Understanding What a Quality Culture is

To understand what a quality culture is, one must first un­derstand the concept of organizational culture. Every orga­nization has one. An organization’s culture is the everyday manifestation of its underlying values and traditions. It shows up in how employees behave at work, what their ex­pectations are of the organization and each other, and what is considered normal in terms of how employees approach their jobs. Have you ever shopped at a store or eaten in a restaurant in which the service was poor and the employ­ees surly or disinterested? Such organizations have a cultural problem. Valuing the customer is not part of their culture. No matter what slogans or what advertising gimmicks they use, the behavior of their employees clearly says, “We don’t care about customers.”

An organization’s culture has the following elements:

• Business environment
• Organizational values
• Cultural role models
• Organizational rites, rituals, and customs
• Cultural transmitters

The business environment in which an organiza­tion must operate is a critical determinant of its culture. Organizations that operate in a highly competitive business environment that changes rapidly and continually are likely to develop a change-oriented culture. Organizations that op­erate in a stable market in which competition is limited may develop a dont-rock-the-boat culture.

Organizational values describe what the organization thinks is important. Adherence to these values is synony­mous with success. Consequently, an organization’s values are the heart and soul of its culture.

Cultural role models are employees at any level who personify the organization’s values. When cultural role mod­els retire or die, they typically become legends in their orga­nizations. While still active, they serve as living examples of what the organization wants its employees to be.

Organizational rites, rituals, and customs express the organization’s unwritten rules about how things are done. How employees dress, interact with each other, and ap­proach their work are all part of this element of an organiza­tion’s culture. Rites, rituals, and customs are enforced most effectively by peer pressure.

Cultural transmitters are the vehicles by which an or­ganization’s culture is passed down through successive gen­erations of employees. The grapevine in any organization is a cultural transmitter, as are an organization’s symbols, slo­gans, and recognition ceremonies.

What an organization truly values will show up in the behavior of its employees, and no amount of lip service or advertising to the contrary will change this. If an organiza­tion’s culture is its value system as manifested in organiza­tional behavior, what is a quality culture?

A quality culture is an organizational value system that results in an environment that is conducive to the estab­lishment and continual improvement of quality. It consists of values, traditions, procedures, and expectations that promote quality.

How do you recognize an organization with a quality culture? It is actually easier to recognize a quality culture than to define one. Organizations with a quality culture, regardless of the products or services they provide, share a number of common characteristics, presented in Figure 6.1.

How Are Organizational Cultures Created?

Many factors contribute to the creation of an organization’s culture. The value systems of executive-level decision makers are often reflected in their organization’s culture. How manag­ers treat employees and how employees at all levels interact on a personal basis also contribute to the organizational culture. Expectations are important determinants of organizational culture. What management expects of employees and what employees, in turn, expect of management both contribute to an organization’s culture. The stories passed along from employee to employee typically play a major role in the estab­lishment and perpetuation of an organization’s culture. All of these factors can either help or hurt an organization.

If managers treat employees with trust, dignity, and re­spect, employees will be more likely to treat each other in this way, and trust, dignity, and respect in everyday interac­tion will become part of the organization’s culture. On the other hand, if management treats employees poorly, employ­ees are likely to follow suit. Both situations, if not changed, will become ingrained as traditions. These traditions will be perpetuated both by the behavior of employees and by the stories they pass along to one another. This is why it is so im­portant to establish a quality culture. If mistrust is part of the organizational culture, it will be difficult to build partner­ships between internal and external customers. It will also be difficult to establish an environment of mutually supportive teamwork. Organizations that have these problems are not likely to be world-class competitors.

Commitment to quality cannot be faked. Employees know when management is just going through the motions. Changing an organization’s culture requires a total commit­ment and a sustained effort at all levels of the organization.

Source: Goetsch David L., Davis Stanley B. (2016), Quality Management for organizational excellence introduction to total Quality, Pearson; 8th edition.