What’s the Culture Like?

When you ask someone what the culture of an organisation is like, you typically get a fairly short and clear message: “the place really promotes excellence”; “the CEO dominates the place”; “the institution is focused on its mission and really delivers”; “they always push the envelope on risk-taking”; “it’s a (not) great place to work, the staff are (not) really valued”. Somehow, we all seem to be able to reach such overarching generalisations of “the way things are done”, either at our own or other institutions, but we probably don’t think too much about we come to such conclusions.

There is broad agreement that culture is an important driver of institutional performance. However, for the most part, our assessments are implicit. There is no explicit or quantitative measurement. The question therefore arises as to whether we need to be more systematic and consistent in our assessments of culture (both of our own and other organisations).