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June 2009
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 I’ve been watching with interest the story of MP’s expenses. At the time of writing
it’s unclear to what extent the ‘rules’ have been broken. But what does seem to
be clear is that for many, the expenses allowances were seen as an entitlement
– part of the package that helped to fill the gap between what MPs consider a sensible
salary for the job they do and the actuality.
It reminds me of a situation that arose in an organisation I was working for many
year’s ago. There, an investigation into a single ‘dodgy’ expenses claim uncovered
systematic abuse of the rules going back years, which seemed to extend throughout
the organisation and involved people at all levels. There too, the behaviours appeared
to be about getting what you could out of the system – the expenses package was
seen as one of the ‘perks of the job’. The abuse was so endemic that eventually
the organisation had little alternative but to announce an amnesty for all past
misdemeanours.
So what can we learn from these two separate but remarkably similar events? There’s
a temptation to look at this type of behaviour as simple, personal greed, but I
think that misses a key point. For me, this is about organisational culture, that
mysterious and intangible thing that all organisations have. Three thoughts come
to mind:
Firstly, culture is more than the rules and regulations that we instill to encourage
the right behaviours (or more often discourage the wrong ones) and it’s more than
the claims an organisation makes about its values, (or whatever it wants to call
them). Culture is three-dimensional – below this shiny surface is a whole raft of
attitudes and actions that deliver the 'real' culture.
Secondly, 'official' inductions and guidelines are often supplemented with a secondary,
much more informal induction from people who share the front line. I suspect that
this sort of unofficial induction occurs in almost every organisation – people learn
about the company and behavioural norms from the people they work with on a day-to-day
basis more than through any official channels.
Thirdly, and this is where I attempt to make a link between the above two thoughts,
culture is about common behaviour. People’s behaviours will tend to mimic those of others that seem to be considered acceptable, or normal.
So what does this mean for us? It means that we need to be pretty sure that we are
demonstrating the sort of behaviours that reflect the culture we want – as trainers
our influence can extend far into an organisation. Are the behaviours we describe
reflected in the way we behave ourselves?
Secondly, we need to ensure that line managers understand the role they play in
defining and developing their team’s culture. And we need to make sure they understand
that a shiny surface of rules, values and mission statements is never going to be
enough on its own.
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