Corporate Culture and Communication

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

Let’s talk monkeys.

A group of researchers placed five monkeys in a room. In the middle of this room was a ladder with bananas on the top.

Okay, this isn’t exactly how the researchers conducted the experiment, and in truth, many have questioned the validity of the study. But as Mark Twain once said, “Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.” So anyway, back to the monkeys.

Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists sprayed the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, every time a monkey went up the ladder, the others would beat him up. After some time, no monkey dared to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.

The researchers then substituted one of the monkeys. The first thing this new monkey did was to go up the ladder. Immediately the other monkeys beat him up. After several beatings, the new monkey learned not to climb the ladder, even though he never knew why. A second monkey was substituted and the same thing occurred, but this time the first monkey substituted participated in the beating of the second monkey. A third monkey was substituted and the same cycle repeated itself. This continued until all five monkeys were substituted and none of the original five remained.

What was left was a group of five monkeys that, even though they never received a cold shower, continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder. If it were possible to ask the monkeys why they would beat up all those who attempted to go up the ladder, their answer may be something like…

“I don’t know – that’s just how things are done around here.”

So, is this sort of behavior a good thing or bad thing? We’ll come back to this question, but first, let’s talk about corporate or organizational culture.

Definition of Culture

Culture is the operating system running in the background that determines the way people work and interact. It directs how information flows and how people and systems interact and collaborate. Culture is based on the shared experiences and histories of the organization’s members, histories rich in symbolism and stories. As a result, an organization’s culture is organic and continually changing. This also means that an organization’s culture is inherently nebulous, containing contradictions, paradoxes, ambiguities, and confusion.

Paraphrasing Morpheus from The Matrix, “[Culture] is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes.”

Role of Communications in Culture

Culture is created and proliferated through behavioral interactions such as modeling, observation, imitation, instruction, correction, negotiation, storytelling, gossip, reward, coercion, and so forth.

In other words, culture is created and proliferated through internal communications.

How Culture is Expressed Through Internal Communications

Internal communication is the mechanism by which every aspect of culture manifests. Let’s consider these aspects in details:

Observable Actions and Behaviors. These are the behaviors by which members of the organization affirm and communicate the organizational culture to one another. For instance, team meetings, eating together in the cafeteria, what is or is not included in reports, and group decision-making are just a few examples of observable behaviors that communicate and affirm cultural beliefs, values, and assumptions.

It’s in the observable actions and behaviors that culture can be seen in the day-to-day work—how people interact, share information, and collaborate. This is internal communication in its purest sense.

Visible Manifestations of Structures and Processes. These are things like dress codes, the use of language and symbols, and the practice of rituals and rites.

It’s in the visible manifestations of structures and processes that we can see that communication is about more than the spoken or written word; it includes every form of symbolic expression. The way we dress telegraphs our place in the collective. The industry-specific words and jargon we employ communicates our place in the organization. The pictures, plaques, and tchotchke we display on our desks expresses our identity to our coworkers.

Espoused Values. These are the documented and promoted organizational strategies, goals, and philosophies expressed by leadership and in the larger bureaucratic machine, such as in Human Resources.

It’s in the expressed values documented in plan, policy, and procedure documents that internal communication takes on its more bureaucratic mantle, setting expectations and priorities for those working in the organization.

Underlying Assumptions. These are the unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, and attitudes held by members of the organization. In many ways, these underlying assumptions define members’ perception of reality—what they perceive as important and what they see as irrelevant.

Underlying assumptions scope and direct what is communicated, discussed, and prioritized internally. If underlying assumptions are blind to something—don’t perceive it as within the realm of reality—then it will not be included in discussions and calculations. On the other hand, if a perceived reality is seen as all-important then it will be discussed incessantly and factored into every course of action.

Organization’s Myths. These are the stories organizational members tell each other, stories that act as sort of morality tales. They give people a sense of right and wrong, promote culturally-acceptable attitudes and beliefs, and espouse virtues and behaviors that the organization embraces. These myths also give meaning to behaviors and integrates them into the larger context.

It’s in the telling of stories and myths that we see members reinforce group norms, values, and norms. Storytelling is perhaps the deepest form of cultural perpetuation. Where there are two or more people, there are storytellers, and workplaces are no different.

Cultural Ideologies. These are the shared, interrelated, emotionally-charged belief systems that guide behavior among the organization’s members. They set the rules and norm of the organization: the rules of engagement; norms to be maintained—the rules of the game. In this way, culture subtly steers us into compliance with how things are done by the collective. When we do something that is in accordance with the culture, the behavior is rewarded and reinforced. When we do something that runs counter to cultural norms, the behavior is punished.

It’s in the cultural ideologies that we see group members guide and steer one another’s behaviors, much as we saw with the monkey parable. Corporate culture can threaten individual autonomy with, as Gideon Kunda put it, “a rather subtle form of domination, a culture trap combining normative pressure with a delicate balance of seductiveness and coercion.”

Sounds sinister, but is it? Well that all depends on the bananas—what we’re reaching for—our behavior. If the behavior is habitually coming in late, missing deadlines, failing to meet expectations, or an unwillingness to work with others, then yes, you can probably count on people beating you—metaphorically, of course—and for good reason. On the other hand, if by reaching for the bananas we mean innovating, exploring new idea, challenging assumptions, then the proverbial beatings are an insidious virus on the body corporate—the organization.

Cultural ideologies are at the core of what binds a culture, enabling the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts. However, they can also marginalize those who fail to fall in line—to adopt the organization’s culture as their own.

More Than Memos

So, as you can see, anyone who tells you that internal communication is all about memos and monthly status updates is missing the bigger picture something ferocious. As former Costco CEO and co-founder, Jim Sinegal, once said, “Culture is not the most important thing; it’s the only thing.” Well, if that’s the case then effective internal communication is the single most important key to success.

Resources

National Research Council. (1997). Enhancing organizational performance. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/5128.

Trice, H. M., & Beyer, J. M. (1993). The cultures of work organizations. Prentice Hall.

Kunda, G. (1991). Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high technology corporation. Temple University Press.

Schein, E. H. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Schein, E. H. (1991). What is culture? In P. J. Frost, L. F. Moore, M. R. Louis, C. C. Lundberg, & J. Martin (Eds.), Reframing organizational culture (p. 243–253). Sage Publications, Inc.

Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288.

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.