KSS January eKourier

FEATURE

KSS CULTURE THROUGH THE AGES

denotes the 50th percentile, extension over the 50th is considered significant, extension below the 50th percentile is considered insignificant. The two greatest extensions are considered the primary and secondary behaviour styles of the organisation. Leadership and culture are strongly interrelated and it has the most signifi- cant impact on how the Teams see and feel the culture. Other factors include operating systems, company structures, information flow, reward systems, job design. Pretty much everything has a direct or indirect influence on culture. We have been measuring culture since 1998, and we do this because we are a business in a constant state of change, a state that every successful sustain- able business lives under. If you are not continuously improving and evolving, you get left behind. All change has an impact on culture and that is why we measure culture every year. WE WILL CELEBRATE THAT WE REMAIN A CONSTRUCTIVE ORGANI- SATION, WE WILL What Impacts Culture? ‘

All Respondents - 251

A t KSS we have been measuring culture since 1998, The motiva- tion to measure culture came during a time when business performance was strong, however good people were leaving. There was an underbelly of unrest, gossip and innuendo amongst the Team. As a young Managing Director, Sam Kennard decided that this was not the type of company he would envisage operating. To change this the decision was made to introduce the Organisational Cultural Inventory survey (OCI) to measure the culture of the organisation. The results were not good but provided the much needed information to implement actions for change.

govern the way people approach their work and interact with each other”. Others have described culture “as how we do things round here”. Recently I saw a new book that described culture as the Unwritten Ground Rules - UGR’s. Culture is about behaviours. When you show up for work are you trying to survive with all your energy going into protecting yourself, or are you thriving as a satisfied member of the organisa- tion with your energy directed into the advancement of the organisation. The results of the OCI survey are presented in a circumplex with twelve behaviour styles arranged in three clusters; Blue Constructive, Green Passive Defensive and Red Aggres - sive Defensive. The extension of colour reflects how significant that behaviour is within an organisation. There is a dark circle in the circumplex that

EXPLORE AND REFLECT ON THE REASON WHY THE DEFENSIVE STYLES HAVE INCREASED.

Our last cultural survey was back in 2018, with the results showed a strong positive shift to a more constructive style. The decision was made to have a break in 2019 and then COVID hit and we decided to skip 2020. It’s been two years between surveys and a lot has changed and occurred in our business in that time. FOMO set in and nothing was going to stop us measuring our culture in 2021. The results of our 2021 test remain overwhelmingly construc- ‘

What is Culture?

One of the creators of the OCI model, American professor Robert A. Cook, describes culture as the “shared beliefs, norms and expectations that

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6 Kennards Kourier Jan 2022