Corporate Culture In The Petroleum Industry: Opportunities For "Excellence"

Abstract

Abstract The currently popular concept of corporate culture is examined for its application to the petroleum industry. Previous measurement techniques have Been, in the author's view, inadequate. This article reports research leading to three basic factors underlying corporate culture:shared values,power, andrules. These three factors are targetted to answer the basic managerial question: "How do we motivate our people to do what needs to get done?" The factors are then plotted on triangular corporate culture graphs. Graphs of petroleum industry jobs point up the need for revising current work culture trends. Finally, proposals for improving organizational effectiveness through altering work culture are offered. Introduction Two recent run-away best sellers on managers' bookshelves extol the central role of corporate culture in high performing organizations (peters and Waterman, 1982; Deal and Kennedy, 1982). Corporate culture is the new password, both for cocktail chatter and consultant buzzwording. Is corporate culture just another fad, or does it have anything worthwhile to offer the petroleum industry? Many petroleum industry managers remain skeptical and cautious when the topic is raised. They are in good company. John Campbell (1971), in arguably the best review of organizational training and development ever written noted a pattern to fads in organizational development. The pattern goes through three stages. In the first stage, advocates promote their new technique in popular literature. They cite glowing case studies of its application. Next, the technique is criticized, also without resort to empirical tests. Finally, managerial attention turns to another new fad, leaving yesterday's solutions to those who read slowly. While many of these ideas deserve their respective fates the current focus on corporate culture is more than just a passing fancy for two key reasons. First, corporate culture zeros in on THE most basic managerial issue: "How do we motivate our people to do what needs to get done?" Technology and the environment dictate WHAT needs to get done, both crucial components in the petroleum industry. HOW the organization insures that what needs to be done, is done, is no less important. People either adopt the thrust of the company, or move in a thousand individual ways to better their own interests. Second, the need for taking a serious second look at corporate culture receives strong support from many carefully conducted studies. For example, Meyer, Kay and French (1965) documented the failure that befalls managers who motivate performance through criticism. Johnson, Johnson, Maruyama, Nelson, and Skon (1981) reviewed 60 studies pointing to the robust superiority of groups structured toward mutual success over those which created winners and losers. Books written about corporate culture will eventually lose their novelty and be replaced. However, the challenges and the opportunities they present are wellfounded in a long tradition of theory and research findings. The work cultures described by Peters and Waterman (1983) can be nurtured or suppressed by managerial action. Past Measures of Corporate Culture Corporate culture used to be called organizational climate.