Culture characterizes a company and distinguishes it from others in the way it reacts to everyday situations, such as approaching a market, defining efficiency standards or solving personnel problems.1
The culture of a company, like that of a community, can be broken down into two categories:
- moral values
- beliefs
Values are concepts that have a relatively stable meaning accepted by the majority of people. Freedom, respect and acceptance are concepts considered to be values, defining the group's common morality.
For a company, the point of defining values is to build a community based on the validation of these common objectives.
Values represent objectives and contribute to an ideal. Beliefs represent ways of achieving them. We could simplify things by saying that values represent good and evil, and beliefs, true and false.
For example, for a value of respect, the belief might be to say hello to everyone when you arrive each morning. And this same value of respect can also be built on the belief that you should let everyone speak without cutting them off.
A belief is a kind of modus operandi, a rule to be followed with the intention of respecting a value.
Some beliefs are validated by the whole community, while others are more individual, specific to each person, or linked to another community.
It's also worth noting that many companies have very similar, and often identical, values. It's the way their employees respect them that makes the difference.
Some beliefs are counterproductive. These are what we call "limiting beliefs", operating modes, attitudes or rules that don't produce the desired effect, that don't respect the meaning the group has placed on the value.
Very often, company directors define the list of corporate values themselves. This list derives from numerous factors linked to the company's political and social context, and its particular ambitions.
But often, no details are given on the beliefs to be applied to them. While everyone knows the meaning given to each value, everyone will have their own definition, and above all their own implementation.
In other words, values are meaningless without the beliefs that apply them.
Another classic error in this kind of exercise is to try to impose beliefs. In this case, we're back to the issues of equity, autonomy, self-efficacy and self-esteem. The paternalistic side of such an approach is often resented. As a result, the belief will most often be rejected, either out of neglect or opposition.
In either case, the objective will not be achieved, and the values will be no more than words on a poster.
For values to be respected, it is essential that beliefs come from within the company itself. The principles of implementation must be accepted by all. Everyone can define, within the scope determined by the group, the actions they take to meet the common ideal. What's more, everyone is aware of the limits set by the company to ensure that these values are respected.
The law itself has transformed a good number of beliefs into articles of the Labour Code. Harassment, respect for privacy, discrimination. Less than a century ago, these principles of equality and respect were left to the discretion of corporate management methods. And in those days, it was not widely believed that a woman's voice was equal to that of a man.
Laws are beliefs whose purpose is to respect shared values that define the culture of our society. Other societies have other laws, other beliefs, other cultures.
- 1
Thévenet, Maurice. La culture d'entreprise (Que sais-je ?) (French Edition)