The concept of corporate culture
Broadly speaking, culture is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created by human society in historical practice; Culture in a narrow sense is social ideology and corresponding organizations and systems. Corporate culture is gradually formed in the practice of production and operation, which is recognized and observed by all employees. It is the sum of mission, vision, purpose, spirit, values and business ideas with organizational characteristics, and it is the embodiment of these ideas in the practice of production and operation, management system, employee behavior and corporate external image. It is different from culture, education, scientific research, military and other organizations in cultural nature.
Corporate culture is the soul of an enterprise and an inexhaustible motive force to promote its development. It contains very rich contents, and its core is the spirit and values of the enterprise. The values here do not refer to various cultural phenomena in enterprise management, but to the values held by enterprises or employees in enterprises in commodity production and management.
Different expressions of the concept of corporate culture
There are many different understandings and expressions about the concept of corporate culture:
1, American scholars John Kurt and james heskett believe that corporate culture refers to the corporate values and business behaviors shared by all departments in an enterprise, at least the top managers of the enterprise. ..... refers to the * * * cultural phenomenon shared by all functional departments of a branch company or departments located in different geographical environments in an enterprise.
2. According to Tres Deere and allen Kennedy, corporate culture is values, heroes, customs and ceremonies, cultural networks and corporate environment.
3. william ouchi believes that corporate culture is "enterprising, defensive and flexible-that is, the values that determine activities, viewpoints and behavior patterns.
4. Corporate culture is a new modern enterprise management theory. If an enterprise really wants to enter the market and embark on a road of rapid development, good efficiency, continuous improvement of overall quality and coordinated economic development, it must popularize and deepen the construction of corporate culture.
5. Corporate culture can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Enterprise culture in a broad sense refers to the material culture and spiritual culture with its own characteristics created by enterprises; In a narrow sense, corporate culture is the sum of business purposes, values and moral codes of conduct formed by an enterprise with its own personality.
6. Corporate culture is an organic and important part of social and cultural system. It is the comprehensive reflection and expression of national culture and modern consciousness in the enterprise, the enterprise characteristics and group consciousness formed under the influence of national culture and modern consciousness, and the code of conduct produced by this consciousness.
7、
(1) Corporate culture is a norm gradually formed among working groups.
(2) Corporate culture is the main values that an enterprise believes in and the condensation of far-reaching values, myths and heroic symbols.
(3) The purpose of corporate culture is to guide enterprises to formulate policies for employees and customers.
(4) Corporate culture is the "principle" of enterprise survival and competition, and it is the "inherent law" that new employees must master if they want to be hired by enterprises.
(5) Corporate culture is the feeling or atmosphere conveyed by the layout of objects in the enterprise, and it is also the way for members of the enterprise to communicate with customers or other external members.
(6) Corporate culture is a corporate culture composed of traditional atmosphere, which means the company's values, such as enterprising, defensive or flexible-these values constitute the norms of the company's employees' vitality, views and behaviors. Managers practice and instill these norms into employees and pass them on from generation to generation.
(7) Corporate culture is a certain cultural concept and historical tradition formed in an enterprise, with the same values, ethics and life information, which unifies various internal forces under the same guiding ideology and business philosophy and converges in the same direction.
(8) Corporate culture is a mixture of economic significance and cultural significance, that is, the values and codes of conduct formed in the corporate world have a cultural impact on people and society. Not knowledge cultivation, but people's attitude towards knowledge; Not profit, but profit psychology; It is not interpersonal relationship, but the philosophy of dealing with people in interpersonal relationship. Corporate culture is something that permeates all the activities of the enterprise and is the virtue of the enterprise.
(9) Corporate culture refers to the basic information of an enterprise organization, and it is a basic viewpoint to test the internal and external environment of an enterprise with basic values. It is the code of conduct and value system that all members of the enterprise abide by and believe in together, and it is the philosophical idea that guides people to do their work.
(10) Corporate culture is a spiritual wealth and material form with its own characteristics created by enterprises in their production, operation and management activities under certain social and historical conditions. It includes cultural ideas, values, enterprise spirit, standards, codes of conduct, historical traditions, enterprise system, cultural environment, enterprise products and so on. Among them, values are the core of corporate culture.
According to the definition of corporate culture, its content is very extensive, but the most important thing should include the following points:
1. Management philosophy
Business philosophy, also known as enterprise philosophy, is a unique methodological principle for an enterprise to engage in production and management activities. It is the basis of guiding enterprise behavior. In the fierce market competition environment, enterprises are faced with various contradictions and choices, which requires enterprises to have a set of scientific methodology to guide and a set of logical thinking procedures to determine their own behavior. This is the management philosophy. For example, Matsushita of Japan "emphasizes economic benefits, attaches importance to the will to survive, and strives for survival and development in all things", which is its strategic decision-making philosophy. Beijing Landao Commercial Building was established in 1994. Guided by the business philosophy of "honesty first, friendship supreme" and "showing righteousness with affection, taking advantage of righteousness, and combining righteousness and interests", the turnover doubled within three years of its establishment and jumped to the fourth place in the capital business circle.
2. Values
The so-called values are the basic viewpoints that people evaluate the existence, behavior and behavior results of people (individuals and organizations) based on some utilitarian or moral pursuit. It can be said that life is to pursue value, and value determines the pursuit of life. Values are not the embodiment of people at a certain moment, but a system of values formed in long-term practical activities. Enterprise's values refer to employees' evaluation of the meaning of enterprise existence, business purpose and business purpose, and their pursuit of a holistic and alienated group consciousness, which is the common value criterion of all employees of the enterprise. Only on the basis of the same value criterion can the correct value goal of the enterprise be produced. With the correct value goal, there will be the behavior of striving for the value goal, and the enterprise will have hope. Therefore, the enterprise values determine the behavior orientation of employees, which is related to the life and death of enterprises. The values that only pay attention to the economic benefits of enterprises will deviate from the socialist direction, which will not only harm the interests of the country and the people, but also affect the corporate image; If we only pay attention to the values of immediate interests, we will be eager for quick success and instant benefit, engage in short-term behavior, and make enterprises lose their stamina and lead to extinction. Lu Zuofu, the national entrepreneur of the older generation in China (founder of Minsheng Shipping Company) advocated that "individuals serve the cause and the cause serves the society. Personal service is super-paid, and professional service is super-economical. " Thus, the value concept of "serving the society, facilitating the people, developing industries and making the country rich and strong" was established, which promoted the development of Minsheng Company. The core of the value concept of Beijing Xidan Shopping Mall is truth-seeking, that is, "genuine goods, genuine prices and genuine services". In the course of operation, the purchase of goods is strictly controlled to ensure the quality of goods; Control the purchase cost and increase the added value of goods; Advocating the concept of "customers always need to understand and themselves always need to improve" has improved the service level and promoted the development of enterprises.
3. Enterprise spirit
Enterprise spirit refers to the spiritual outlook carefully cultivated by enterprise members according to their own specific nature, tasks, purposes, requirements of the times and development direction.
Enterprise spirit should be embodied through the conscious practice of all employees in the enterprise. Therefore, it is the externalization of the concept consciousness and enterprising psychology of enterprise employees.
Enterprise spirit is the core of enterprise culture and plays a leading role in the whole enterprise culture. Enterprise spirit is based on values and driven by value goals, which plays a decisive role in business philosophy, management system, moral fashion, group consciousness and corporate image. It can be said that enterprise spirit is the soul of an enterprise.
Enterprise spirit is usually expressed in some philosophical and concise language, which is convenient for employees to remember and often used to motivate themselves; It is also convenient for external publicity and easy to form an impression in people's minds, thus forming a distinctive corporate image in society. For example, the spirit of "a fire" in Wangfujing Department Store is to illuminate and warm every heart with the light and heat of the people in the building, and its essence is dedication to service; The spirit of "seeking truth from facts, pioneering and enterprising" in Xidan Shopping Mall embodies the value concept of seeking truth from facts as the core and the business style of being sincere and trustworthy and pioneering and enterprising.
4. Corporate ethics
Enterprise ethics refers to the sum of the behavioral norms that adjust the relationship between the enterprise and other enterprises, enterprises and customers, and employees within the enterprise. From the perspective of ethical relations, enterprises are evaluated and standardized with moral categories such as good and evil, public and private, honor and disgrace, honesty and hypocrisy as standards.
Different from legal norms and institutional norms, business ethics is not so mandatory and binding, but it has a positive demonstration effect and strong appeal. When it is recognized and accepted by people, it has the power of self-restraint. Therefore, it has wider adaptability and is an important means to restrain the behavior of enterprises and employees. The reason why China's time-honored Tongrentang Pharmacy can last for more than 300 years is that it integrates the excellent traditional virtues of the Chinese nation into the production and operation process of enterprises, forming a professional ethics with industry characteristics, that is, "helping the world and strengthening the body, striving for perfection, not deceiving children, and treating them equally."
5. Collective consciousness
Group is organization, and group consciousness refers to the collective concept of organization members. Group consciousness is an important psychological factor in the formation of internal cohesion in enterprises. The formation of enterprise group consciousness makes every employee of the enterprise regard their work and behavior as an integral part of realizing enterprise goals, makes them feel proud of being a member of the enterprise, and has a sense of honor for the achievements of the enterprise, so as to regard the enterprise as the same body and ownership of their own interests. Therefore, they will strive to achieve the goals of the enterprise and consciously overcome behaviors that are inconsistent with the goals of the enterprise.
6. Corporate image
Corporate image is expressed through the external characteristics and operational strength of the enterprise, and the overall impression of the enterprise recognized by consumers and the public. The corporate image expressed by external characteristics is called superficial image, such as signboard, facade, logo, advertisement, trademark, clothing, business environment and so on. It gives people an intuitive feeling and is easy to form an impression; The image expressed through management strength is called deep image, which is the concentrated expression of internal factors of the enterprise, such as personnel quality, production and operation ability, management level, financial strength and product quality. The surface image is based on the depth image. Without the deep image, the surface image is false and cannot be maintained for a long time. Because circulation enterprises mainly deal in goods and provide services, and have more contact with customers, the superficial image is particularly important, but this does not mean that the deep image can be put in a secondary position. Xidan Shopping Mall in Beijing has set up a corporate image of "treating people sincerely, touching people sincerely, treating people sincerely and treating people sincerely", and this service is based on beautiful shopping environment, reliable commodity quality and real price, that is, taking solid material foundation and operational strength as the guarantee of quality service, realizing the combination of superficial image and deep image and winning the trust of customers.
7. Enterprise system
Enterprise system is formed in the practice of production and operation, which is mandatory for people's behavior and can guarantee certain rights. From the hierarchical structure of enterprise culture, enterprise system belongs to the middle level, which is the expression of spiritual culture and the guarantee of material culture realization. As a model of employee's code of conduct, enterprise system enables individual activities to be carried out reasonably, internal and external interpersonal relationships to be coordinated, and employees' interests to be guaranteed, so that enterprises can be organized in an orderly manner and work hard to achieve enterprise goals.
The function of corporate culture
The purpose of studying corporate culture is to use corporate culture to play a role in the survival and development of enterprises. So, what is the function of corporate culture?
First, corporate culture has a guiding function.
The so-called guidance function is to guide the leaders and employees of enterprises through it. The guiding function of corporate culture is mainly reflected in the following two aspects.
1. Guidance of management philosophy and values
Business philosophy determines the way of thinking and the rules for dealing with problems, guides operators to make correct decisions and guides employees to engage in production and business activities scientifically. The enterprise's * * * same value concept stipulates the enterprise's value orientation, which enables employees to form a * * * understanding of things and have the same value goal. Leaders and employees of enterprises act for the value goals they believe in. American scholars thomas peters and George W. Robert Waterman pointed out in the book "Seeking Advantages" that "all the excellent companies we have studied are well aware of what they stand for and have carefully established and formed the company's value standards. In fact, if a company lacks clear values or incorrect values, we doubt whether it is possible to achieve operational success. "
2. Enterprise goal guidance
Enterprise goals represent the direction of enterprise development. Without a correct goal, it is equivalent to losing the direction. A perfect corporate culture will set the development goal of the enterprise from reality and with a scientific attitude, which must be feasible and scientific. It is under the guidance of this goal that enterprise employees engage in production and business activities.
Second, the constraint function of corporate culture
The binding function of corporate culture is mainly realized by perfecting management system and moral norms.
1. Constraints of effective rules and regulations
Enterprise system is one of the contents of enterprise culture. The enterprise system is the internal laws and regulations of the enterprise, and the enterprise leaders and employees must abide by and implement it, thus forming a binding force.
2. The constraints of moral norms
Ethics is to restrain the behavior of enterprise leaders and employees from the perspective of ethical relations. If people violate the requirements of moral norms, they will be condemned by public opinion and feel guilty psychologically. The ethical standard of "saving the world for health, striving for perfection, not being unfaithful and treating everyone equally" in Tongrentang Pharmacy restricts all employees to operate in strict accordance with the technological process, strict quality management and strict discipline.
Third, the cohesive function of corporate culture.
Corporate culture is people-oriented and respects people's feelings, thus creating a harmonious atmosphere of unity, friendship and mutual trust within the enterprise, strengthening group consciousness and forming strong cohesion and centripetal force among employees. * * * The same values form the same goals and ideals. Workers regard the enterprise as a body of the same destiny and their work as an important part of achieving the same goal. The whole enterprise keeps pace and forms a unified whole. At this time, "the factory prospers me and the factory declines me" has become the sincere emotion of employees, and "loving the factory as home" will become their practical action.
Fourth, the incentive function of corporate culture.
* * * The same values make every employee feel the value of his existence and behavior. The realization of self-worth is a satisfaction of people's highest spiritual needs, which will certainly form a strong incentive. In the people-oriented corporate culture atmosphere, leaders and employees, employees and employees care about and support each other. Especially the leaders' concern for workers, the trade union will feel respected and will naturally cheer up and work hard. In addition, the enterprise spirit and corporate image have a great incentive to employees, especially when the corporate culture is successfully built and has an impact on society, employees will have a strong sense of honor and pride, and they will redouble their efforts to safeguard the honor and image of enterprises with their own practical actions.
Verb (short for verb) adjustment function
Adjustment is adjustment and adaptation. It is inevitable that there will be some contradictions between various departments and employees of enterprises for various reasons, and self-regulation is needed to solve these contradictions; There will be disharmony and incompatibility between enterprises and the environment, customers, enterprises, countries and society, which also needs to be adjusted and adapted. Business philosophy and business ethics enable operators and ordinary employees to deal with these contradictions scientifically and consciously restrain themselves. The perfect corporate image is the result of these adjustments. The regulation function is actually a reflection of the dynamic role of enterprises.
Corporate culture characteristics of completing tasks
According to the state and style of the enterprise, it is divided into
1, a vibrant corporate culture.
Features are: re-organization, pursuit of innovation, clear goals, external orientation, good communication from top to bottom, and strong sense of responsibility.
2. Stagnant corporate culture.
The characteristics are: quick success and instant benefit, no lofty goals, self-interest, self-protection, introversion, slow action and irresponsibility.
3. Bureaucratic enterprise culture.
Features are: routines, red tape.
According to the nature and scale of the enterprise, it is divided into
1, greenhouse type.
This is unique to traditional state-owned enterprises. Not interested in the external environment, lack of adventurous spirit, lack of incentives and constraints.
2. Ten spike type.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are unique. The strategy changes with the environment, the organizational structure lacks order and the functions are scattered. The foundation of the value system is to respect leaders.
3, vegetable garden type.
Trying to maintain the dominant position in the traditional market, paternalistic management and employee motivation are at a low level.
4. Large plant type.
Unique to large enterprises. It is characterized by constantly adapting to environmental changes and stimulating the initiative and enthusiasm of employees.
According to the enterprise's emphasis on various factors, it is divided into
1, bureaucratic.
Owned by a company operating in a monopoly market. Non-personalized management style, pyramid organizational structure, emphasis on compliance with standards, norms and rigid procedures, lack of competition within the organization, people secretly intrigue.
2. Types of professional managers.
Work-oriented, clear standards, strict reward and punishment system, flexible organizational structure and fierce internal competition.
3. technical type.
Technical experts are in power, paternalistic, focusing on technical secrets and functional organizational structure.
Three levels of corporate culture
Yintl believes that corporate culture includes three levels:
1. Corporate material culture
Enterprise material culture is a tool culture composed of products created by employees and various material facilities. It is the superficial corporate culture that exists in the material form, and it is the expression and externalization crystallization of corporate behavior culture and corporate spirit culture.
Corporate logo: such as corporate name and corporate logo.
Production or service: for example, producing and manufacturing goods with reliable quality and high cost performance.
Working environment or factory capacity: such as whether the office environment and business environment are clean, bright and comfortable.
Technical equipment: such as advanced and applicable mechanical equipment.
Logistics services: such as providing detailed, active and convenient services to customers.
Human resources: If employees reach the excellent level of the industry and society through the whole process and lifelong training, they can give full play to their talents.
Welfare benefits: For example, employees of the company get leading wages and welfare benefits in the industry and local areas through hard work.
2. Corporate institutional culture
Enterprise institutional culture is an explicit culture composed of legal form, organizational form and management form of enterprises. A reasonable system will inevitably promote the formation of correct enterprise management concepts and employee values, and enable employees to form good behavior habits.
(1) enterprise goals
Enterprise goal is the enterprise ideology and culture in the form of enterprise management goal.
(2) Institutional culture
System is a code of conduct and one of the necessary factors for the normal operation of any society and organization. It is a programmed and standardized behavior and operation mode artificially formulated to achieve a certain purpose and maintain a certain order. The basic functions of the enterprise system are as follows:
Enterprise system has the function of enterprise value orientation.
Enterprise system is the guarantee to realize enterprise goals.
Enterprise system is the basic criterion for regulating interpersonal relations within enterprises.
Enterprise system is the basic procedure and method to organize enterprise production and operation and standardize enterprise behavior.
Enterprise system is the realistic basis for the basic existence and operation of enterprises.
3. Enterprise spirit culture
Enterprise spirit culture is a kind of enterprise consciousness and cultural concept formed in the production and operation of enterprises, and it is a kind of enterprise culture with deep thought.
(1) corporate philosophy
The fundamental problem of enterprise philosophy is the relationship between people and things, people and economic laws in enterprises.
(2) Corporate values
The ideological system that guides enterprises to consciously and purposefully choose certain behaviors to realize the satisfaction of material products and spiritual products constitutes the values of enterprises.
(3) Enterprise spirit
Enterprise spirit is a kind of group consciousness which combines modern consciousness with enterprise personality. "Modern consciousness" is a comprehensive consciousness composed of modern social consciousness, market consciousness, quality consciousness, belief consciousness, interest consciousness, civilization consciousness and moral consciousness. "Enterprise personality" includes the basic attributes of an enterprise, such as values, development goals, service policies and business characteristics.
(4) Enterprise ethics
Enterprise ethics is the sum total of behavioral norms to adjust the relationship between enterprises and employees. The general essence of enterprise morality is a kind of enterprise consciousness, while its special essence lies in its inherent characteristics which are different from other enterprise consciousness.
enterprise culture construction
Corporate culture structure refers to the temporal and spatial order, primary and secondary positions and combination modes among the elements in the corporate culture system, and it is the proportional relationship and positional relationship of the composition, form, level, content and type of corporate culture. It shows how these elements are linked to form the overall model of corporate culture. That is, enterprise material culture, enterprise behavior culture, enterprise system culture and enterprise spiritual culture form.
Three structural elements of enterprise culture
Three structural elements of enterprise culture, namely, enterprise material culture, enterprise system culture and enterprise spirit culture.
The inevitability of the emergence of corporate culture theory
The emergence of corporate culture theory has its historical inevitability;
First, due to the development of productivity and the popularization and application of new office tools such as the Internet, some changes have taken place in the daily management rules of enterprises, and the changes in labor tools require the renewal of ideas;
Second, the proportion of intellectual factors in labor has increased, and the number of mental workers has increased relatively. Accordingly, enterprise managers can no longer regard these high-quality employees as robots, but should give employees emotional respect and rational respect;
Third, with the development of productive forces, people's demand level is rising, and enterprises must adapt to this new situation, so as to formulate management methods suitable for modern people, which has the same realistic basis as the proposal of "social man" in management science;
Fourth, competition has intensified. In order to win in the competition, while improving labor efficiency, the enthusiasm and creativity of employees are becoming more and more important in labor. Enterprises must put forward values that meet the needs, such as innovation, service and reputation.
Fifth, with the expansion of enterprise scale and the emergence of multinational companies, thousands of people, even people of different nationalities and nationalities, need to unify their thoughts, concepts and behaviors.
Characteristics of corporate culture
historical
Historicity is one of the most basic attributes of all social things. Enterprises come into being, survive and develop under certain time and space conditions. The enterprise phenomenon itself is the reflection of social politics, economy and culture at that time, and the enterprise itself is the carrier of creating history. Discussing whether there is a business or a culture first is like discussing whether there is an egg or a chicken first. The economic base determines the superstructure, and the management of enterprises is inextricably linked with political activities and cultural phenomena. It can be said that corporate culture is a product of history, which inevitably bears the brand of history, reflecting the economic and cultural characteristics of an era, a certain period of a country, or a nation, a region or a small local area. On the other hand, once corporate culture is formed, it is also transforming the living environment of enterprises, because enterprises are the most active social organizations ahead of the times in social life, and information blending and ideological change first occur from enterprises. The foundation of contemporary corporate culture is mature commodity economy theory.
humanity
The focus of corporate culture is the management and encouragement of human factors in enterprises. Although the ultimate goal of doing this is the smooth realization of enterprise value, it does not hinder the great tension brought by the management model with the development of human potential as the starting point. When the basic survival needs such as food and clothing are met, people need to meet the needs of communication, dedication, respect and personal value. The most precious and longest time and space in a person's life are used for his career, so the growth and development needs of enterprises and individuals have reached a perfect fit at the corporate culture level. Corporate culture is a people-oriented culture, focusing on tapping the potential of enterprises with cultural factors, and respecting and attaching importance to the role of human factors in enterprise development.
complexity
There are no two identical leaves in the world. Every enterprise survives and develops in a specific environment, facing different historical stages, development levels and its own inherent cultural accumulation. Success cannot be copied, nor can corporate culture be copied. Copying other people's successful corporate culture with dogma, or taking excellent corporate culture as the golden rule like Zhao Kuo's talk about soldiers, and trying to find universal truth will only harm enterprises in the end.
dynamic
Once the corporate culture of an enterprise is formed, it is relatively stable in a certain period of time. With the development of enterprises and the change of living environment, corporate culture has also changed. There is a saying called "spiral rise", which is actually the development trend of excellent corporate culture in an ideal state. The rigid and backward corporate culture is also moving, but the cultural factors that have not been reasonably sorted, integrated and refined within the enterprise have not formed a benign system, and the conflicts of various cultural factors are accumulating quantitatively. After the cultural system of an excellent enterprise is completed, it will show a strong ability to absorb, tolerate and digest external factors and new cultural factors, and form a dynamic and open system.
Organic attribute
Corporate culture is a complete organic system, and each constituent element of corporate culture is arranged in a certain structural form, and each element is relatively independent and performs its duties. At the same time, corporate culture is a systematic project, which is a close and orderly organic combination, and consists of different levels and different parts that are interrelated, interdependent and interactive within the enterprise. Since the ultimate goal of enterprise culture is to realize enterprise value, it is impossible not to involve the strategic planning of enterprises; Since it is people-oriented, it is impossible not to involve human resources development; Since it is a management method, it is impossible not to involve the management system of enterprises ... It can be said that the reason why corporate culture is highly respected by management today is not unrelated to its nature.