Can Culture Be Caught or Taught

A culture of an organization includes the norms, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, collective experiences, history, assumptions and values of an organization. Culture is something a new executive senses even before his first day on the job. That is, new employees are told ‘how things are around here’ by their colleagues and their team-leaders. "Caught and not taught" means you learn values or behaviors from the people that practice them, instead of by being told. You "catch" such values by seeing them lived.

For example, if you were told (or "taught") by someone, "You ought to live a certain way" (but you saw them not being a very good example of their teaching), chances are you won't "catch" or consistently practice that value. On the other hand, if you see someone consistently living out what they believe, you might "catch" it. If their modeling of those values is powerful enough, their values can be caught.

The amount of catching and the amount of teaching is a balancing act that depends on any organizations existing culture (how entrenched it is, how far removed from the culture you need etc.

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), the degree of change that is required to make it happen and then the stage that you are going through. E.g. you will do more teaching in the early stages of rolling out a culture, but less when it is clear that influential people (top managers, team leaders etc.) have caught the gist of it and are out there passing it around. There is a well-known saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink” Building a company culture is the aspect of strategic business planning that most employers feel is most important to their business.

Companies that truly live their corporate cultures are higher performing and better places to work than companies that lack them. The 10 reasons why it’s important for a company to pay close attention to its solid corporate culture: 1.Generates positive public relations.

Free PR creates visibility for a company. 2.Attracts ideal candidates. If the company’s corporate culture permeates everything from the way meetings are conducted to the format for the bios on the company’s Web site, candidates will know if they are a good fit. 3.Repels undesirable candidates. Without a clear corporate culture, undesirable candidates might join the company only to find months later that they do not fit in. 4.Rejects poor hires. Firing an employee is painful both financially and emotionally. Employees who are out of sync are often unproductive underperformers; they also disturb the established culture. 5.Fosters company loyalty. Employees who are a fit with the corporate culture will quickly integrate with the team and find their stride. This combination of ease and teamwork fosters employee loyalty. Loyal employees perform better, are more productive, are willing to exert extra efforts and are likely to influence others in a positive way, will spread positive energy throughout the office and attract top talent through word-of-mouth advertising. 6.Encourages dialogue between employees and management.

A clear corporate culture opens the lines of communication for employees and employers to discuss what employees really want and what management expects of them, utilizing the right combination of coaching, knowledge and skills that focus on high performance. It communicates to employees what they need to do if they want to fit in, survive and become successful within the organization. 7.Facilitates creation of relevant benefits packages. When employers know what their employees really want, they can offer benefits that are customized to suit their employees’ needs. The benefits a company offers should be tied directly to what the employees want, making them a great recruiting and retention tool.

8.De-emphasizes the importance of cash compensation. A thriving corporate culture that fosters loyalty and provides intangible benefits to employees, such as work that is fulfilling and leaders they respect and trust, can actually reduce employee demands for higher compensation. 9.Encourages utilization of technology for productivity improvement. Leverage personalized, interoffice technologies that are customized to suit the company’s specific needs to save time, improve communication and enhance productivity. 10.Increases the efficacy of outsourcing. A solid corporate culture allows focus on the firm’s core capabilities. Hence, from the above discussion we can clearly state that solid, clear corporate culture has to be caught — not taught.