Organizational Culture & Ethics

The core of a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly sustained and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure. When an organization has a strong culture, employees understand how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees consider that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values.

An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization. This culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviours and understanding. Organizational culture sets the context for everything a company produces. Because industries and circumstances vary significantly, there is not a one-size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all organizations.

A strong culture is a common denominator among the most successful companies. All have consensus at the top regarding cultural priorities, and those values focus not on individuals but the organization and its goals. Leaders in successful companies live their cultures every day and go out of their way to communicate their cultural identities to employees as well as prospective new hires. They are clear about their values and how those values define their organizations and determine how the organizations run.

Conversely, an incompetent culture can bring down the organization and its leadership. Disengaged employees, high turnover, poor customer relations and lower profits are examples of how the wrong culture can negatively impact the bottom line.

In today’s business rush, unfortunately, it is very common for most organizations to deal with urgent and routine tasks which are advantageous in short term rather than prioritize an important which are the seeds for long term sustainable harvest. You don’t need to explore too far to find articles that link business failure to corporate culture.

The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) UK Corporate Governance Code also highlights that corporate culture – how people in an organization think, feel and behave – is a pressing issue. As of 2019, the code’s second principle states that:

“The board should establish the company’s purpose, values and strategy, and satisfy itself that these and its culture are aligned. All directors must act with integrity, lead by example and promote the desired culture.”

This puts a responsibility on boards to assess and monitor the corporate culture and assure itself that the business is proactively managing it. This, along with the FRC’s requirement for businesses to ‘comply’ or ‘explain’, ensures boards actively engage with corporate culture.

But what does this mean in practice? How does this accountability fit with the infinite questions, areas and challenges that time-constrained directors must deal with?

In our experience, there are five things boards need to do to ensure their corporate culture is relevant to mark:

Allow the board’s role in culture;
Know the value of culture;
Set expectations of what you want from the executive team;
See yourselves as culture guardians and diplomats;
Guarantee the culture is working with the organization and not opposite it.

Organizations must be in a steady state of development. They must be different and better than their competitors. The viability of your company depends on whether you are capable of adapting to internal and external challenges rapidly and flexibly. MCG's experts can help assist you in recovering the adaptability of your company. A stable company structure gives your employees the required security and concentrates to successfully perform changes together.

With our culture, we have at our disposal an effective control tool for further developing the culture of your company. The factors that shape culture take the core stage. We focus on “tangible” and “emotional” elements. This enables us to diagnose the culture, determine a target design with you, and mutually structure the development process to create value.

With our tailor-made solutions, we help you to maintain and further strengthen your culture, develop your cultural diagnostics and goals, guide organization-wide cultural development programs, operationalize your guiding principles and values, and

realize culture maturity checks, leadership assessment surveys and controlling measures.

With our experience from numerous culture processes and transformation, we help you to make your culture open and visible.

Company culture means orientation. The company strategy and company culture must fit one another and be harmonious. Words and action must fit one another. Stated company values must be reflected in everyday work as well as processes and structures

Integrity is more important than intensity. Cultural development is to be perceived as a continuous process of achieving organizational integrity, and holding to it is critical.