What do we Really Mean by “Leading”, “Culture” and “Change”? How do you know you are at Facebook and not Johnson & Johnson, other than the artifacts around you? Are the cultures that different? How do we know?

THIS IS A DISCUSSION QUESTION THAT NEED TO POST ON THE FORUM AS THREADS. Answer the question based on the resource given below:
Session 3 Jan. 5 – What do we Really Mean by “Leading”, “Culture” and “Change”?
How do you know you are at Facebook and not Johnson & Johnson, other than the artifacts around you? Are the cultures that different? How do we know?
Facebook on its 10th anniversary felt the need to communicate to new hires what the company was about with their infamous “Little Red Book”.
Johnson & Johnson made explicit their “Credo” in 1934, written by the founder Robert Wood Johnson. It is a living document in that it is in practice (tacit), as well as, “espoused” to this day. Many companies try to emulate what another has developed only to fail.
In my work at the American Management Association, I was tasked to lead a team of 14 practice leaders to come up with the global “best practices” for as many management disciplines. The one thing we knew well was that “cultural context of a business practice” was not transferable to another company. Taking the Credo, modifying a few words and trying to adopt in another company was going to be a failure. Cultures have “antibodies” protecting them from attack of the perceived “new”. As Schein describes – people like stability and become resistant to change. My preference is to reframe the term resistance to “loss of control”. People do not like to feel a “loss of control”, which most of us experience when there is rampant change. Beyond “buy in” is “ownership” getting people involved in the process of change enables them to make it theirs – “own it”. “Buy in”, implies you go along, but may still not fully engage.
What we found might be transferable was the underlying principle for which a practice had evolved. In the J&J example – ethical behavior is the principle, a “credo” is the practice. Principles are often the tacit operating assumptions and beliefs.
Earlier in my career, after Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline came out, I found myself, along with others, in a similar role as corporate “change makers” trying to assist mangers in understanding what it means to be “… continually clarifying what is important to us, why are we on the path?, continually learning to see current reality …” Living in a VUCA world. The challenge then, as it is now, is the “tyranny of the served market” (Hamel, Prahalad, 1991). Today’s success drives many businesses to keep doing what they have become good at – cultures with tacit assumptions – “it’s how we do things here”.
“Learning leaders” have integrated Senge’s questions into their thinking. He refers to these people as having “a high degree of personal mastery [who] live in a continual learning mode.” Schein refers to “Level 2 Relationships” based on openness and trust. Can we say that about the cultures of Facebook and J&J?
Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, describes in My Life in Full, her management consulting experiences at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as invaluable knowledge gained of many companies approaches to similar challenges – “how work gets done here” the “social culture”. That combination of multiple approaches to business coupled with in depth analysis of the current clients “technical” business is the value added of using a management consultant.
QUESTION:
Questions to discuss in the Forum:
So what should you do differently tomorrow?
• Take some time to reflect on your own concept of culture and to integrate into it some of the insights from this chapter.
• Think about the organization in which you work, and see whether you can come up with some of its espoused values. Does the organization live its espoused values? If not, what are the deeper, shared tacit assumptions that explain daily behavior?
• Start by thinking about the artifacts around you and the behavior you observe. Locate things that puzzle you; ask someone with longevity why there is continuity or there is a mismatch. What are the macroculture, technical culture, social culture, subcultures, and microcultures?
Try to see the culture as an outsider might (but for now, try not to evaluate it, or think about changing it).
If you do not have an organization you have worked in, one that you belong to as a member will work for this discussion. Or use Facebook and J&J from my examples.
OTHER PEOPLE’S ANSWER:
My own concept of culture relates to the quality of the structure and relationships within an organization. I have always felt that relationships within an organization is very important because this drives people to feel safe and open to share their thoughts and concerns. In the text, the four levels of relationships are explained and it is said that creating bonds that surpass level 1 “professionally distant” is vital for leaders (Schein, 15). In the organization which I work, some espoused values are innovation, creativity, networking, partnerships, and openness. These values pertain to many industries but are heavily valued within the modeling industry. The organization does not always live with its espoused values, as it oftentimes is not micromanaged. The structure is a bit more loose, and these values may get lost in translation. The deeper shared tacit assumptions that explain daily behavior are creating for clients, this sometimes hinders the values in order to obtain what the client would like.
Macroculture is the broad cultural environment within which the organization operates, and which reflects the values, beliefs, and norms associated with whole nations, ethnicities, and occupations. The technical culture is the output of organizations inevitably reflects the technologies that underlie that work. The social culture is the organization’s core objective that can be accomplished in many ways, reflecting in part the beliefs and values of the founders and early leaders, and in part the requirements of the work. The subculture comes with success and growth, then the organizations evolve subunits based on functions, geographies, products, and markets. The microculture refers to subgroups within the system that have a discrete task to perform and are only loosely connected to other subgroups (Schein, 23). The macroculture within my organization has become very strong in beliefs of inclusivity and women’s rights, the technical culture is the way that this is shown through hiring the correct staff and models. The social culture is reflected through the photographs, the main objective is to be inclusive throughout the industry. The subculture’s change and evolve often, as different geographies and products influence the outcome of photos. The microcultures are shown within different agencies and groups. An outsider may see the culture as very straightforward and singular. The modeling industry has been categorized as “vain and cruel”, yet now it is becoming “inclusive and femenist”. The truth is there is no one way to categorize the industry, as there are so many different working parts.