larger than that? ● Who is the market? Not just in terms of HR Manager or Exec. but target industry. ● How will the product adapt to different interpretations of what ‘culture’ is between different companies? This needs to be the starting point, because the experience and perception of culture is vastly different all the way down, and in different industries. ● How are terms like ‘value’ and ‘success’ defined qualitatively? Fiscal success is different to creating a ‘desirable’ company: many people will be willing to overlook a relatively low initial equity / stability to work for a company with a certain reputable culture. ● Is it always just a focus on the positive or aspirational vs. negative, or issues to be addressed, in order for a company to be successful? ● Current application of culture seems to collapse the distinction between ‘values’ (individual and/or organizational), and work style preference - needs a more precise definition. ● In terms of assessment or placement, what if someone doesn’t know what their preferred work culture looks like? What if the culture they prefer isn’t necessarily the culture that they perform best in? ● Similarly, how can we track aspiration vs. actual company cultures? Sometimes the CEO or founders are not the best people to determine what company culture is, what methods can be used to investigate how culture operates on a larger scale?
- 15. Summary 1. Culture fit is well proven to be a valuable source of data for job matching 2. Many companies have already developed products that prioritize culture fit 3. What makes Celectiv stand out?