In a recent post Jonathan Betts, Dianne Lee, Jackie MacRitchie, Renos Savva, Sara Vanderberghe and I discussed why a healthy culture is important and described ten actions to develop and sustain a healthy culture.  One of the actions we highlighted was not to be afraid of subcultures but instead to recognize their reality and embrace them as part of the overall framework of the organization.

In this article we describe what we mean by subcultures and how you can manage them to optimize and not detract from business performance.

By subculture we mean when smaller parts of an organisation emerge with different values, behaviours or ways of working.  Subcultures can form intentionally or inadvertently.  Understanding why they have emerged and ensuring they do not detract from the overall organization values and goals is key.

Why do subcultures emerge:

  • Geography – local operating companies may have specific ways of working because of the customs of their country or region and the customers within that geography
  • Remote working – it is difficult to bring the whole team together regularly so smaller groups may spend more time together
  • Company/Function – R&D, Commercial and Manufacturing organizations, finance, scientific, legal, sales can have different subcultures because of the purpose and the skills and behaviours that enable the delivery of that purpose.
  • Shared experiences – loyalty, resilience, shared goals can all result in a developing culture
  • Leadership styles – strong and weak leadership, different values and behaviours of the leader/manager can all result in different cultures arising. This has the potential to have a negative effect on the overall organisation if not understood and managed

How subcultures can positively impact business performance:

  • Sense of belonging – It is easier to feel a sense of belonging (see our previous article) within a smaller more cohesive group. There is a stronger identity and pride in what you are doing and achieving together
  • Empowerment – The vision within a function may be clearer and an employee may directly see how they have a role to play in achieving it. This may be more challenging with a grand vision of a cross-function group or an overall company objective.  Understanding their group vision encourages employee empowerment and autonomy
  • Agility – the processes are more aligned within a small group and more fit for purpose within a function. This reduces complexity making things quicker to use, easier to follow, and faster to achieve the result
  • Add diversity – They enrich the overall organization by through their diverse expressions of identity
  • Adaptability and flexibility – increased openness in making changes with small local groups
  • Tailored L&D – within a function preparing and delivering training may be simplified through communal understanding and language

Things to be aware of when subcultures form:

  • Potential fragmentation – pulling in different directions, exclusion and cliques forming
  • Duplication of effort – multiple teams working to create the same thing and ending up with different processes across an organisation limiting collaboration
  • Difficulties in scaling the organisation
  • Risk of unhealthy internal competition – competition can be very healthy for an organisation if everyone is aligned on overall improvements and direction of travel. When teams work against each other this is not an inclusive environment
  • Reduced sense of belonging to the larger organization – this can be diminished if there are no clear links. It can also encourage silo-based thinking
  • Career development – options can be reduced as movement across the organization is harder as adjustments to different ways of working must occur. A lack of understanding of what happens elsewhere in the organization is also limiting for career development
  • Inconsistent/unequal employee experience – If the leaders and managers display different values and standards it leads to potential unfairness and disgruntled employees

How do you optimize subcultures:

  • Ensure that a common framework exists with values and behaviours that align with overall organizational purpose
  • Ensure all department/functional goals align with the overall mission, vision and strategies of the company
  • Set guidelines and not hard and fast rules for areas where they are not required – set the guard rails and let people work within them in the manner most effective/efficient for them.
  • Encourage autonomy within groups and clarify accountability/decision making
  • Be transparent and communicate up, down and across the organization
  • Foster sharing – Create cross functional teams to work on important projects
  • Train leaders and managers together to ensure the company values and behaviours are shared and maintained
  • Beware of misalignment in incentivisation and recognition across an organization

What is needed to enable this?

  • Strong consistent leadership that role models the values and behaviours
  • Leaders who embrace different ways of working and can see things from others perspectives
  • Consistent expectation of managers and alignment across an organisation and how staff perceive that
  • Time to develop and buy into to the behaviours that will live the values of the overarching organization and create a sense of belonging for the local group
  • Ensure learning and development aligns with overall company values and behaviours
  • Adopt a mindset and create mechanisms for assessment, reflection and action
  • Have clear, consistent and bidirectional communications

In the end each organization must create a climate where culture can thrive by everyone in the organization living the values that deliver business performance.